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Or shooting a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

quacked 4y ago
Everyone always brings this song up. It's very clear that Cash is playing a character of a foolish and almost-repentant criminal in the song; traditional American music records were half morality plays on rogues and half religious pleas for virtue. It is an unfair comparison to modern hip-hop, which is primarily warrior bragodoccio. Go to WorldStar if you want to see.
- rufus_foreman 4y ago
  Don't see what the difference is between Cash and Gang Starr's Just to get a Rep. Here's where it ends up, that's the story and that's the song. There's some bragodoccio in it, both Cash and Gang Starr. Just to get a Rep is a morality play.
  - quacked 4y ago
    Yes, that would be a clever comparison, if that's the sort of hip-hop that's become popular internationally. How about Cash and a modern rapper that people today have actually heard of, as the original commenter is talking about? Please, go to WorldStar and grab one of the top songs and then try to equate Folsom Prison Blues with it. As a matter of fact, I'll start. Here's "Holy Ghost" by Future, one of the most popular artists alive right now: > Feeling like a cigarette boat, all this water on me > I was at my big truck, my wrist up, gettin' my dick sucked > When I switch my wrist up, switch my car, switch my bitch up > Every time I hit her, I broke her off then dismissed her > I been counting this paper all day, I'm getting blisters > Roadkill, every time I pop out in a new whip > Gettin' you wacked, niggas ain't running off with my new drip > Rolls hit, lights hit, platinum set, overkill And here's Cash: > When I was just a young boy, my mama told me son > Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns > But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die > Now I hear that train a rollin', I hang my head and cry Wow, so similar. You can really see how they're both speaking the same language overall and have the same effect on society and their listeners. To be clear, I am sure that you can find nakedly self-indulgent and violent country music if you look hard for it. But you won't find it on the top of the country charts. You don't have to look hard at all to find outrageously vulgar, explicit, and criminal hip-hop. People need to stop pretending that Folsom Prison Blues holds the same place in culture that "Holy Ghost" and its ilk does because it tells the story of a man who shot someone.
    - rufus_foreman 4y ago
      >> Feeling like a cigarette boat, all this water on me What's your problem with that lyric?
- grapeskin 4y ago
  Hip hop isn’t all top 20 pop hits. I’d hope country fans also wouldn’t want their genre being judged solely by what’s being churned on the radio.
  - quacked 4y ago
    Perhaps not, but it's extremely telling that most popular hip-hop songs almost all contain explicit claims that the artist committed many violent felonies, loves committing them, and will commit them again, whereas people have to dig in country music for examples of the artist claiming that they themselves actually killed or hurt someone, and when they find those examples they're always obviously playing a character. My main point is that the equivocation of Folsom Prison Blues with violent popular hip-hop today is ridiculous. If someone wants to compare it to Dance With the Devil or or The Story of OJ or Just to Get a Rep, that's fine, but that's not the context that people usually bring up FPB in. Violence and criminality in country music very rarely touches the rhapsodic and elevated status it achieves every week in popular hip-hop, and to pretend it does so often and that they're perfectly comparable is disingenuous.
    - grapeskin 4y ago
      Literally the only modern country I hear on the radio involves being drunk and cheating on and fighting with your woman. Comparing certified classics of any genre from half a century ago to slop churned out today, ignoring the fact most of it will be forgotten and new classics will rise up, is weird.
      - quacked 4y ago
        Even if it were the case that all modern music is about drinking and cheating (which if is not; according to Billboard, the most recent #1 country song is about some things lasting forever, whereas the recent #1 hip-hop songs has a bridge about 'spinning the block'), getting drunk and cheating on your woman isn't anywhere near as serious as bragging about murdering your enemies and slinging hard drugs. This ridiculous equivalence between popular country and popular hip-hop should end. The two genres are made for entirely different social classes of people for entirely different reasons. The number of popular songs unironically glorifying violence in hip-hop is much, much higher than the number of songs unironically glorifying violence in country. The original commenter was correct.

Everyone always brings this song up. It's very clear that Cash is playing a character of a foolish and almost-repentant criminal in the song; traditional American music records were half morality plays on rogues and half religious pleas for virtue. It is an unfair comparison to modern hip-hop, which is primarily warrior bragodoccio. Go to WorldStar if you want to see.

rufus_foreman 4y ago
Don't see what the difference is between Cash and Gang Starr's Just to get a Rep. Here's where it ends up, that's the story and that's the song. There's some bragodoccio in it, both Cash and Gang Starr. Just to get a Rep is a morality play.
- quacked 4y ago
  Yes, that would be a clever comparison, if that's the sort of hip-hop that's become popular internationally. How about Cash and a modern rapper that people today have actually heard of, as the original commenter is talking about? Please, go to WorldStar and grab one of the top songs and then try to equate Folsom Prison Blues with it. As a matter of fact, I'll start. Here's "Holy Ghost" by Future, one of the most popular artists alive right now: > Feeling like a cigarette boat, all this water on me > I was at my big truck, my wrist up, gettin' my dick sucked > When I switch my wrist up, switch my car, switch my bitch up > Every time I hit her, I broke her off then dismissed her > I been counting this paper all day, I'm getting blisters > Roadkill, every time I pop out in a new whip > Gettin' you wacked, niggas ain't running off with my new drip > Rolls hit, lights hit, platinum set, overkill And here's Cash: > When I was just a young boy, my mama told me son > Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns > But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die > Now I hear that train a rollin', I hang my head and cry Wow, so similar. You can really see how they're both speaking the same language overall and have the same effect on society and their listeners. To be clear, I am sure that you can find nakedly self-indulgent and violent country music if you look hard for it. But you won't find it on the top of the country charts. You don't have to look hard at all to find outrageously vulgar, explicit, and criminal hip-hop. People need to stop pretending that Folsom Prison Blues holds the same place in culture that "Holy Ghost" and its ilk does because it tells the story of a man who shot someone.
  - rufus_foreman 4y ago
    >> Feeling like a cigarette boat, all this water on me What's your problem with that lyric?
grapeskin 4y ago
Hip hop isn’t all top 20 pop hits. I’d hope country fans also wouldn’t want their genre being judged solely by what’s being churned on the radio.
- quacked 4y ago
  Perhaps not, but it's extremely telling that most popular hip-hop songs almost all contain explicit claims that the artist committed many violent felonies, loves committing them, and will commit them again, whereas people have to dig in country music for examples of the artist claiming that they themselves actually killed or hurt someone, and when they find those examples they're always obviously playing a character. My main point is that the equivocation of Folsom Prison Blues with violent popular hip-hop today is ridiculous. If someone wants to compare it to Dance With the Devil or or The Story of OJ or Just to Get a Rep, that's fine, but that's not the context that people usually bring up FPB in. Violence and criminality in country music very rarely touches the rhapsodic and elevated status it achieves every week in popular hip-hop, and to pretend it does so often and that they're perfectly comparable is disingenuous.
  - grapeskin 4y ago
    Literally the only modern country I hear on the radio involves being drunk and cheating on and fighting with your woman. Comparing certified classics of any genre from half a century ago to slop churned out today, ignoring the fact most of it will be forgotten and new classics will rise up, is weird.
    - quacked 4y ago
      Even if it were the case that all modern music is about drinking and cheating (which if is not; according to Billboard, the most recent #1 country song is about some things lasting forever, whereas the recent #1 hip-hop songs has a bridge about 'spinning the block'), getting drunk and cheating on your woman isn't anywhere near as serious as bragging about murdering your enemies and slinging hard drugs. This ridiculous equivalence between popular country and popular hip-hop should end. The two genres are made for entirely different social classes of people for entirely different reasons. The number of popular songs unironically glorifying violence in hip-hop is much, much higher than the number of songs unironically glorifying violence in country. The original commenter was correct.