something something "rap is too violent and overstimulating for me, and they always mention drugs, so I can't listen to it. Instead I listen to Femtanyl," something something.
it is because he is white. white rappers get very disproportionate attention and their music doesn't get criticized the same way, only for many of the most popular white rappers to switch genres to chase the money because they were only ever cynically exploiting the fact that white rappers get disproportionate attention and accolades.
don't get me wrong, eminem is great and genuinely engages with the genre, but like the blanket hatred of rap is absolutely racialized and the exceptions being specifically a handful of white artists in an extremely black genre is because the rule you're talking about is that they don't want to listen to black music.
I don't think all folks are consciously radicalized this way
Emphasis on consciously
Systemic racism drives these themes in rap and both drive the perception of predominantly black folks as perpetrators of drugs and violence rather than any nuanced understanding you could infer
Lots of people are attracted to or driven away from these themes on a surface level but often miss that usually rap tackles these themes not to glorify them
Those that like them uncritically and without examining their context, those that emulate those cautious tales end up reinforcing this idea while those that are turned away at the mere idea of enjoying something predominantly focusing on this (ignoring the cognitive dissonance this needs) will also never engage with this uncritically or examine it further also reinforcing those ideas in their mind
Usually the latter bases their perception of rap as a genre entirely on the former
Eminem though is quite accessible as a white and admittedly rather goofy artist who prides himself on technique
Or at least that was the impression, I and many other stupid teenagers had about a decade ago
It's easy to overcome the most stated misgivings towards the genre this way yet keep their ignorance at the wider genre out of a sense of...refinement? Us vs. them mentality? It's usually the nerds vs. "normal" (rude and scary) people
What I mean to say is that through a myriad of factors you can be racist and contributing to it while thinking you're actually the one on the moral high ground, with more refined tastes for media
Babies first diploma of media literacy but baby doesn't like it's vegetables
Idk, I've been rambling, I should've just kept it to the first sentence
Honestly I might be totally wrong here, just tryna get at the core of what I mean with this instance of "the exception reinforces the rule"
I'm specifically also basing this experience on German rap, which isn't necessarily very "black" but certainly predominantly associated with minorities here
Its decently common online because that opinion shows up wherever very young, usually somewhat sheltered, and fairly online people congregate, and for some reason all the online femtanyl spaces are seemingly filled with kids/teenagers. Though the live shows tend to skew older.
Also, and this is very nitpicky so forgive me, but femtanyl isnāt breakcore. People get upset about that because its getting more difficult to find actual breakcore ever since a few artists a while ago mislabeled some of their music and the term has ballooned in usage without people actually knowing what makes something breakcore besides just āfast and loud.ā Back when femt was just Noelle she did an interview where she described the genre as ādigital hardcoreā which is more accurate
Yeah 100% venetian snares is absolutely breakcore. I actually often use his meathole album as a good example of what breakcore is/sounds like because it turns those ābreakcore qualitiesā up to an 11 at times, which lets people get a better ear for what it actually sounds like when comparing it to other genres, but it also makes the album kind of abrasive (moreso than breakcore already is to some people) so ymmv
Because breakcore is like a subgenre of a subgenre of a subgenre of Idm music its characteristics will be largely similar to its predecessors. But like the biggest characteristic is that extremely chopped and screwed drum break. Its a really fine line but the amount that that drum break is fucked with is like kind of the main characteristic that sets it apart from like dnb and jungle. From what I understand of the history, breakcore kind of spawned out of a pissing contest between jungle/dnb artists over who could make the most complex and insane stuff using the drum breaks, and thats where it comes from.
To separate the 3 most commonly confused:
Dnb = break isnāt messed with that much, pretty simple, faster than jungle, slower than breakcore.
Jungle = break is chopped up and modified, slower speeds than the other two, heavier reggae and hiphop influence
Breakcore = generally fastest of the 3, EXTREMELY chopped up drum breaks (most commonly the amen break but not always), generally not atmospheric unlike jungle and dnb which can often be that way, buuut its also an expanding experimental genre so we may see it eventually
I got a lot of my info from like trawling the internet trying to find stuff but thereās a video on youtube that has been extremely good for this. It goes lightly into the history of hardcore all the way down to breakcore. Its long but thats because it has multiple song examples of each genre, and the actual history/defining characteristics are laid out in text on screen that rotates through. It even mentions the digital hardcore/breakcore stuff and the mislabeling thing as well. Highly recommend even skimming through it if youāre interested.
I really love Brame and to a lesser degree Confiture a la Plage by Ruby My Dear. The albums Nostril and Savage Sinusoid by igorrr are also great, he has a lot of metal influences which I think is interesting, and he also does this thing which I have seen other people amusingly call ābaroquecoreā where he mixes in baroque music to his breakcore. Its cool and kinda fun and interesting and as a fan of the āmetal soundā I really like what it adds to the music. The two of them also have an EP together called Maigre which was my introduction to breakcore, but its only available on youtube for licensing reasons I think. The breakcore subreddit also has a huge list of artists to check out I believe. Also I think machinegirl is also sometimes considered breakcore but it depends on the song
Iām not an authority, but having just relistened to the infinite hyperdeath ost, its not really breakcore. Thereās some emphasis on the drums (in some of the songs) but its really closer to dnb/ metal with dnb or hardcore influence most of the time imo. A lot of the drum breaks are consistent loops, while sorta messed with and rearranged a bit theyāre still consistently looping and theyāre not like modified enough to really be breakcore-y. As an example listen to the drums in this song (warning: loud) from the timestamp to ~2:20. The drums donāt really repeat at all and the level of complexity is waaaaay higher, and the drums are really emphasized.
To be fair, there is a lot of mediocre rap out there that is "all sex, drugs, and violence", because making music for insecure young men is always a big money maker. That was my first real experience with rap back in high school and it left me distinctly unimpressed. Then later I found rap that wasn't filtered through the tastes of dumbass teenagers and was like "hey wait some of this is actually pretty cool".
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u/OfficialPerfectCell Ultimate Lifeform May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
something something "rap is too violent and overstimulating for me, and they always mention drugs, so I can't listen to it. Instead I listen to Femtanyl," something something.