Microsoft has gone too far:

Just now, with this?

This one never really gets old anymore.

Not sure, but 20 month old toddler…

You know how I know my maga relative lost everything he tried to “invest” in crypto? Because he suddenly STFU about it.

They are the worst of the worst, and I will never use an instance that voluntarily federates with Threads. I respect MS more than Meta, and that’s a pretty incredible feat on the part of Meta.

Hey KDE Team: 😘 ❤️ Please don’t ever change!

Ah thanks. I think you underestimate them, they’ve proven they are capable of executing even if everything hasn’t landed.

But I’m never unhappy about a Spaceballs reference. 🙂

I love the faith, too. Like, of Microsoft, of all people. The “your Xbox is your cable box now” Microsoft. The “Here’s mandatory Kinect, the Wii killer” Microsoft. The Windows Me Microsoft. The “Windows 8 is now a touch OS” Microsoft.

The EEE Microsoft…

In that vein, let me propose a more accurate picture:

Unless not attaching one was your punchline, I think you forgot to attach one. :)

You are absolutely correct. All the focus groups and consultancies that were surely involved in something like this and we’re supposed to believe the backlash was a surprise?

This is what is happening at Redmond right now:

I seriously feel like the headline is 1984’s backstory.

So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂

IMO you are in for a treat. His voice is something else IMO and I love his style.

Here’s one of my favorites (fairly, ah, opinionated): Uncle Sam Goddamn

Also -

Can’t Take That Away (Just nice.)

(Also pretty opinionated:) Mourning in America

Go fuck yourself Microsoft.

Seriously. What would be surprising is if they were not. Proprietary System gonna Proprietary System.

I don’t like music I can’t relate to and I can’t relate to most rap songs. I’m not out here thuggin or poppin caps, doing drugs and fuckin removed. I don’t even really want to do those things. So that erases almost half the damn genre out the gate.

I promise I’m not trying to spam you with stuff, but here are two I’d recommend, with that specific criticism in mind I listen to what I listen to because of the lyrics for the most part, and I’m not into those things either.

Some folks don’t like Atmosphere’s style much, but I’m recommending these to you because of their lyrics, specifically. (Personally I think these are both bangers though.)

https://youtu.be/CnkSW_J5Fww

https://youtu.be/DOSUexERmhA

I’ve had a hard time getting into Aesop Rock, but he comes up so often I should try again.

I have enjoyed most Busdriver that I’ve heard, but I admit I often have to look up his lyrics to understand them, and it’s probably discouraged me from exploring his catalog more than I have. My fave that I’ve heard of his is Much, partially because he slows it down a bit.

Digable Planets - I only knew them for The Rebirth of Slick for decades. Took a deeper look a couple years ago and was blown away. They are high on my list now. Love their sound. Good recommendation there!

I’ve got to also recommend Brother Ali.

the upper class do not want a culture based on anti-authoritianism to emerge.

Truth.

Well thank you for the response, which I admit I expected to not exist or to be rude. 🙂

I’m willing to listen and learn about it all I just don’t think it’ll change my outlook on how it’s effected everyone everywhere negatively.

I wasn’t going to push this on you, but this 4-part documentary literally takes the exact opposite stance and is a documentary regarding the formation and evolution of hip-hop. You don’t owe me anything, but if you are legit interested…

I believe it’s available on at least a couple different streaming services, as well as on the high seas.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21872984/

Having watched it myself, please resist the temptation to skip around if you do give it a shot. There’s a through-line that will be less apparent if you watch it all chopped up, or skip past certain sections.

I just think it’s been glorified to the point people who have no experience with ghetto culture outside of rap music start acting like they thugs n shit. Like “gangster” shit started happening everywhere with a shitload of people fully embracing not only the visual look but the “hustler” “gangster” lifestyle.

This very thing is discussed at one point, FWIW. 🙂

And you know maybe I’m wrong and I’m just upset things aren’t changing the way I want them to.

I’m about the whitest looking person you could imagine, and I’m in my mid-late 50s. I grew up with a good dose of privilege, but (fortunately?) was thrust into situations through early to mid adulthood that forced me to step outside my comfort zone quite a bit. I look like I should be walking around with a maga hat and intimidating voters with my open-carry firearms, not pseudo-anonymously trying to convince a stranger to give hip hop another chance.

A lot of things haven’t progressed the way I expected them to, either, and I am very familiar with how easy it is to misjudge things that are not within your lived experience.

Hip-Hop is a mirror of what is, not the progenitor of the nation’s problems. It sometimes looks like the progenitor to folks who haven’t previously experienced some of what it reflects in their own daily lives though, I think.

Personally, the only place I’m hearing voices raised about the issues I care about in modern music (and this could be my own narrow view) is within the subgenre of “conscious hip hop.”

a lot of hip-hop that essentially glorified a lot of horrible traits was just what a lot of old, rich white dudes figured would make them money.

Arrested Development touches on that in at least a few of their recent songs. This is one that immediately springs to mind, but there are others:

Full lyrics here

Song here

do i have to tell you how this industry goes down

they wanna promote us as the lowest things around

stereotypical images and beats all around

police beat us on the ground

do i have to tell you how this industry goes down

promote the thugs with the criminal sound

stereotypical images and white supremacist images of us never innocent it kills

kills, snitches and witnesses

i guess the business is exploit us sexually

but keep us intellectually primitive

sedated the sensitive

nullifying all their initiative

to ever unify, just relying on representatives

our english is now seen as this, opposite of geniuses

the truth is meaningless

they deliberately been deceiving us

…