Amanda Diva’s “Neon” = FAIL
Sigh…where to begin. In my defense, I don’t use my blog as a haterade platform but I also never run away from an opportunity to offer critique when it’s (desperately) needed. Now, our generation is no stranger to gimmick hip hop, we practically birthed the genre of whack rap all on our own. Amanda Diva’s latest music video for “Neon” embodies the rather tragic trend of substance-less retro nostalgia where the (corny) aesthetic of “old school” hip hop [the boom box, spray cans, dookie rope chain] eclipses the undeniably weak lyricism. It’s not enough to borrow and rehash successful qualities of an older sound (the beat, the slow flow) when the track just plain sucks. The same argument applies with “conscious” rap when the political messaging gets lost in soft rhymes and wack beats. By bigging up emcees branded as “conscious” or “underdog” who consistently produce low grade music for the simple fact that they’re different, we risk turning hip hop into a superficial celebration of lackluster talent. We should set high(er) expectations for each other if we want to push the music we create (and listen to). In truth, honest critique is a sign of respect more so than blind praise. While I obviously don’t think making crude, outta-pocket jokes/snide remarks about Diva’s body or gender qualifies as “honest critique” I also don’t think heralding her as some kind of hip hop superwoman is reasonable either. As far as I’m concerned, she should focus on video blogs and other areas of her career where she shines…or work towards drastically improving the quality of her sound. Overall, this whole joint and music video classifies as an epic fail in the book of Buggin’ Out. Feel free to join the conversation, I’m always interested to hear what y’all have to say! Go in…
BUGGIN' OUT 
I’ll take the instrumental please… that’s it! I feel like she got a pass due to her connects but hey that’s just my opinion…
hmm agreed, song is posturing nonsense
but forreal though, i saw this earlier and thought it was a joke. oh….hm.
I can’t even lie…I initially thought it was s spoof (of itself). I hear you, mikey but her connects don’t reflect her own talent. it’s difficult to see raw emcees not get proper props simply for not “knowing the right people” in the industry. I definitely enjoy her diva speak videos and I’m not trying to knock her role(s) in hip hop — it’s just not worth bigging her up because she’s cool with tip and ?uestlove. thanks for the comments y’all, keep them coming 🙂 (oh and “posturing nonsense” is well put, dapwell — that’s exactly what I’m getting at)
“The same argument applies with “conscious” rap when the political messaging gets lost in soft rhymes and wack beats. By bigging up emcees branded as “conscious” or “underdog” who consistently produce low grade music for the simple fact that they’re different, we risk turning hip hop into a superficial celebration of lackluster talent.”
CHUUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
AMANDA DIVA IS RAP MUSIC. haterzzz fall back
diva is a female version of a hustla.
she gives corny a bad name.
Are you people serious, are you taking this video serious? It´s a joke, but do you really wanna believe it is not? I give props to Amanda Diva for being a funny bunny. Maybe she should make spoof videos even more obvious than this one., for those of you that need to be fed with tea spoons;) I actually hope your comments are spoofs…
…except it’s not a spoof, that’s the entire problematic.