**OnlineHost** Welcome to Rap Chat!

J_Through_Z: hey y'all, my new shit dropped today

/gets off toilet

J_Through_Z: i also released a new album

digable_planets: Really? Didn't you retire? Sorry, we've been living off the face of the Earth for a while.

J_Through_Z: yeah but i figure that since mainstream rap somehow has an even higher crap quotient than mainstream rock or pop, as long as a kind-of-good rapper like me keeps rapping i'll be one of the best

slug: You know, you could see this as an opportunity to really elevate your art. Instead of posturing and spitting catchy rhymes, you could try to branch out a bit. Talk about the issues or something.

J_Through_Z: well in my album i spend some time rapping about what's it's like to have a lot of money and what happens when you get caught up in the game

slug: And it's not that those themes aren't valid or interesting. It's just that if rappers keep rapping about the exact same things on every single album, the grooves on my CDs will fit directly into each other when stacked together and get stuck and my music collection will be impossible to manage.

digable_planets: Yeah, you should really think about mixing it up.

J_Through_Z: well what did/do you guys rap about

digable_planets: Concern over where music is headed, appreciation of our roots, womens' rights, thoughtful introspection

slug: being from minnesota, being an asshole to girlfriends, being from minnesota

/adjusts backpack

J_Through_Z: pffff whatev

digable_planets: What we're saying is that rap has the potential to be awesome. The Young Jeezys (jeezies?) of the world are molded and pressured by the music industry to rap a stanza about doing some stupid dance and stretching it out for 3:30. But guys like you, the accomplished rap musicians, have the capital, the fame and the luxury to do whatever you want. And I believe you have the talent to do something really great.

digable_planets: But you don't. It's just the same thing over and over, and the kids who listen to you aren't intellectually challenged, and the subconciously bigoted white guys in the suburbs keep scoffing at rap and programming their televisions to skip BET. And your idea of "something different" is basically a soundtrack for a movie starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington, and their acting abilities are overrated and we probably will wait for that movie to come out on DVD, and rap is growing stagnant, and your complacency is not helping, and it's all just so goddamn frustrating that we want to shove our heads in an oven.

J_Through_Z: yeah i mean, i guess i'm just distracted

slug: By what, the money? The fame?

J_Through_Z: no, by this kickass hewlett-packard™ laptop computer, it transforms into a bunch of holograms and shit and i can play chess on it

J_Through_Z: check it

J_Through_Z: this game is ovahhhh

digable_planets: How is it over? You just moved your rook over to the eighth file. It's not threatening any opposing pieces. And what was it even doing anywhere else on the eighth rank? At best that's poor piece development, and at worst you do not know how to play chess.

J_Through_Z: hey i was thinking about recording a song that uses chess as metaphor for life

J_Through_Z: i wonder whether that has ever been done ever