From Hip Hop to Sex Hop (By The Blackspot)

ill o.g.
Battle Points: 3
NO ONE WOULD’VE ever thought of seeing an adult film star grab the mic and spit a freestyle over the latest hot rap instrumental. On the other hand, who would ever had imagined that a rap artist would ever appear on the cover of an adult film like Treach formally of Naughty By Nature. Just like how Rock n’ Rollers were assimilated into the cloaked galaxy of flesh peddling on video, hip-hop is well on it’s way to becoming a breeding ground for potential skin flick stars and vice versa.

“Rap has taken over as the trendy new look when it comes to video making,” says Vivid Girl Jenna Jameson who has locked down the adult film industry as a performer (homegirl even has her name trademarked) and made a cameo in Eminem’s “Without Me” video. “Hot girls are always needed as eye candy and who better to use than some of our beautiful nasty pornstars! Not only are our girls hot, but they all have a following. Besides it’s always cool to be hanging with a pornchick..makes ya look like a player.” Big time rappers like Snoop Dogg, Ice T and Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz are stampeding into studios to hustle sex tapes while Triple X personalities like Heather Hunter, Spanteneeus Xtacee and India are all a part of a new movement where doing the nasty isn’t enough; they want to rhyme about it too.

MAINSTREAMING PORN
Though the traces of hip-hop and porn can be followed back to a publicized collaboration between DJ Polo (of the group Kool G Rap and DJ Polo) and Ron Jeremy in 1996 called “Freak Of The Week.” Many people don’t know but before then, DJ Yella of NWA made a porn flick under the name “Tha Kidd” back in early 1994. “I set about to change things,” Yella told AVN.com. “By putting my name on it and associating it with rap, I’m bringing porn to the mainstream. I’m opening it up so that people can go get this at regular stores, not just at adult bookstores.”

Yella was the first one and people thought he was crazy,” adult film legend Heather Hunter told BET.com. “I give him props for that because he saw something and he ran with it, he believed in it just like I did and it worked.” Not long after, hip-hop and porn were actually linked publicly, rumors of rappers actually starring in films popped up.

Treach, formerly of Naughty By Nature, performed in the video simply titled, “Treach’s Naturally Naughty.” In an interview at the 2002 Source Awards, Treach told BET.com “Yeah, you know, Naughty is doing all things.” Before then, back in 1995, Funkdoobiest front man Son Doobie starred in “Son Doobie: Porn King.” Along with mainstream commercial films featuring rap artists came the rumored joints like the infamous Lil’ Kim tape, Suge’s Jennifer Lopez video, Eve’s alleged strip club antics and the latest rumor of a Trina sex tape that was shut down by her management team. As cheesy and sleazy as the concept of cashing in on musicians handling their dirty business on video may seem, history shows that there is a demand for it and it’s still growing.

“The linking of sex and music is already there if you watch BET, or MTV,” says Game President, Shecky Green. Shecky is the distributor of the popular “Hip-Hop Honeys” DVDs you always see advertised in the back of hip-hop magazines like The Source and XXL. “It’s always exciting for both artists because the rock and rap artists idolize the porn stars and vise versa. The porn stars all want to have boyfriends that are famous (and a lot of them do).

Although music videos playing on today’s airwaves aren’t flat out pornographic (yet) music has long been blurring the lines between titillating imagery and lewdness. Take a look at Lil’ Kim’s video for “How Many Licks” where a plant manufactures hundreds of Kim sex dolls. During Foxy Brown’s popularity peak, her on-camera image was that of a sexed out vixen who was down to do any and everything the classic porn starlet was willing to do.”

XXX RAPPERS
Male Rap artists like Snoop Dogg raked in loads of cash with his signature video line through Hustler Video titled, “Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle.” The video quickly became a huge success selling over 150,000 copies worldwide. After winning the “Adult Video News Award” for “Top Selling Tape of 2001,” Snoop graciously responded, “I want to thank y’all for accepting me in yall’s world. And I’m gonna come back with some more. Believe that.” Snoop is already set to release a sequel. Naturally, other rap stars jumped in like Rapper turned actor Ice T with his video “Ice T’s Pimpin’” and Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz newly inked deal with porn powerhouse Video Team for their line. “It’s only natural that Rap artists get into this industry because a lot of the music is about sex, drugs, women, pimping hoes and that’s what our industry represents,” explains porn star Sinnamon who has made her way into the world of Rap’s more artsy cousin, Spoken Word. “Why not move into it?”
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Adult film legend Heather Hunter made her move into the arena about twelve years ago when she started her New York based public access show “Wildstyle” where she would have hip-hop notables on as guests while women paraded around in the and out of the background. “My whole thing came from music,” Heather told BET.com. ” I’m a hip-hop music person so if I’m going to be freaky I’m going to still keep it hip-hop. You can’t tell me I can’t have both that’s not how the world works. Society is changing and the proof is in the pudding.”
Luke, formerly of the controversial group 2 Live Crew furthered his reach in T and A business with his pay-per-view flick and video line called “Luke’s Peepshow” where he followed the same suit as Heather Hunter content wise. Luke’s move into adult videos made him a mainstay and extended his longevity in the music world. “Artists and people in the adult film industry keep the same hours, we hang out all night and go to the same parties,” says Money B of the group Digital Underground who has recently started the “Sex And The Studio” video line. “You end up meeting and mingling with these people. When you hang out with innovative, forward thinking people, you start thinking of ways to make money together. It was a natural progression for us [Digital Underground] because we came in as the freaks of the industry.”
“I feel there a lot of people in the [music] industry today who are just half doing it,” says one of the adult film world’s most notable, India. “I feel I have just as much talent as anybody else. Not to put anybody down but I feel I have as much talent as people that are already in the industry.” As an answer to the growing crowd of music artists embracing their sexual alter egos, India has already begun on the road to making records. Actually, the porn princess tried her hand at rap before getting into the adult film industry in a rap group called H.I. (which stood for Harmony Innocent) “We had came out as a group and it didn’t work out,” India explains. “You know how it goes with girl groups sometimes. I ran away from the music and went into porn because the paper work was shady, the management was shady so I left music alone for a long time.”

“IT MAKES MONEY”
Presently, India performs with Digital Underground. “People are jumping into the rap and porn thing because it makes money,” she says. “They see what Snoop did in numbers and in our business, the [profit] return is so fast. It’s way faster than the music industry.” One time Tupac protégé Spanteneeus Xtacee is another adult film star breaking onto the Rap scene. “People kept telling me that they wanted me to be upfront more lyrically,” Xtacee says. “I started writing and things started coming together.” Spanteneeus’ move was sparked by her love for Hip Hop even though musically, she’s been trained to play instruments from her youth.
“I graduated from the Philadelphia School of Performing Arts as a drummer,” she says. “I grew up on Hard Rock music and I’m probably the only Black woman that went to a Grateful Dead concert.” Now Spanteneeus Xtacee is collaborating with DJ Kid Capri on her rap material and she has already finished a demo that’s being circulated around the underground. “A lot of DJ’s have approached me already to appear on mixtapes,” Spanteneeus explains. “I can’t mention exactly who right now but it’s in the works.” In time, Spanteneeus plans to blow up her own label Xtacee Records along with a few artists on her roster.
As the list grows longer of artists striving to be pornstars and pornstars burning the midnight oil to become the next 50 Cent or Eve, questions arise that if the new subgenre is something that will be around for a while or if it’ll just be alive until it’s monetary resources are tapped dry. As only time will tell for sure, it’s certain that as long as fame, sex and money remain the top driving forces for getting into the entertainment industry in the first place, porno hopefuls with a dream and a few titles under their belt will always hold a special place in the hearts of whoever has the hot joint of the moment.
 

mono

the invisible visible
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 20
hmmm, i dont think its hiphop to sex hop, its just hiphop became that big and, and sex sells and this connection was predictable and is natural, since our culture stepped into higher spheres of the marketing and media universe. another point, im serious about, when i say that i dont consider most of these television artists even as hiphop. its got nothing in common with performing for the crowd, sharing some good time or surprising each other with rap,graph or dancing skills. lots of these cats havent even seen a jamstage.
maybe there are a few acts, moving on the boarderline between the subculture and the mainstream ( oooh how i missed these two words:)), but most of it is more part of the cashSex universe than its ours...... (ours = me and people feeling similar)
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g@Vin c@$h

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
Man it's all about ratings for sponsorship....for money. Think about it. If you are flippin through the channels and you see, let's say for an example booty poppin. 9 out of 10 males are going to stop for a min or two and check this stuff out. This is gonna get more people to watch this channel. Advertising companies/corportations are going to notice this immediately, and pay big bucks to be able to advertise on that spot rather than another, because they want to brain wash you into getting a certain kind of shoe, or shampoo, or why you should eat at this place, or shop at wal-mart. If it wasn't for advertising and media being the greedy peices of crap that they are, I don't think we would have the problems of all this garbage on t.v. Sex sells, and people are greedy. It sux, it's sad, but there is only so much that can be done about it. And the only people who have the power to do something about it are the ones that are creating the problem in the first place. Well i guess not the only people with the power, but they sure do have their fair share.
 
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