What have you been listening to this week?

Thanks for being so reasonable. I have to admit I reacted a little defensively there. I do wish that the B-word being used by men could get to the point of being as unacceptable as the N-word used by non-blacks. But I do also think it's a cultural difference. I think frankly most black women don't have a major problem with those kinds of lyrics. But I'm white and I'm a man so maybe that's a bit presumptuous of me -- it is based on my real experiences of being immersed in black culture tho.

Thanks especially for that last lyric, it's one that stands out to me too. The other issue is that braggadocio is just an established part of hip hop culture. Also there is an argument that in a sense many rappers aren't necessarily rapping about themselves, but rather creating characters that they portray in their lyrics. An obvious example is Eminem, for whom Slim Shady was sort of a persona. But consider also Tupac's All Eyez On Me -- it seems like he's talking about his experiences as a gang member carrying out drive-by shootings etcs. You'll find a lot of similar content in most gangsta rap going back to NWA (which included Dr Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy E -- and I think soon after that Dre started working with Snoop Dog). Much of their lyrics are graphic depictions of gang life. However as far as I know the only ones who were really in gangs were Eazy E and maybe Snoop. The rest is about creating personas, and using braggadocio to establish their bona fides.

Which brings us to the other issue in hip hop: authenticity, aka "keepin' it real". I think this is the main reason songs like Low Life appeal to me. It seems authentic even if some of The Weeknd's lines are a little forced ("Camo'd all out like I'm in the military", which he rhymes again with "military"? OK I guess). In my experience this is main metric used in most black communities to assess music. Does it speak to the real black experience of life in a ghetto in what amounts to an oppressive police state from their perspective? Of course much of the allowed range of discussion on corporate radio etc severely restricts the political content of much of this music. (Tupac being a main exception, I don't think he cared too much about passing the corporate cool test). Acts like Public Enemy sure never got much radio play tho.

I think I have more reading to do into the culture/philosophy of this style of music.

I haven't read it yet, but I know one highly recommended book on hip hop as counterculture is called Bomb The Suburbs, you might want to look for that.

As for your question about the typical tastes of techbros, in the most general terms it tends to be similar to the stereotypical "hipster" demographic -- with a similar fixation as hip hop on what is considered authentic, but the experience of hipsters and techbros being so divorced from ghetto life, the hipster/techbro version of authenticity tends to just focus more on rejecting the conceits of mainstream pop music, and often elevating obscurity as one of the main values of authentic music. Techbros, in my experience of being a music mod on Reddit, also often have an aversion to hip hop and I'd guess also music with powerful feminist themes.

However on Reddit the situation is complicated because one or two trolls (or bad actors, whatever you want to call them) can really shit up a subreddit with fairly minimal effort on their part. It can be hard to distinguish the concerted effort of a handful of determined trolls from general community biases in that case. I am pretty sure on Reddit there are a significant number of white European techbros who reflexively assume racism is an American problem and doesn't really affect them or reflect their unconscious biases. They seem to be quite averse to hip hop or other music that elevates themes of black nationalism.