Please and Thank You
Imagine it is the early 90’s, Gameboy colors and Macintosh computers were all the rage, girls were shamelessly wearing mom jeans and keds and boys had colorful windbreakers and were bumping music through stereos they’d carry around on the street. Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210 were some of the popular shows of the time and Hip Hop music was breaking through onto mainstream music.
Dj Kool Herc
Hip Hop first originated through DJ Kool Herc, a native New Yorker who collaborated music and soulful lyrics together and inspired many rappers to do the same. Artists such as Jay Z, Nas, The Notorious BIG, 2pac, Mobb Deep, Run DMC, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, A Tribe Called Quest and countless others started breaking onto the airwaves and set impeccably high standards for the definition of hip hop.
As years have passed, I (along with I’m sure everyone else in the world) have come to realize that this beautiful and once respected genre of music has sadly taken some crazy out-of-control turn into what I can’t even begin to claim is hip hop anymore. Newest artists on the rise include Waka Flocka Flame, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj (Team Lil Kim forever) and others have turned Hip Hop into some kind of joke. An example of this can be seen in a new song by YG (I know…who?) called “Toot it and Boot it.” These are the disgraces that are being played on the radio and that oddly enough the younger generation seems to enjoy.
Oh really?
Even the OG’s of hip hop have sold their soul and have began to demean their talents just to get played on the radio. (like hello… Snoop Dogg is featured on every track ever made) This leaves me to wonder… what is going on here? Why is it that great rappers like Jay Z and Dr. Dre feel the need to turn their talents and make them “pop”ish just to get fans to like them? You could blame it on the kids but I’m sure if rappers just stuck to their roots and produced the once amazing tracks there once were there wouldn’t be such controversy.
This also brings on the scary thought that maybe all the good hip hop has just simply died out. Maybe, every amazing track has already been made and after a while it could simply just get repetitive? I’m not one to be pessimistic, so I will say that there are definitely new artists who are trying to bring back the true meaning of hip hop. If you want to check them out you can click here but in the meantime I guess we all just have to hope for the best and listen to old school hip hop to remind ourselves it was once amazing.
Very true to a large extent, Laura. I also am quite disappointed with the turn of events for this wonderful and young genre. However, I do disagree on one thing, and that is the death of hip-hop. There are a few artists who constantly attempt to keep originality in the art alive, such as Jadakiss and Lupe Fiasco. Don’t get me wrong Jada’s message may not always be the most positive, but he still keeps to his roots and as far as Lupe, I mean come on, the guy is lyrically powerful and inspirational. 🙂
The amusing thing about music is that the previous generation will always look down on the current generation and find their music inferior. “No, what these kids are listening to today is trash, man back in the day….” Go ahead, ask your grandparents if they think what you consider masterpieces are any good, they’ll let you know. The kids today are gonna be saying the same exact things you’re saying in about a decade or so.
Remember, musical taste is entirely subjective. That means one song can’t be objectively better than another.
I completely agree. However, you forget about such amazing artists such as Mos Def, Nas, and Common who definitely continue to encompass what hip hop has always been about. But then, on the opposite side of the spectrum, you have “artists” such as Soulja Boy who make me pray for humanity.