New York minute
Recently I saw a video by Nipsey hussle on the breakfast club. For those who those who don’t know who he is, he is a rapper from la area. He brought up the point that he is not a fan of “weirdo rappers” to which he continued to explain that weirdo rappers to him where the new rappers we have now. He said that he could relate to music he grew up listening too. Such as biggie, jayz and Tupac . He said that if you had no real men figure in your life you could listen to these men and turn out okay. In essence he said that the music we have now had no true message and lacks ins pertaining and integrity. I agree with him. It makes me sad that this is the music grew up listening to because I don’t want my children listening to this. It’s more noise then it is actual music and I very much so enjoy it . It isn’t quality music in my opinion. Real music evokes emotion whether it be good or bad.
I also feel like music is a reflection of the time period it was made. Truthfully speaking my generation has the worst music by far. Is this music really a reflection of us and who we are as individuals.
I completely agree when it comes to the artist having a strong connection with their listeners. I feel like the artist has a strong influence on their listeners, especially the minority group that closely relate to these rappers mentioned by Nipsey. In the music industry, we experience different kinds of genre of music, especially in this generation. And listening to all these different trends and experiencing new music is really what reflects us as individuals. I agree that over the years music has changed drastically but the idea that messages are still being put out there by these artists is what makes music very special. Now the way we interpret and act upon these ideas is what really tells us the kind of indivduals we are.
While I’m in some sort of Rock “phase” at the moment, I listen to a good amount of Hip Hop to say that I don’t know if the argument that Hip Hop’s meaning is decreasing is a fair one. I used to believe that Hip Hop had become some sort of a shadow of what it used to be, but I don’t completely believe that is true. Hip Hop, whether in the present or the future, isn’t something that kids should look up to regardless. The Golden Age of Hip Hop wasn’t something to scoff at. Biggie Smalls, DMX, Bizarre, etc, all had lyrics that pertained to rape and extremely violent acts in some of their songs. Does that take away some of their positive message that they portray in other songs? Depending on who you ask. The same thing is surely happening today though. Also, when it comes to message, today has a good amount of rappers that are very substantive. Just to name a few: Kendrick Lamar, Joyner Lucas, Joey Bada$$, Chance The rapper, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples the list goes on. To devalue all of their messages in their songs to say that it just isn’t as powerful as their Golden Age counterparts is slightly unfair for Nipsey. Also, yes there are many rappers today that are just complete goofballs that don’t have substance to them and are extremely unintelligible, but so were some of the rappers in the 90s. If you listen to many of the hits in the 90s you actually can see that their so called superior bars are somewhat weak at times, and I love 90s rap. While I feel that rap has been going through some sort of a metamorphosis in their subject matter, when I look at the lyrical rappers of today I can’t seem to think that we are going through some of the best years in Hip Hop, and people aren’t just awake yet. But who knows, maybe I’m being ignorant.
I completely agree with you and the article. I have been having this type of problem already for a few years with my friends since I tell them that the new music of this generation is trash. I always and will listen to old school music until I die for the same reason that it is actually about real life and the streets. I mean music has always been a big part of my life so when I hear the music of nowadays, it annoys to me hear the nonsense they talk about. Today in the type of society we live in, music from the new generation shouldn’t be even allowed because kids will get affected so much by the music and make stupid decisions. I feel that in the type of world we live in today, music should be helping the people but I do not believe that it is doing its job.