Wassup with Hip-Hop? Im not talking about REAL Hip-Hop, you know, Rakim, EPMD, Slick Rick, Pharcyde, you know the rest. Im speaking on these Jonas Brothers ass rappers who all rhyme about the same shit.
Let me break down the industry into some brackets.
You got rappers like, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, Jim Jones, 50 Cent... ect, who fall into this "consumer driven" category. You see, they don't make their music for themselves, or "homey's" they make that so called "music" for the teenage girls who buy their CD's. Or, for the most part, the teenagers who ARE NOT buying their CD's. Just because one rapper sold a million records with a certain style/rhyme topic, these mentioned rappers attempt to cookie-cut that same exact pattern and put out identical records. However, it isn't completely the artists fault, because the publishing and labels obviously dictate what gets marketed. But all of this is the reason why the "Rap" industry sounds like one big freecreditreport.com commerical.
In another category, you have the "underground" rapper. Emcee's, if you will. People such as, Deltron 3030, Celph Titled, Apathy, 7L, Immortal Technique. These are rappers who have the ability to rhyme well, and also rap about things most "consumers" have no clue about. But to them, thats the point. Sitting down with their favorite instrumental and a Websters Thesaurus is how they write a verse. WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT? Who cares about a rapper rhyming about astrophysics, and subatomic particles. I'd rather listen to Stephen Hawking spit, atleast he'd actually make sense. (I bet that generic telephone voice Stephen Hawking uses could rhyme over any beat!). Anyways, my point is, these particular Emcee's, have no idea how to make a song. They have no musical ability, hence, leaving them with no proper rhyme delivery, and a boring monotone sound. Learn to read music first kiddo's.
Moving on, we have a certain category in Hip-Hop considerably called "The New-Breed". These are rappers like, B.O.B., Kid Cudi, Charles Hamilton, 88 Keys, Mickey Factz, Fashawn, Blu, and many more. These rappers are all fairly young and mostly all of them have not released a debut album yet. All of them are attempting to sound "different" and be refreshing. Granted they are different and somewhat refreshing to listen to, but we all know, out of those 7 rappers i listed, maybe 1 will be around in the next 5 years. Unlike the first category, including 50 cent, and Jeezy, ect. This "new-breed" of rappers, are all trying to be "different" which contrarily makes them all the same. Most of these new school acts, think they can "sing". They wear tight weirdo/retro clothes, which will fade out quicker than long ass white T's, and cross-colors. Don't get me wrong, some of these rappers are currently making some good music, and i actually like most of the artists i mentioned. But my point is, where is the long gevity? I see no signs of these rappers being industry veterans. BE DIFFERENT NOT A WEIRDO.
Lastly, ahhhhhh, my favorite group of Emcee's, our only last hope. Mos Def! Kweli! Little Brother! ANDRE MUTHA-FUCKIN 3000! Q-Tip! Ghostface! And a group we owe our ears and attention to, THE ROOTS! Now, this is Hip-Hop, this is what teenagers should be listening to, if they are Hip-Hop fans. These rappers, have all the strong points of the emcee's listed in the privious brackets, and lack all the things wrong with those same rappers. All of these rappers are industry veterans, they are all STILL making music, and GOOD music for that matter. Always refreshing to listen to, and any person with integrity can relate to them. So to you Rappers that are keeping Hip-Hop alive, and away from the disco disease, THANK YOU.
Im not upset with the Hip-Hop industry, I just listen to who still makes Hip-Hop music. Not to be confused with Hip-Pop. Much props to you money making rappers, but where is your musical integrity, make music for yourself, for your friends, for the Love of it. And i promise, the consumers will HAVE to adjust, and Hip-Hop can be as respected as it once was.
