Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"See, what had happened was...."

We can all agree that Hip Hop has kind of fizzled to a stand still, can't we?

The dinosaurs of Boring Rap have let out their dying roars & apparently it hasn't moved a soul. Much less a party. We can blame it on various factors, or a cacophony of them all, but the fact remains that the newness of our beloved culture's soundtrack has worn off.

At times, it would appear that without asinine beefs, mediocre filler-turned-singles, & WSHH, hip hop would soon become what Jazz became to our grandfathers. A watered down, over-saturated, poor example of the genius it was once facilitated.

Fif is all but musically dead in the water (at least as of right this moment). The proverbial elephant in the room (pun intended) has withstood the onslaught known as Curtis Jackson, only to get pushed to the wayside a week after dropping the most anticipated (?) album of the first half. Lil' Wayne has begun his migration to the other side (sonically, not sexually as some think). Jay-Z is at home trying to get Bee pregnant. Lucky Bastard. NaS is on his way to baby momma #2, & while we all know that pain makes for the best inspiration, he has bigger things on his plate than satisfying our need for good Hip Hop.

Now, there's only so much we can do with a severe creative drought staring us right in our Hata-Blockaz.

What we can do is hope that the impending wave of creative juices [||] washes away the bad taste left behind from a year of garbage music. With Kissanova's album making some relevant & much needed noise, & Eminem d/b/a Slim Shady's latest release getting ready to touchdown, we can only pray that the next batch of MC's follows the path being laid.

As he did last year, Dwayne Carter seems to be pioneering the next phase of Rap music, stretching it beyond the boundaries set by his multi-million selling Tha Carter 3. Kanye's been dropping bits & pieces of a post-808's man on a mission via guest spots on various songs sans Auto-Tune. Alongside Slaughterhouse's Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I & Royce da 5'9", the "hip" may soon be rejoining the "hop" of our movement. Stars on the rise, Charles Hamilton, Kid Cudi, B.o.B, Drake & Curren$y are slowly but surely availing their promising talents, giving less & less life to the phrase "hip hop is dead". Even Asher Roth is giving hip hop a good look right now, depending on your vantage point.

Whatever it was that first pulled "you" into Hip Hop, be it Run DMC, NWA, Redman, Fat Joe, Common, Luke Skyywalker, UGK, rest assured that the circle of mediocrity has just about reached the rollover point. Everything happens in cycles, & we've seemingly reached the maximum capacity of meh we can tolerate.

See, what had happened was, Hip hop went to the hospital, because it was sick. It stayed for longer than we thought, so we assumed it was dead. But, on the contrary, it was receiving the biggest make over ever. We've suffered through our SB Tellem's, Flo Rida's, D4L's & the ilk.

A new day is finally on the horizon. & it looks as if the operation is almost complete.

5 comments:

Capital G said...

"But, on the contrary, it was receiving the biggest make over ever"

Man, I fuckin hope so. My biggest fear is it comes out on some Jerry Springer/Maury Povich transgender shit and is completely unrecognizable to me anymore. I'm 28 years old and the more time goes by the less I can identify with what hip hop is becoming. The 90's where glorious for me but the reality is, shit ain't going back to where it started. I'm at the stage of grief where at first it was denial, now it's acceptance. Too much bullshit and no one calling shenanigans on these fools. What the fuck is Soulja Boy gonna tell me? I'm telling Soulja Boy it's little fucks like him watering down what was once an art form, now it's just a business minded whore.

JCITYHUSTLA617 said...

WITH ALBUM RELEASES FROM JOE BUDDEN,SAIGON, JADAKISS, EMINEM, THE LOX, CAMRON, RED AND METH, DR.DRE(HOPEFULLY) AND MANY OTHERS 2009 LOOKS LIKE A SOLID YEAR FOR REAL HIPHOP MUSIC(OR AT LEAST BETTER HIPHOP THAN PREVIOUS YEARS) ME I NEVER GAVE UP HOPE ON THE ARTFORM THAT I GREW UP IN I STILL COP CD'S EVEN IF I DOWNLOAD THEM FIRST(SORRY BUT SOMETIMES ANTICIPATION GETS THE BEST OF ME SOME RECORDS HAVE ME FEELING LIKE A LIL KID ON CHRISTMAS MORNING)AND I TRY 2 FOLLOW THE CULTURE 2 THE BEST OF MY ABILITY......YEA SNAP MUSIC AND DANCE SONGS GET PLAYED OUT REALLY QUICK BUT THEY ALL SERVE THEIR INTENDED PURPUSE(I WOULDNT WANNA GET A LAPDANCE 2 A KRS-ONE SONG LOL)UNLIKE THE ABOVE COMMENT I DONT THINK SOULJABOY IS WATERING DOWN HIPHOP BECAUSE HE HAS HIS OWN LANE AND HASNT REALLY INFLUENCED ANYONE SHIT HE'S INFLUENCED BY GUCCI MANE SO BE MAD AT HIM LOL IF ANYTHING T-PAIN(R&B OUTSIDER) IS INFLUENCING MORE HIPHOP ARTIST WITH HIS DAMN AUTO-TUNE(WHICH SHOULD HAVE R.I.P WITH ROGER TROUTMAN)THAN ANYONE ELSE BUT 2 ME THAT IS ALL A SIDESHOW 2THE MAIN ATTRACTION WHICH IS HIPHOP WITH THOUGH PROVOKING LYRICS(OR AT LEAST SOME FEEL GOOD MUSIC TYPE RAP) HIPHOP WONT DIE AT LEAST NOT IN MY EAR..............

Anonymous said...

i say we blame MTV. i still believe that the best videos are shown when we're all knocked the fudge out x]

*& i JUST started watching video music box. i mean, it was on for a long time in NYC but i was all of five years old watching power rangers, haha. but i think video music box really exemplifies what hip hop is supposed to be like.

GREAT post, btw!

Capital G said...

@ JCITY...
All of the above artists you named are definitely still dope as fuck. I'm a huge Sai-giddy fan (even though no official release yet) and I'm from Jerz so I got a bias for Red and Joe Budden (hometown boy made good). It's the new generation that ain't speaking to me. Everyone of the releases you're looking forward to is by an artist that's at least 30 years old. Maybe I'm just getting ornery in my old age, all bitter and shit, talking that "Back in my day" nonsense...

Capital G said...

ps. Cop that Joell Ortiz covering the classics mixtape. Shit is fire, so I guess there is hope.