Has hip hop taken the turn for the worst? What are the fundamental factors that general masses look for in hip hop culture?
In the minds of the population that listen to hip hop these days people are looking for banging beats and critical lyricism , but in my opinion this beautiful form of poetry has taken a turn for the worst. Media has portrayed MC’s these days as a sex symbol with fancy chanins and stacks of money. As the great MC once said “Rappers spit rhymes that are mostly illegal, MCs spit rhymes to uplift their people” (KRS-ONE n.d.).
(Robert, 1997, n.d.)
Old school rappers such as Tupac Shakur, Biggie smalls and many others have a place among the greatest of all time as their poetry brought about a revolution in the black community. The black community felt that the people out there needed to hear how they struggled just to put food on their plates at end of the day. In Tupac Shakur’s famous hit “Brenda’s got a baby” he rapped about an article in the new york times that kept loosing popularity over time. This article spoke about a girl named Brenda who was molested by her cousin when she was twelve due to which she got pregnant and had a baby by the time she was thirteen. Tupac bought to light the seveatity of this situation and the struggle the girl had to go through just to keep her baby alive (Baby Saved From Compactor, Where Mother, 12, Says she Put Him, 1991, n.d.). Old school rappers often had such stories to tell as their main objective was the upliftment of their community.
As we progressed from the 20th to the 21st century hip hop took a turn for the worst . The new upcoming rappers started losing their sense of storytelling while still rhyming for the satisfaction of general masses . Sex, Drugs and money became the new symbol of rap music and hip hop started losing its traditional culture. There are still a few rappers out there today that still maintain the integrity and cultural hypocrisy of true hip hop. R.A the rugged man, Big Rek, Army of the pharaohs, Wu tang clan are few of the rappers and groups out there that still stick to traditional old school hiphop while some like Jay Z and Kendrick lemmar have taken a different direction with their music which is not necessarily a bad thing as music has diversified greatly over the last ten years . With development in technology Producers have been able to create a whole new era of electronic music which was non-existent in the past.
As a collective of producers and artists we constantly keep experimenting with different styles of hip hop and due to popular trend we often tend to make a lot of so called new school hip hop / trap music. Beat examples of old school:
Examples of new generation hip hop beats:
In conclusion, lyricism is form of poetry and this poetry must not lose its integrity due the public opinion and it would be in the best interests of everybody if people would become more aware of the styles of music they listen to.
References:
1) Dj Premier – Classic (feat. Rakim, Nas & krs-one). (2009, March 9). Retrieved November 1, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnl7Q_IBXbw
2) Mckinley J.C. Jr, (1991, March 28). Baby Saved From Compactor, Where Mother, 12, Says she Put Him. Retrieved November 1, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/28/nyregion/baby-saved-from-compactor-where-mother-12-says-she-put-him.html
3) Tupac Digital image. (1997, March 3) Retrieved November 1, 2017, From https://photos.vanityfair.com/2015/01/30/54cc0c2c3c894ccb27c8c361_image.jpg
4) Tupac – Brenda’s Got A Baby. (2011, July 5). Retrieved November 1, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRWUs0KtB-I