Hip Hop is dead… or is it? I think not because tha underground is still alive and jumping. But if you only listen to tha radio then you might think otherwise. Now for those of you who don’t know there is a difference between real Hip Hop music and radio rap. Tha difference is much like tha difference between an emcee and a rapper. An emcee/real Hip Hop music is a representation of Hip Hop culture whereas a rapper/radio rap is a representation of corporate interests.
With that out of tha way let’s get down to tha matter at hand, who killed Hip Hop and put radio rap in its place? If you ask tha old heads that grew up with Hip Hop they tend to put tha blame on tha younger generation. Notice I said “old heads” and not fans of “old school” Hip Hop. I’m not talking about people who just happen to like/love “old school” Hip Hop; I’m talking about tha cats who were teenagers in tha late ’70s and ’80s. Now this class of Hip Hop students is in their late 30s and early 40s. They seem to be tha people who complain tha most about today’s radio rap. Being an ’80s baby I’m in my late 20s now and I admit modern radio rap is horrible, but I can’t help but to speak up when I hear older cats blaming my generation for tha downfall of this music and culture.
It seems like Hip Hop’s older crowd is starting to sound like tha Civil Rights generation… “Let’s blame all of our shortcomings and setbacks on tha youth.” Much like tha Civil Rights generation doesn’t want to admit that they gave up tha fight long before most of us were even born, Hip Hop’s 1st generation doesn’t want to admit that they sold tha music and tha culture out before any of us grabbed a mic or bought an album. As a fan of true emcees and lyricists I can’t stand most of today’s simplistic nursery rhyming rappers and I make no apologies for it. I debate with cats my age and younger about who is “nice” and who is “wack” all tha time and we generally never agree. But that’s where I draw tha line; they’re either wack or they’re not regardless of what decade they came out in. So I’ll agree with tha old heads that Plies is terrible lyrically, but so was Sir Mix-a-Lot and he had tha same radio popularity back then that Plies has today. I just find something strangely hypocritical about buying a Sir Mix-a-Lot album as a teenager in 1990 and then bashing a teenager in 2010 for buying a Plies album.
Does Sir Mix-a-Lot automatically get a pass just because he was around during tha “golden age” of Hip Hop? Is that why it was cool for 2 Live Crew to make strip club music in tha late ’80s/early ’90s, but it wasn’t cool for tha Ying Yang Twins to make strip club music at tha beginning of tha new millennium? Is that why nobody had a problem with Eazy-E, may he rest in peace, hiring ghostwriter’s, but everybody condemns Puff, Puffy, P-Diddy or whatever tha hell his name is nowadays for doing tha same? Is that why MC Hammer got away with making party music while Nelly was heavily criticized for making nothing but party music? Am I tha only person who sees tha double standard in these comparisons?
Don’t get me wrong I am in no way defending any of tha above rappers that I mentioned, but I am asking how come “old school” artists with tha same lyrical caliber as some of these “new school” artists aren’t criticized nowhere near as harshly. I judge an emcee/lyricist by their lyrical ability alone, which is what tha standard should be based on, not by what decade their album dropped. I do admit that my generation does need to hold itself accountable for tha destruction that we have brought to tha music and tha culture, but I also feel like tha “older” generation should admit to their contributions as well. When you co-sign for lackluster lyricists such as MC Hammer and Luke Skywalker you can’t complain 15-20 years later when you hear Nelly and D-Roc on tha radio. In case my point is going over your head a little I want to stress tha fact that I’m not blaming tha old heads for tha current state of radio rap. However I am saying that they contributed to its decline just as much as today’s Wocka Flocka fan has. So I end this rant with a Joe Budden quote… Next time they ask “who killed it?” tell them “we did”.
Enoch
