Hip Hop In My Opinion

Is hip hop really dead? Rappers aren’t selling like they used to. It’s been almost 2 years since Wayne sold a million. Em couldn’t sell. Fifty couldn’t. Kanye tried to sing his way to sales, and failed. Jay still moved units, but not like back in the day. Nas is laughable when it comes to moving soundscan numbers. X is gone. Ja is a joke now. Pac, Big, and Pun are memories of a better time. T.I.’s absence left us without a king. So the complaint is that the new breed isn’t up to par. Of course the first argument of any hip hop head is Gucci Mane. Granted he isn’t Rakim, hell he isn’t even Special Ed, you can’t ignore success. As much as you hear “Gucci sucks”, I bet you’d be hard pressed to a person without one song of his in their music library. This could be due to the fact that his recording regimen is much like Wayne’s, release so much music that you almost over saturate the market. This reminds me of the old saying, “If you throw enough shit on the wall, something’s bound to stick.” Your next argument can be Souljah Boy. Yes his raps are simple. But so were Kris Kros, Bow Wow, and Kid n Play’s. Even one of the most played rap songs of all time, “Summertime” by Will Smith, is not big on metaphor usage. If there’s one thing that hurts his case though, is that Souljah Boy’s attitude that he feels he is the best. In conclusion, I feel if we weren’t so exposed to him as a person, we would have no problem with Souljah Boy’s music. The third case is tough one. Even though the need for more spotlight on female rappers is dire, is Nicki Minaj the one that should be on the forefront? Unlike Ludacris, her over animated style is more annoying than impressive. She’s ten years too late on the outwardly sexiness that Lil Kim made you go “OMG” over. Even her claim that she’s bi induces yawns because, unlike Lindsay Lohan, we’ve seen no proof. The only comparison to greatness is her sporadic rhymes that her label head Wayne has been known, and also scrutinized, for. One thing you can say about all of these rappers is that they are forced upon us. Gucci by the amount of music, Souljah Boy by using every internet marketing tool, and Nicki her label. Real talent isn’t forced, it’s accepted. None of these artists are considered great by industry standards. If they were, then you would see a Grammy nomination in there accolades. A refreshing artist is Drake. He came almost out of nowhere and was everywhere. But it wasn’t by a media blitz that was premeditated. We as fans wanted more. In a time where we thought there were no real hip hop mainstream artists, Drake rose to the spotlight and gave us hope. But did we really need to lose hope? Sure Lupe Fiasco, Wale, and Kid Cudi didn’t do big numbers. But they’re still in it. They’re still relevant. Plus we have the artists who have that true essence of hip hop on the come up. Charles Hamilton, Asher Roth, B.o.B., Cory Gunz, are a few of the rappers that remind me of what hip hop was. But isn’t hip hop also about change? It was us, hip hop, that changed the game. Hip hop is the new pop. Hence, all of our wrongdoings and failures are under a microscope. As long as we support true music, it will win over. At the same time, there is room for more than 16 bars of sheer metaphors or wit. Remember, we had to take ODB to get Wu-Tang, we had to take Flava Flava to get public enemy. There will always be stars who should’ve stayed on the bench, but that doesn’t mean they dominate the league. Hip hop has not died. It has merely expanded.