Make a Contribution to Remove NSFW Ads

Musings on why some may feel hip-hop (music) sucks right now.

Rap stagnated somewhere.

Once it became really commercial.

Its best years were before it was really embraced by the mainstream.
 
And I'ono why y'all keep talkin' about what's gettin' played on da radio. That's simple, stop listening to da bullshit that da radio cranks out.
 
tuckdog said:
If you lived in NY, then I guess you guys heard those artists during regular hours. Here in VA, and I'm quite sure most of the rest of the country, those artists were played after 8pm on the 8 at 8 request countdowns and late night mix shows. During the day we got a steady dose of Old School and New School R&B with a splash of popular hip hop.
Click to expand...


The Hampton Roads VA area had all day hip hop stations that would pop up off & on from the mid 80's up until 2001.
 
BGLR1212000 said:
That singing style has the game all fucked up right now ala Cash Out, Future(Future cool with me), Travis Porter, Roscoe Dash. I hate that style of music basically.
Click to expand...
2 ONE 3 said:
Didn't drake start that?
Click to expand...
Thought it really started with B.O.N.E
bonethugs.jpg


and kept going with Ja Rule.
 
2 ONE 3 said:


I find myself falling further & further behind trying to keep up with all these new cats who all sounds the same.

I wouldn't say I'm falling out of love with hip hop...But I'm growing up and can't rock with a lot of stuff out now.

​
Click to expand...

I feel the same way... I really can't keep up, and I kind of don't want to... I guess it's an age thing b/c the young pop tart artists are just singing about things I could care less about... And when I hear young and/or ignorant artists say lines that aren't profound and then say "Get it" after the line, or that whole thing rappers do now, "I'm killing fools--Jeffrey Dahmer" is so lazy and irritates me...

Also since I spend less time drunk in clubs, there's really no use for most of the top40 rap music these days...
 
incogneg said:
I feel the same way... I really can't keep up, and I kind of don't want to... I guess it's an age thing b/c the young pop tart artists are just singing about things I could care less about... And when I hear young and/or ignorant artists say lines that aren't profound and then say "Get it" after the line, or that whole thing rappers do now, "I'm killing fools--Jeffrey Dahmer" is so lazy and irritates me...

Also since I spend less time drunk in clubs, there's really no use for most of the top40 rap music these days...
Click to expand...

Bruh...


I hate that damn rhyme scheme. ​
 
Damn Right said:
It's not a nigga in here born between 1970 and 1980 that can't still rap the lyrics word for word to "Summertime" or smile when Ski-Lo's "I Wish" comes on.

:lol::yes:
Click to expand...

:lol::lol:Great line.

2 ONE 3 said:


I find myself falling further & further behind trying to keep up with all these new cats who all sounds the same.


I wouldn't say I'm falling out of love with hip hop...But I'm growing up and can't rock with a lot of stuff out now.

​
Click to expand...

Then stop. You're aging out like what happens to every generation. If something new comes out that you like, follow it but after a certain age, every generation becomes the "old school".
 
There's only 3 and I mean 3 new artist that's out there now that I like.
Stalley, BIG K.R.I.T and Kendrick Lammar.:yes:
 
The fact is quality music in general presently sucks. Creativity has left the building. Yeah there's a few artist out there that have their own unique sounds but there's only a few.

The music industry itself is mainly to blame. The downward trend has nothing to do with radio, BET, MTV, VH1 or even bootleggers. Its the industry itself that's the problem. I remember hitting stores like J&R every Tuesday to check out the new releases.......not any more. I can't remember the last time I cared what was coming out.

There's a multitude of problems the industry is facing. As someone above stated many of the artist today sound alike, that's major. They lack style and originality. That's where the problem lies. The other biggie is the cost of music today. People aren't going to pay 15+ bucks per CD for only 1 decent track.
 
2 ONE 3 said:


I find myself falling further & further behind trying to keep up with all these new cats who all sounds the same.


I wouldn't say I'm falling out of love with hip hop...But I'm growing up and can't rock with a lot of stuff out now.

​
Click to expand...

I have scarcely listened to rap since 2000. Shit, I haven't listened to much music from before 2000. I listened to Luda (before he went off track (maybe 2006-2007), Jay-Z (his last good album was the Black album, the rest were a track here and there), Kanye's first 2.5 albums, but most of the artists (can we really call them that) aren't good, their music is repetitive and annoying as if they are trying to be. I haev never been able to like/understand/comprehend Lil Wayne, I have hated Cash Money and no Limit since their beginning because their lack or imaginative, thought provoking lyrics and focusing solely on the beat began the ruin. Before them, the Dirty South was known for Eightball & MJG, Outkast, Scarface - all of whom had good lyrics and beats, now the Dirty South is a wasteland of music when before it was able to withstand Luke. Luke had beats and big booty girls but he didnt spawn a bunch of mainstream clones, though some Florida popular groups came along with his type of music.

I was born in '77, so I was alive when real music came back when disco got tired. I call today's music the disco stage because lyrics don't seem to matter, only the beat. But in disco stage 1 it only lasted 5 years, if that.

I've given up on today's music. There is no passion, no lyrical depth, no heart, no emotion, no feeling. They know the fans have no idea of quality so they don't bother to give them any. Occasionally I will pass by a store or someone listening to something and ask who that is singing/playing, or I will use the app on my phone to find out, but mostly I tune it out.
 
1. Everything is getting meshed together where rap is turned into pop & now it's turning into techno. 2. To many "rappers" have so much false swagger(hate that word), it's unbearable & even laughable. They swear they are saying something deep or try to look intimidating with every line they spit. :lol: 3. They don't like criticism, because it's considered "hating" so they can't get better at their craft. I guess growing up where they are taught "there are no winners or losers cause everyone is winner" makes them feel entitled to put anything out & everyone must accept it. 4. Lyrics are so simplified & commercialized(jingle or catch phrase) right now that people are impressed & settle for the mundane which really is killing the innovation & progress of hip/hop. 5. Money/youtube - they are being told what type of music to make or if they have enough followers they are an automatic celebrity.

I hate to sound old, but there was a time when an artist music did not get play on major t.v. stations & it was still considered hot. It used be artist were found on the local radio stations & then if it was good enough it would be seen or heard nationally via t.v. & radio stations(mtv, bet, etc.). Nowadays it has reversed. Almost in every city you have radio stations playing the same top 18 songs in the nation on constant repeat every hour. It doesn't matter if it's a pop station or hip-hop station, it's the same exact songs by the same exact 4 or 5 artist. Growing up for those from NY, you knew it was Kiss fm, hot 97 or WBLS if you wanted to listen to Rnb or rap. And you knew it was z100 or KTU if you wanted to hear rock or alternative. There was also a smooth easy listening station. The point is there were so much variety. I do not listen to radio because of this. It is easy to see record companies are behind what gets play on the radio or what is constantly being pushed everywhere.
 
sutter kane said:
The Hampton Roads VA area had all day hip hop stations that would pop up off & on from the mid 80's up until 2001.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they would be on for 2 weeks than gone forever. I remember a couple AM stations and I think 1 FM station. I just stuck with 103 jamz (Budda Bros) after I got burned a couple times though. :lol:
 
Mo-Better said:
The fact is quality music in general presently sucks. Creativity has left the building. Yeah there's a few artist out there that have their own unique sounds but there's only a few.

The music industry itself is mainly to blame. The downward trend has nothing to do with radio, BET, MTV, VH1 or even bootleggers. Its the industry itself that's the problem. I remember hitting stores like J&R every Tuesday to check out the new releases.......not any more. I can't remember the last time I cared what was coming out.

There's a multitude of problems the industry is facing. As someone above stated many of the artist today sound alike, that's major. They lack style and originality. That's where the problem lies. The other biggie is the cost of music today. People aren't going to pay 15+ bucks per CD for only 1 decent track.
Click to expand...

You're talking industry, but I'm talking music. The industry does not have to control what you listen to. They're gonna do their job regardless. If you aren't feeling their product, there's PLENTY of other alternatives out there.
 
tuckdog said:
You're talking industry, but I'm talking music. The industry does not have to control what you listen to. They're gonna do their job regardless. If you aren't feeling their product, there's PLENTY of other alternatives out there.
Click to expand...


:yes:
There's a lot of quality stuff being put out independently.
 
2 ONE 3 said:
Bruh...


I hate that damn rhyme scheme. ​
Click to expand...

:lol: Thank God! If you tell me something is your craft--At least get serious about it. A great poet once told me that every poet should have read this:

5318347853_d4eac6fe1c.jpg


So hard for me to imagine rappers/poets that don't actually study their craft...
 
I've said it many times before, but the best stuff I've heard in recent years has been underground or from another country. I'll admit, much of the reason I feel the way I do relates to nostalgia.

I was probably one of those "4 elements" kids before those types officially existed. I'm perhaps the one of the few people old enough to remember the "party hits" and the "gimmick" songs of the early 90s and not know a single lyric to those songs. I couldn't recite the lyrics to "Summertime" if my life depended on it. At that time in my life, hip-hop had to be either "raw", "hard", "real" or "mentally/politically deep" just like the hardcore punk or death metal I was fucking with.

I couldn't fuck with the "party" jams at the time. The only "happy" or "party" stuff I fucked with was in the early 80s when the "planet rock/kraftwerk" sound was popular.

Back then (early to mid 90s), you had a choice and didn't have to go deep underground to find good music. To name a few: Poor Righteous Teachers, Wu, DasFx, Souls of Mischief, the Goats, Yall So Stupid, Geto Boys (and their solo releases), Redman, Lords of the Underground, Brand Nubian/Grand Puba, Dre & Snoop, CMW, DJ Quik, Boss, Black Moon, Cube, Nas, Cypress Hill, Lords of the Underground, Fat Joe, Tribe Called Quest, Eazy-E, NWA, E-40, Celly Cel, Too Short, Ultramagnetic MCs, M.O.P., Mobb Deep, Pac, Biggie, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, ONYX:D, Naughty By Nature, WC & the Maad Circle, X-Clan, Pharcyde, Guru & Gangstarr . . . I could go on and on. All of those groups had different styles and if one didn't appeal to you, another one might. One thing they all had in common is that they didn't sound like they fed on a steady diet of lead paint chips as kids (cough! Gucci Mane cough!).

Today, it's too saturated and the choice seems limited if you're dealing with mainstream stuff. Anyone with a USB audio interface, a cracked copy of FL Studio, and the ability to string together some "A-B-C" rhymes can be a "rapper" these days. When Myspace was THE social-networking site, there was page after page of "rappers". To find a few gems among the mountains of shit could take several hours at a time.

The entertainment industry has done to rap what it's done to every other genre of music -- that is, dumb it down to make it palatable for the mass of idiots out there. They found a formula that sells records. Unfortunately, that formula requires the music to be either vapid or stupid as hell (I guess hoodrats are faithful consumers since that's what alot of it seems to appeal to).

That's just my take on it.

Oh, and Tuck, good post. Much of it does ring true from a un-biased standpoint (something I can rarely ever do when it comes to music).
 
Last edited:

Make a Contribution to Remove NSFW Ads
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top