Evan Clarke
10/05/09
English 1100
Informing
Is Hip Hop Dead?
In 2006, rapper Nas (Nasir Jones), a hip-hop legend, released an
album entitled, “Hip Hop Is Dead”. Since then an argument has sparked around the
hip-hop community. Is Hip Hop Dead? Is Hip Hop Dying? Most rappers will give you
different answers but if you ask me, I would say without a doubt, Hip Hop is a dying
art. What once was a genre of music based off of lyricism, culture, street life and
politics has turned into a genre only concerned with money, cars and clothes.
Instead of hearing metaphorically based raps, we hear raps based off of a weaker
tone. Hip-hop has died because it has grown away from its roots of lyricism and
rhyming. What used to be a hardcore, beautiful art has now turned into a soft,
commercialized business. Everything in the music industry from the radio to the big
business executives shares the blame for hip-hop’s death. Lack of true lyrical and
rhyming content, the music industry, the hip hop industry and the artists are all to
blame for the demise of hip hop. If I had to some up what the rap game is today, I
would quote Nas of his “Hip Hop is Dead” album. “Everyone’s a rapper but few flow
fatal, its fucked up, it all started from two turntables.” Hip hop has been slayed by
the music executives, radio, by new rappers focused more on making money rather
than the lyrical content and by hip hop’s general audience.
For the longest time when someone referred to Hip Hop, it was thought of as
more than just a genre of music. It was viewed as a lifestyle, a culture and an art.
Lyricism, rhyming and story telling where all key elements to rap which cannot be
found in today’s version of hip-hop. I am almost hesitant to call what most people
call rap today, hip-hop. Since the early twenty-first century, Hip Hop has taken a
turn for the worst. The biggest attribute that is missing from hip-hop is lyricism.
Lyricism is a way expressing your views, thoughts, and opinions on anything
through writing creative, well-thought lyrics. When rap first started out in the early
80’s, there was an important emphasis on lyricism. Lyricism existed in a time when
lyrics to a song, actually meant something. Rhyming and story telling are both parts
of lyricism that either do not exist or are very limited in hip hop today. Rhyming is
still used today in rap, but in a less intellectual way. Instead of making a complex
rhyme, rappers today would rather rhyme two of the same words to make it sound
better. Lyrics of today’s rappers have been called “less complex” because of their
lack of meaning. In today’s hip-hop, rappers have been criticized for rapping about
the same thing over and over again. And there lies the problem. There is no
creativity in lyrics anymore. In April of 2009, a group called the “New Boyz” released
the song “You’re a Jerk.” This song has one auto-tuned voice singing the words
‘you’re a jerk’ throughout the entire song. Despite this songs lack of lyrics, it can be
heard on the radio daily and went on to be # 4 on the U.S. Billboard. Every rapper is
rapping about their money, cars or clothes. However, because we live in a time
where these things sell, people have bought into these less complex lyrics. The death
of lyricism in rap can be linked directly to the death of hip-hop. Where has lyricism
gone? Ask the rappers out today. Hip-hop has not died because lyricism has
disappeared in rap, but because rappers today choose to simplify their lyrics to
amplify their profits.
It might sound strange to say that the music industry has killed the hip-hop
industry but it is true. Hip-hop is not meant for commercialism. Its something that
started out in the late 80’s that became a way for young African American teens to
escape the every day dangers of living on the streets. It is not exactly something you
would expect your fourteen-year-old son or daughter to be listening to. However
that is the case we are presented with today. The music industry has taken hip-hop
and turned it into a pop style, high profit music industry. They have done this by
influencing artists to make more commercial hits so they can be played on the radio.
The more singles an artist puts out, the more profit the industry will bring in. Hip
Hop is the music industry’s biggest profit because of all the videos, ringtones and
albums it sells. After noticing how much profit can be made off of rap, music
executives have tried as hard as they can to make rap even more commercial so they
can sell and expand to more people. But what parent of a fourteen-year-old kid
wants to hear their kid listening to lyrics that can contain violent and profanity filled
imagery? This is why the music executives have tried to commercialize hip-hop
more and more. Rapping about your life on the streets, which includes drug dealing,
shootouts and murder is not exactly age appropriate. So how do you sell this to kids
without it being so violent and aggressive? You do what the music industry did to
hip-hop. They began giving radio airtime to rappers who replaced their lyrics about
murder and street life to lyrics about money, cars and clothes. However, lyrics about
money, cars and clothes still keep the ‘gangster’ persona to the regular rap fan. This
ends up selling more and more to the targeted audience. Instead of lyrically created
stories, we are now forced to hear the same thing from different rappers. So because
of the music executives forcing hip hop to turn into something its not, the death of
hip-hop seems reasonable. Executives have turned what used to be a unique culture
based genre of music into a pop style of music that has lost its street-ghetto essence.
While the music industry has played a big role in Hip-hop’s death, the radio
executives and network producers are just as much to blame. If you turn on the
radio today, all you hear is the same songs repeating over and over and over again.
The majority of their audience today notices rappers when their new ‘hit’ songs hit
the airway on the radio. Radio executives want to keep their listeners tuned in so
they play the most mainstream popular songs that are labeled as rap. These
‘ringtone’ rappers usually have few lyrical skills and most of their songs are very
repetitive. However, these are the types of songs that our society listens to, simply
because it is all the radio plays. Like the songs and lyrics these new rappers put out,
the radio has no creativity or originality. They simply play what the mainstream
audience wants to hear. Regardless of the lyrical content or meaning of the songs,
mainstream hip-hop that is played on the radio is not viewed as a dangerous style of
music like real hip-hop was. However the most played songs on the radio such as
“Wasted” by Gucci Mane have lyrics about obsessive drinking and lyrics that put
down women. Yet, mainstream hip-hop is not being attacked by parents or adults
for its obsessions over drinking and women. So is rapping about living on the
streets, not knowing if you will be alive tomorrow because of shootouts and drug
dealing, really worse than rappers rapping about drinking till they pass out or
describing a women in a very insulting way. The radio views hip hop as a dangerous,
violent type of music that should not be played on airways across the country.
Instead, they play songs that talk about drinking, sex and women. These songs
usually put down women or demoralize them. Radio executives are just as
responsible for hip-hop’s death as is the music industry. The lack of creativity and
originality on the radio has lead to hip hop being very original and mainstream.
The lack of lyrical content, the music industry and the radio are all to blame
for hip-hop’s sudden turn to commercialism and death. But in the end, you cannot
help but point the finger at the listeners of rap music for its own death. The radio
plays the most popular songs over and over again because we, the listener, have
gave into less lyrical, intellectual and original hip hop. Music executives sell these
artists, albums and ringtones to the listener because it is what we want. I am not
able to explain why my generation would rather listen to a less intellectual form of
music rather than an inspirational, intelligent and exciting form of music. We can
say it is because its what the music industry is telling us to listen to, but in the end
we decide what we listen to. This presents a problem to our society. Why is it that
society today rather lean with the crown instead of marching to its own beat? It is
because hip-hop today is viewed as an entertainment instead of a type of art. We,
the listeners, are more obsessed with the rapper than the rap. In an interview Nas
went on to say, “ I can’t sound smart ‘cause y’all will run away.” Nas obviously feels
that the only type of music that can be successful financially cannot sound too smart,
or else it wont sell. Are we afraid of listening to intellectual music or are we just
more drawn toward the flashy, commercialized music? Regardless, hip-hop needs
the fans of all types of rap to start appreciating true lyrical content.
Hip-hop to most people is viewed as a genre of music. What most people do
not know is that hip-hop is a lifestyle and rapping is apart of that lifestyle. This
concept seems to be absent in most rappers today. Hip-hop has been killed,
murdered and slayed by the music executives, the music industry, radio and by raps
very own audience. By not appreciating the real origin of Hip-Hop, commercialism
has taken over hip-hop and turned it into something it is not; a profit hungry,
mainstream industry. The culture of hip-hop has been killed by the music industries
non-stop desire to make a profit by any means. If this means decreasing the lyrical
content so rap can sell more, so be it. Music executives and listeners do not care that
a thirty-year-old culture has been murdered by the single goal to make money. If we,
the listener, could learn to appreciate an artist’s lyrical genius, then hip-hop will be
revived. But until music executives leave rap alone, hip-hop will never return to its
glory as it was in the 1990’s. Off a track on his Hip Hop is Dead album; Nas sums up
the rap game as it is today. He raps, “ Everybody sounds the same, commercialize
the game/Reminiscin’ when it wasn’t all business/They forgot where is started/ So
we all gather here for the dearly departed.” These lyrics sum up the problems in hiphop in about three lines. Hip-hop has lost its street ghetto essence while turning into
a commercialized, profit- filled business.