HIP HOP IS DEAD??

Murs (The Biggest Lie) wrote:

The problem with hiphop? ...**** nothing at all
it's an artform that ranges and it changes it evolves
it's not always for the better, but patient with it ya'll
for our time will come and the wicked will fall.

Sorry lads, but i hate to break it you - Hip-Hop ain't dead.

I'm getting sick of this Hip-hop is ****e movement thats going on these days. Sure, there is a lot of crap being played on the radio these, but radio has always played crap. There is still an abundance of quality, talent and originality in the rap game, you just have to look a little further than MTV to discover it.

Even back in your so called golden age, most of what was played on radio was garbage, and it the real quality was still in the underground. Even back in the days of Amerikkka's Most, Ice Cube was telling us to turn off the radio.

Two of the most acclaimed albums from the mid-90s, illmatic and reasonable doubt, were commercially unsuccessful at the time, and got no radio love. And for all its commercial acclaim, reasonable doubt had one of the worst songs of all time in Ain't No Nigga, which was an outrageously bad sell out attempt.

I will admit that unfortuantely, in the last few years, the mainstream is trending further and further away from lyricism, creativity and originality than ever before, but the mainstream has never been representative of what hip-hop was all about.

Back in the day, the fact that MC Hammer was selling millions of records didn't detract in anyway from the talents of people like KRS-One or PE, so why should soulja boy be entitled to lessen the quality work of today's artists.

i have been listening to hip-hop for almost 10 years now, and i can honestly say that the last 12 months has been one of the best periods i have seen in terms of the music thats being produced. I won't even go into them now, but check out the hip-hop 2009 thread and listen to some real hip-hop before you go dismissing an entire genre and culture based on whatever new trend spin 1038 are jumping on this week

Iamcharlie wrote: »

Most of you are all old heads, no offense but times change.
Drizzy Drake, Kid Cudi & Asher Roth run the new Hip-Hop era.

As for Ireland goes, there is no Hip Hop in Ireland. Lmao.

Im 18, doesn't matter what age you are i think anyone who listens to hip hop beyond the stuff thats played on the radio realises that drake and asher roth arent the new hip op era, their are alot more artists coming through, some doing traditional hip hop and others are going experimental.

And saying their is o hip hop in ireland is just ignorance, just because you don't hear it on the radio doesn't mean it isn't out there.

I thought you might of being trying to make some point with that link, so i tried to listen.

I got to 40 seconds. Could you just explain your point, save us all 5 mins of our lives that we won't get back?

Nolanger wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/nov/26/notes-noughties-hip-hop

Just came in here to post a link to this! Wicked, wicked wicked article (but then I'm a complete Simon Reynolds fanboy)

Anyone have any views on it?

Yea, it was a well written piece, and while it appears to make some good points, it doesn't really stand up to further scrutiny.

While it was nice to see that somebody finally acknowledge the existence of "the underground" in one of these articles (although then fail to deal with the issues in any meaningful way, or explore its contribution to hip-hop with any reference to some actual "underground" artists or music), i think that ultimately, like all the similar rants that pop up on an a regular basis, is that they seem to be predicated on analysis of hip-hop made in a vacumn, without appreciating how this issue ties into wider trends in society.

For all the arguments about hip-hop becoming overly mainstream, unoriginal, uninventive, dumbed down and uninspiring, people don't seem to realise that this is merely symptomatic of modern society in general. for the masses, its about disposal celebrity, mass produced and easily digestible celebrity, propogated by mtv, vh1, itv, tv3, sky etc. obviously, the mainstream of hip-hop has been affected by this and caught onto this trend, which is unsurprising, given hip-hop was materialistic and brash long before materialistic and brash was in fashion.

But, you can make the same accusations about most genres of music, film and tv theses day. the consumer masses don't want innovative, boundary pushing arts, they want mass produced, easily digested, wifi enabled "brands". i'm mean, kings of leon and green day are probably the biggest bands in the world right now - i'm not that into rock, but they're not exactly pushing boundaries themselves, are they? the fact that u2 can still sell a couple million copies of the same album repackaged differently every 3 or 4 years, shows that this problem isn't one affecting hip-hop alone, its most mainstream genres of music.

But who cares? Mainstream is mainstream. If you buy into it, good for you, lap that **** up. if not, there's still loads of quality product out there. 2009 has been a great year for good quality hip-hop, i can't keep up with all the releases, and they're still coming.

Also, lastly, but by no means least, despite his apparent claims to the contrary, as with most hip-hop is dead articles written for non "urban" audiences, this guy didn't really ever give the impression that had actually managed to listen to a hip-hop record outside of the trl top whatever countdown.

I mean, i'm sure if rolling stone gave me a shot, i could write an equally scathing article on rock, or do a similar job on dance music in a dance mag based off a couple of hours listening to spin 1038.

He addresses the underground, yet not one mention of a 00's underground artist? his entire article seems to be predicated off what's being played on radio. yet radio trends has never been the real barometer that hip-hop has been judged by.

So essentially, the same old recycled rubbish. when a hip-hop journalist/fan writes one of these, get at me. until somebody can explain how hip-hop is dead when wu-tang is forever, i ain't buying that ****!

(Incidentally, god damn, even u-god is putting out good records these days! hip-hop is dead my ass!)

floggg wrote: »

Yea, it was a well written piece, and while it appears to make some good points, it doesn't really stand up to further scrutiny.

While it was nice to see that somebody finally acknowledge the existence of "the underground" in one of these articles (although then fail to deal with the issues in any meaningful way, or explore its contribution to hip-hop with any reference to some actual "underground" artists or music), i think that ultimately, like all the similar rants that pop up on an a regular basis, is that they seem to be predicated on analysis of hip-hop made in a vacumn, without appreciating how this issue ties into wider trends in society.

For all the arguments about hip-hop becoming overly mainstream, unoriginal, uninventive, dumbed down and uninspiring, people don't seem to realise that this is merely symptomatic of modern society in general. for the masses, its about disposal celebrity, mass produced and easily digestible celebrity, propogated by mtv, vh1, itv, tv3, sky etc. obviously, the mainstream of hip-hop has been affected by this and caught onto this trend, which is unsurprising, given hip-hop was materialistic and brash long before materialistic and brash was in fashion.

But, you can make the same accusations about most genres of music, film and tv theses day. the consumer masses don't want innovative, boundary pushing arts, they want mass produced, easily digested, wifi enabled "brands". i'm mean, kings of leon and green day are probably the biggest bands in the world right now - i'm not that into rock, but they're not exactly pushing boundaries themselves, are they? the fact that u2 can still sell a couple million copies of the same album repackaged differently every 3 or 4 years, shows that this problem isn't one affecting hip-hop alone, its most mainstream genres of music.

But who cares? Mainstream is mainstream. If you buy into it, good for you, lap that **** up. if not, there's still loads of quality product out there. 2009 has been a great year for good quality hip-hop, i can't keep up with all the releases, and they're still coming.

Also, lastly, but by no means least, despite his apparent claims to the contrary, as with most hip-hop is dead articles written for non "urban" audiences, this guy didn't really ever give the impression that had actually managed to listen to a hip-hop record outside of the trl top whatever countdown.

I mean, i'm sure if rolling stone gave me a shot, i could write an equally scathing article on rock, or do a similar job on dance music in a dance mag based off a couple of hours listening to spin 1038.

He addresses the underground, yet not one mention of a 00's underground artist? his entire article seems to be predicated off what's being played on radio. yet radio trends has never been the real barometer that hip-hop has been judged by.

So essentially, the same old recycled rubbish. when a hip-hop journalist/fan writes one of these, get at me. until somebody can explain how hip-hop is dead when wu-tang is forever, i ain't buying that ****!

(Incidentally, god damn, even u-god is putting out good records these days! hip-hop is dead my ass!)

Preech brother! Could not have said it better myself. Most of these articles claiming hip hop is dead will usually fail to mention underground artists, I do agree with what the article says about mainstream hip hop, but im sure alot of heads would too.

As a previous poster said, back when Kool G Rap, KRS 1 and Rakim were lashing out records, MC Hammer was the more popular artist so when has mainstream hip hop ever been a true representation of what hip hop was about?? Same goes for most genres of music.