Music plays a huge role
in society today. It's the music in
movie soundtracks that sets the mood for scenes, the sounds you hear throughout
sporting events, and what you hear blasting from car stereos, ipods, and iphones
everywhere you go. Even though the
technology was a little different at its birth, rap and hip-hop music has
always been this way. However, something
has changed within the last decade that has in many people's view crippled
these forms of music from what made them great in the first place: Lyrical
power and quality. Many people prefer to
listen to the older generations of mainstream music than today's because of
reasons such as these, and it's a damn shame.
The lyrical power and
quality of most mainstream Hip-Hop/Rap music today is weak in comparison to
that of the 90’s and early 2000’s because not as much time or thought is put
into each song.
Back in the 90's, also
considered "The Golden Era" of hip-hop, many great artists and groups
began to flood mainstream music. These artists
would later become inspirations to the mainstream artists of today. According to HIpHopTop10s.com, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, and Outkast were
some of the strongest groups in hip-hop and rap at the time, as well as
immortalized artists such as Biggie Smalls and 2pac, who will forever be
remembered in the industry. What made
these artists great however, was their quality of music and lyrical
prowess. Their songs were not
compilations of catchy one liners but filled with an abundance of smooth flows
and impeccable word-play. Biggie Smalls
"Hypnotize" and "Juicy" were both lyrical master pieces in
many people's eyes. The lyrical skill
put into both of those tracks, as well as the quality of the music itself was
what made those songs so great.
The mainstream music of today is alright at times, but in
most cases garbage. Artists such as
Drake are respectable for a handful of songs, but he also contributes to the
vast majority of artists today who make their music of catchy one liners and
acronyms. He is one of the few today
that could excel lyrically, but he chooses to produce music and short quotes
that are honestly over quoted on a daily basis.
But hey, YOLO right? Other
artists out today that contribute to this mainstream massacre, or take over are
sort of over hyped. 2 Chainz is another
one of those artists who in songs played on the radio today isn't that powerful
or talented lyrically, but he can definitely make a catchy line to be used in
multiple occasions. You might notice it
some time, a fine female walks down the hall and you might catch a guy break
out a couple seconds later like "Look back at, whoa! Look back at it, whoa!" Or maybe out of the blue you'll hear
something along the lines of "She got a big booty, so I call her big booty". Its lines like these that fill the air waves
and are in my opinion as well as others not that interesting or complex. A fifth grader could come up with half these
lines, that's how simple mainstream songs are becoming as far as some lyrics
are concerned. Artists like Future, who
has a song like "Honest" isn't showing much variety in this
mainstream hit. Variety meaning rhyming
a word with something other than the same word is not displayed here. He ends just about every line with "I'm
just being honest", and in all honestly, no pun intended, it doesn't show
much time or thought put in, which is what looks like is happening to most of
mainstream music today.
Quality and lyrical skill is what truly makes a great
song. As the years have passed however
quality has started to disappear. Where
a good song in the 90's had a wide variety of rhymes for every verse, a good
song today repeats the same word or phrase repeatedly over the course of a
verse or a whole song. Examples of these
songs are "Versace" where Drake repeats the same word 5 times for a
line, and that same word is repeated throughout the chorus not even half a
minute later 18 times. It may be catchy
to some, but as far as quality goes it does show too much. There is also the matter of songs like
"Honest" by Future, who's word choice for each rhyme is always the
same. Songs like these today are
overplayed on radio stations and don't hold a candle to the music produced a
decade and a half ago.
Now some may say that the music of today far exceeds the
music of the past generations. They
might claim that Biggie and Pac were dope, but Lil’ Wayne, Drake, and Tyga are
the best in the game today, overlooking artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Big
K.R.I.T. or Joey Badass. Unfortunately,
these claims come from a lot of middle school and high school kids who find
little interest in music produced a decade and a half ago. Upon hours of tedious searching, I could not find
one site or source the backed these claims.
Even searching “Modern day Mainstream is great” led me to forums and
conversational threads where just about everyone bashed modern day hip hop and
rap, referring to it as garbage and similar terms. A post on a forum, known as GiantBomb.com
shares my thoughts exactly. The post, #10by JazzyJeff states “There’s some good stuff, but it’s mostly garbage. Kind of
a shame…”
This
video shows a number of different views and takes on how lyricism is or isn't
making a comeback into modern music, and how artist such as Lil Wayne and Rick
Ross are not the same lyrically as artists such as Kendrick Lamar or Big
K.R.I.T. In the “mainstream bucket” as
they mentioned, lyricism is sparce. They
also noted that big mainstream artists like Lil’ Wayne and Rick Ross are not as
high on lyricism as people like Kendrick and K.R.I.T. are. What was stated and has been noted through
this paper, was that what’s big in mainstream music and what captures a lot of
attention today are hot beats, not so much what’s said or put forth in the
lyrical aspect. This justifies how when
I said that the quality of music today is not as solid as what was made in the “Golden
Era” of rap and hip-hop music. They also
noted that other artists today like Chief Keef are not as strong lyrically as a
Big K.R.I.T. because they did not study or fashion their style of music after
older generation rapper like Dr. Dre and Bun B.
Both of these artists are also from the 90’s, verifying that quality
wise and lyrically, the 90’s and early 2000’s were stronger in mainstream
music.
Mainstream music has gone to waste over the last few
years. Many have noticed that, and a
decent sized group has not. Quality of
music is just as important as how catchy it is.
This generation however bypasses the aspect of quality, and as
consumers, only look for the freshest beat that catches their attention and a
line or phrase that they can over use and pull out in any situation as stated
with the 2 Chainz reference earlier. There
isn’t much quality in music if all you’re saying is “Versace, Versace, Versace,
Versace, Versace” to make part of a verse, or ending every couple of words in
each verse with “I’m just being honest”.
There just isn’t as much thought of power behind most of the lyrics in
the music that’s been produced the last few years. The lyrical power and quality of most
mainstream Hip-Hop/Rap music today is weak in comparison to that of the 90’s
and early 2000’s because not as much time or thought is put into each song.
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