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 have 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. In 'Hypnotize" he fluidly flows from
pen to persian in one of his rhymes, even though they don't look like they
would sound the same by the way they are written. He in turn makes this not only a song that
was popular in its time, but still a solid piece of work that is respected to
this day by those who listen to it for its quality because it is not some
modern day catchy tune, but a catchy tune from the past that was very strong
lyrically. In "Juicy", each
of his verses were like a river, completely fluid from start to finish. 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 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. In his first verse of "Juicy",
a song from the 90's, B.I.G. drops nine different bars, or a measure from when
one set of rhymes starts to when it ends, like "I use to read word up
magazine, Salt 'n' Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine", and doesn't
repeat one word to rhyme with the same word once. An example of these
modern day songs where repetition is abused 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 sparse. 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.
There's
also a point that the music of today is not being produced or made to the
fullest. In an article called "Why
Conscious Rap Does Not Sell", written by ProfessU, rapper Trinidad James
discusses how his music is more about the numbers on the check than the message
delivered. Going deeper into the
article, this point was proven through the lyrics of long time rap presence,
Jay-Z. The article pulls lyrics from his
song "Moment of Clarity":
"Hustlers and boosters embrace me and the music I be making,
I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars, They criticized me for it,
yet they all yell “holla”, If skills sold, Truth be told I’d probably be,
Lyrically Talib Kweli, Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense” Through his lyrics he states that he could
rap differently, but it wouldn't provide as much of a profit as if he dumbed
down his lyrics as he does now. By the
sound of it, today's music is more about money than it is quality.
Mainstream music has gone to waste over the last few years. According to
Mike Lynn, a blogger, "Mainstream
music has gone downhill and is gradually getting worse by the day" 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. They may have worded it differently through all of their views, but Mike Lynn, #10by JazzyJeff, Mike, Ken, and the others from the video agree that 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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