Posted on 12/31/2007 1:01:31 PM PST by TheDoctorNoh
If you’re looking for a two-word motto for hip-hop in 2007, you could do worse than that: “Keep grinding.” This was the year when the gleaming hip-hop machine — the one that minted a long string of big-name stars, from Snoop Dogg to OutKast — finally broke down, leaving rappers no alternative but to work harder, and for fewer rewards. Newcomers arrived with big singles and bigger hopes, only to fall off the charts after selling a few hundred thousand copies, if that. Hip-pop hybrids dominated the radio, but rappers themselves seemed like underground figures, for the first time in nearly two decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I wouldn't bury it just yet.
Oh, wait, they did shut down Napster, didn’t they? And shockingly, music sales fell.
Two decades for a music style is an incredibly long run, longer than expected.
word
Hiphop is suffering from a surplus of product.
Too many MCs are spitting the same derivative lyrics and too many producers are replicating that same Neptunes/Timbaland sound.
But the underground is getting stronger and more diverse: you can't confuse Ohmega Watts with Buckshot and you can't confuse 9th Wonder and The Alchemist.
There are tight records out there, you just have to look.
The one hit wonders are dying on the vine and the dinosaurs who can't keep their work fresh are fading.
That's a good thing.
If 50 Cent releases his 15th album in 2027 and is still rhyming about hustling marks for cream, then hiphop will be a museum piece like rock and roll.
Actually the first hiphop hit single was in October 1979, so hiphop will be turning 29 in 2008.
pinging you
Correct, it’s 2 reasons:
1) illegal file sharing. With the advent of bit torrent and safepeer/peer guardian, DLing from Pirate Bay is a breeze.
2) the same ole lyrics about ho’s and life in the projects. back in the 90’s I listened to Snoop and Dre, and heard their stories about the hood. Nowadays, it’s the same old stories I heard 10 years ago. I am hood’d out. yo.
But to be fair, even rock bands nowadays suck. Coldplay? Sorry, Im not gay.
True - but there is a whole universe of MCs whose lyrics are not focused on those topics.
They are waiting around the corner.
Tru dat.
As more and more people finally realize that rap sux...
Yeah, the music sucks now. I like the stuff from the 90s and 80s the best.
“TheDoctorNoh wrote:
Time to get out the 9mm and pistol whip some fools into buying mo’ records, yo. “
-—— That was a good one :)
The best rap was in the 80’s IMO:
Too $hort, Easy E, NWA, Paris, Dr.Dre, and more, I loved the hard core unique rap they offered and I still listen to 22 years later.... :) Most new rap is basically a bunch of guys singing like girls.
I turned out ok for a rap lover from the 80s.
I wonder if the popularity of the X-Box game “Guitar Hero” might be a nail in the coffin for rap here. Think of it: hundreds of thousands of teens getting possibly their first introduction to something resembling musicianship.
“I turned out ok for a rap lover from the 80s.”
You want a 2nd opinion?
I miss Tone Loc.
Rock isn’t dead, the industry has shunned talent for poster idols for decades.
Some said that hip hop is the new rock music, but that’s like saying that rock and roll was and is the “new” jazz. They are different beasts.
There is a surplus because no one is buying what the industry is pumping. Rather than follow the trends, the industry wants to dictate them and that only sells for so long.
Maybe and maybe not. Do they buy soundtrack albums for other video games?
And there have been many articles written that unfortunately playing the guitar in that game does not translate to playing or even wanting to play a real guitar.
It’ll take another Elvis or Beatles getting girls to go wild for millions of young guys to pick up guitars again to get a little of that action (attention, not money)themselves.
The subject of most every hip hop song is the same. Ego.
“I’m great I’m great I’m great”
“I gots the money, I gots the ho’s, I gots the guns, I gots the weed.”
“I’m going to the club and getting some because my **** is so big”
“me me me”
And when it ain’t all that, it’s “you suck you suck you suck, but not me”. The whole “snaps” insult thing. To boost the rapper’s ego.
That’s the whole of it in a nutshell.
A bit of personal perspective: I coached in the High School ranks for about 12 years; and hadn't done so now for about 8 years. When I started coaching, you would still see and hear the kids talk about so and so having a "garage band". Over time, that all went away (correlating it seemed with the rise of boy-bands and rap getting more play on MTV).
I just wonder now if someone may get the itch to go and "do something" again given that a lot of these kids are hearing and "playing" "Carry on my wayward son" by Kansas for the 1st time. (maybe not be best example, but you know what I mean)
The subject of most every rock song is the same.
"I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love"
"I'm sad my baby left me I'm sad"
"I'm gonna party tonight"
"Me me me"
"And when it ain’t all that, it’s “I hate other people for being so materialistic unlike my authentic self”. The whole "pure artist" head trip thing. To boost the rocker's ego.
That's the whole of it in a nutshell.
**** N.B. Despite weegee's pat analysis and my stinging parody of weegee's pat analysis, both hip hop and rock are far more complex and variegated than described above ****
The subject of most every rock song is the same.
“I’m in love I’m in love I’m in love”
“I’m sad my baby left me I’m sad”
“I’m gonna party tonight”
“Me me me”
Surfin’ Bird
Walk Don’t Run
Foxy Lady
Blitzkrieg Bop
Lust For Life
Hanging On The Telephone
Smoking In The Boys Room
it just isn’t so what you say.
Hip “can” be something more, but on the whole its about the gangsta pose and frontin’ a bad boy lifestyle.
It is very adolescent.
(2) You describe hip hop as "adolescent."
(3) You name the following rock titles as not related to the love themes that comprise 90+% of rock lyrics.
Let's look:
Surfin’ Bird
Essentially nonsense lyrics to dress up an instrumental track.
Walk Don’t Run
As I recall, an instrumental track by the Ventures. There are plenty of instrumental hip hop tracks and albums.
Foxy Lady
A love song. Specifically a song in which the protagonist rhapsodizes about how sexy his lady love is and how she has got to be all his.
Blitzkrieg Bop
Inasmuch as the lyrics have a coherent meaning, it appears to be about driving around fast while blasting music. Not about love, but not particularly sophisticated - quite 'adolescent" in fact.
Lust For Life
A song about being tempted into restarting a drug addiction. Not particularly lyrically complex, either.
Hanging On The Telephone
A love song of just the kind I was describing earlier.
Smoking In The Boys Room
A profoundly adolescent song about just what the title says.
I could come up with a much better list of rock songs that are not about love, are not instrumental and are not adolescent: Joey, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Old Old Woodstock, The Red Telephone, Won't Get Fooled Again, Sympathy For The Devil, Here Come The People In Grey.
And I can come up with plenty of hip hop tracks that do not dwell on the themes of self-adulation, gunplay, drugdealing or pimping: Can I Kick It?, Potholes On My Lawn, A Friendly Game Of Baseball, Rock Dis Funky Joint, I Used To Love H.E.R., Ghettoes Of The Mind, Soul Clap, Inner City Boundaries, Dreamchaser, Dial 7, etc.
Surfin Bird was actually largely a cover/medley of two songs by the black vocal group The Rivingtons: The Bird Is The Word and Pappa Oom Mow Mow.
There never was an “instrumental track” to dress up.
Rock is dumb. There I said it. It isn’t more “art” than pop art. But it is our nation’s cultural identity.
It is very short sited to say that rock is about “love” into the 90 percentile.
Rap is even in the admission of Chuck D spoken word over a beat (which goes back to old country acts, “Smoke that cigarette”...). Without the word, there is no rap.
The loop track is “what”. Not about a lot of anything. Just a dance groove. Same as a “surf” instrumental by a landlocked band (and there were scores of them).
Foxy Lady isn’t about “me me me” which is what you said above. This is getting ridiculous now that the shift is from ego. You’ll need to name the hit hip hop songs that are NOT about ego. Everything I hear blaring from a speaker or on tv is all ‘bout it. “Let’s get this party started now that I’M here...”. “Can’t touch this”. Where would I have heard the hit tracks you cite as not being about ego?
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” doesn’t rock and roll. Put it out to pasture. Sing it in a CW bar.
Hip Hop was invented in America by Americans too.
Without the word, there is no rap.
But there is the hip hop instrumental.
The loop track is “what”. Not about a lot of anything. Just a dance groove.
I suppose a Chopin waltz is just a "dance groove" too. Not all hip hop beats are "loops" - fewer and fewer are, actually. One of the best-selling and most-respected "underground" hip hop acts are The Roots, who use live instrumentation. As does the Boot Camp Clik.
And there are plenty of well-loved instrumental hip hop albums like DJ Shadow's Endtroducing . . . and Madlib's Beat Konducta and J Dilla's Donuts.
The Beastie Boys' latest album, The Mix-Up is an instrumental hip hop album.
Foxy Lady isn’t about “me me me” which is what you said above.
No, it is about being love, which is what I also said above.
And saying that a woman "has got to be all mine" is a healthy display of egotism to boot.
“Can’t touch this”.
LOL! That was a hit about 15 years ago.
Where would I have heard the hit tracks you cite as not being about ego?
Urban radio stations.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” doesn’t rock and roll. Put it out to pasture. Sing it in a CW bar.
If The Band don't qualify as rock because they are too C&W, then MC Hammer doesn't count as hip hop because he was too dance pop.
>>Correct, it’s 2 reasons:
1) illegal file sharing. With the advent of bit torrent and safepeer/peer guardian, DLing from Pirate Bay is a breeze.
2) the same ole lyrics about ho’s and life in the projects. back in the 90’s I listened to Snoop and Dre, and heard their stories about the hood. Nowadays, it’s the same old stories I heard 10 years ago. I am hood’d out. yo.<<
The restrictions on speech have also taken the edge off Hip Hop.
I did see this interview yesterday (in print, here's the online edition) with a young clean articulate hip hopper, he should run for VP if only he lives to be 35...
Trae - Houston's "King of the Streets" doesn't mince words
He's the self-identified "king of the streets", cousin to the self-identified "king of the ghetto". But it's not about ego.
The Rolling Stones are a rock band but they’ll tell you that Dead Flowers is a country song.
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