In response to some of the comments on my last entry I’d like to clarify that I did not want to imply that Hip-Hop was dead. In fact, I believe that it is far from dead, but it is in a bit of a slump, and what’s interesting to me about that is the question: why? One thing I can point to - a problem I’ve noticed in the Hip-Hop that has been released lately - is honesty. Sorry, not just honesty, because I won’t accuse anyone of lying, but perhaps the issue is sincerity. Who can we point to in hip-hop and say: this guy/girl is sincere. I can’t think of anyone. There was a time when I could have pointed at many, but most of them have fallen off, become too popular, or simply exploited to the fullest the only subjects that they were comfortable writing about with sincerity. How sad. When I say sincerity, I’m really talking about the lyrics, not the beats, but they come hand in hand.
Hip-hop has too much gusto. There is a wall between a rapper’s lyrics and his true feelings. It’s obvious. The macho identity of the “MC” has now become a problem: there’s only so many ways to tell your listeners how dope you are, rough you are, smart you are, tough your childhood was growing up in the ghetto, high you are, etc. And then there are the independent rappers a la DefJux, Anticon, Rhymesayers, and their musical environs who used to sound different, but haven’t changed their tune over the last ten years and now sound just as diluted as the latest Mobb Deep album surely is. El-P, Mr. Lif, and the rest just don’t cut it anymore.
So what’s the problem? What is it that makes all this music suck so fucking badly? I think I have it - at least what bothers me about it: people need to grow to grow as artists. They cannot keep talking about the same stupid shit. But to be slightly more psychological about it: they can’t use the same voice. Something has to change. The reason, in my opinion, rappers lose their edge is not because at some point around their 35th birthday they stop being talented. They don’t necessarily lose their passion by reaching a certain anniversary. The problem is that they don’t adapt their artistic drive to where they are in life! New subjects, new vocabulary, new problems, new successes, and stop trying to sound dope like a 25 years old can, grow the fuck up, and sound dope like your age.
When one becomes a rapper, one must invent a persona: a pseudonym, a voice, a style, and a subject matter. But what’s sad about many rappers, and a large reason why the first album is so terrific and the second isn’t quite as good, and the third one has a few good tracks, and the fourth one is no good at all, is that the rapper feels trapped in their original invention and doesn’t grow as an artist to incorporate new elements. Thus, they lose sincerity.
It can’t all be about this macho bullshit whether it’s about ghettos, bitches, drugs (medicinal or recreational), alienation, parties, or whatever. Everyone has moments of vulnerability and of weakness, and these particular emotions are avoided like the plague. Listeners can be insecure, in love, heartbroken, and have emotions of this type, and if I ever heard a rapper really express these ideas with confidence and without cynicism, I think I’d listen to his/her music more. A wider range of expression enhances every subject under the horizon.
Let me know what you think. Leave a comment.
Next week I’m going to tie this discussion in with Indie Rock.
I think it should be interesting.
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2 comments:
I totally agree with your idea that artists have to incorporate things that matches their life as it is. Getting stuck into you own style or original work is simply industrialization. Science or marketing never killed art. Just the repeat of fixed creative patterns.
Look at Miles Davis, even in his last CD (Do Bop), after ages as the trumpet king he still has been able to see where he was heading and what was to come. (I mostly refer to the "Fantasy" track which is actually hip-hop.) Now Miles is Miles and everybody can't be genious. But getting into patterns or repetition is weak. For exemple a good share of hip-hop lyrics for me as turned into a silly sub-genre of "fat asses into cars" or "I know what hip-hop is". I don't say the lyrics are bad, I say copying those who know what to do with those lyrics is a waste of time and you can't repeat that for 15years in your life it is insane. It is possible to throw incredibly free lyrics. Take One Self for instance and "Blue Bird"; just a song about a bird in the forest. And yet it's hip-hop. Another example could be "Ur turn" by Sol.illaquists of Sound which is just a text for respect and need of women.
That's my 2 cents, and that's the end of the day.
Hey Gabe, just wanted to say that your the man and you live upto the nickname you gave yourself. Looking foreward to reading your indie rock installment.
Miller
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