Music Banter - View Single Post - Why is modern Hip-Hop music, aswell as mainstream pop so hated by people?

shelly167 · 04-12-2015, 01:21 PM

I think people are particularly critical about the "downfall" of hip hop because its a relatively young genre and frankly the disintegration is its quality and meaning is easier to trace than with other musical forms. I don't think that's because rappers are less talented from other musicians, but due to another factor, which makes producing quality rap harder than producing passable material in other genres. Allow me to explain:

Rap in its traditional form is dependent on quality lyrics which tell a story about the realities of life in the neighbourhoods that first spawned the hip hop movement. Or it requires rappers to have a unique talent for writing incisive lyrics about broader social and political realities. The problem is that creating great rap requires a connection with reality that other genres, such as rocknroll or pop, don't necessarily demand. In fact, many rock artists have produced great music by positively de-connecting with the world or discussing this very subject (e.g. think about the hundreds of rock songs that are about taking hallucinatory drugs...). In contrast, rappers need to retain a connection with the realities of life where they came from and, well, rap about them with some rawness and flair. Rap producers/song writers need that same connection with the streets and plain simple real life. The issue is they don't. That's the difference between the era of artists like Tupac and the present day, dominated by artists like Kanye West. Tupac's music retained its brilliance because he retained his connection with the tough life of his past. It ultimately cost him his life, of course. Kanye is an artist who may have had equal natural ability to Tupac in the rap stakes in theory but quickly lost touch with the real world. That is reflected in the quality of his lyrics, which have been pretty poor since the release of his first, moderately good, album.

04-12-2015, 01:21 PM	#110 (permalink)
shelly167 Groupie Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 15	I think people are particularly critical about the "downfall" of hip hop because its a relatively young genre and frankly the disintegration is its quality and meaning is easier to trace than with other musical forms. I don't think that's because rappers are less talented from other musicians, but due to another factor, which makes producing quality rap harder than producing passable material in other genres. Allow me to explain: Rap in its traditional form is dependent on quality lyrics which tell a story about the realities of life in the neighbourhoods that first spawned the hip hop movement. Or it requires rappers to have a unique talent for writing incisive lyrics about broader social and political realities. The problem is that creating great rap requires a connection with reality that other genres, such as rocknroll or pop, don't necessarily demand. In fact, many rock artists have produced great music by positively de-connecting with the world or discussing this very subject (e.g. think about the hundreds of rock songs that are about taking hallucinatory drugs...). In contrast, rappers need to retain a connection with the realities of life where they came from and, well, rap about them with some rawness and flair. Rap producers/song writers need that same connection with the streets and plain simple real life. The issue is they don't. That's the difference between the era of artists like Tupac and the present day, dominated by artists like Kanye West. Tupac's music retained its brilliance because he retained his connection with the tough life of his past. It ultimately cost him his life, of course. Kanye is an artist who may have had equal natural ability to Tupac in the rap stakes in theory but quickly lost touch with the real world. That is reflected in the quality of his lyrics, which have been pretty poor since the release of his first, moderately good, album.