As a black youth in america, you typically either start listening to popular hip hop and or R&B as a teenager as you begin to explore your identity. This identity encompasses everything from the way we dress, to the way we talk, and to the music that we listen to.
Throughout the years, there has always been some of us that listen to alternative forms of music and gravitate to alternative forms of art. This has come to be the description of the term, “black counter culture.” In the 90’s A Tribe Called Quest (Hip Hop Group) and Bad Brains (Punk Rock band) fit that description & in the early 2000’s, Pharrell began to influence people in my generation to be different. Due to people like Pharrell, black artists/groups such as Odd Future, Toro y Moi, A$AP Mob, and Travis Scott are able to thrive in black counter culture.
In 2010, N.E.R.D. (Pharrell’s Pop band with Neptunes production partner Chad & bandmate Shay) released their latest album, “Nothing” and with this, it could be said that Pharrell passed the torch to the new generation. With the the advent of Tumblr, a new breed of black artists came out of late 2009 and early 2010. These artists include Odd Future, Toro y Moi, A$AP Mob, and Travis Scott as mentioned previously.
Odd Future was a hip hop group that took influence from punk rock, trap, and 90’s hip hop to make a new sound. A$AP mob took the styles of 90’s houston hip hop, Bone Thugs n Harmony, and classic New York hip hop to make a style of hip hop fashion and music that was never seen before. Toro y Moi is said to be one of the pioneers of the chillwave genre, a genre characterized by it’s 80’s pastiche and luxurious reverb. I believe that this is the natural cycle of black creativity within pop culture. When a sound, idea, or style leaves black counter culture, it enters pop culture and a new generation begins.
Every generation of black youth will have artists that are an alternative to the norm. Most recently, “Soundcloud rappers” have become the new wave but it is important to not discount them and their achievements. Chance the Rapper is an artist who was once solely on on soundcloud and mixtape websites and he just signed a multi-million dollar deal with Apple to release his project on their streaming service. In addition to this, he is a Grammy award winning artist.