Illmatic rapper Nas once said “Hip Hop is dead.” This wouldn’t be a surprise, coming from one of the most lyrical MC’s the genre has had. The new age of hip hop is a lot different from what our parents and old school hip hop listeners were used to. They’ll tell you “This isn’t music” and “What happened to hip hop?” and other damaging myths about modern music. As time shifts, so does everything else. Hip hop has grabbed onto a new sound and it might be here to stay forever.
Today, music doesn’t include boom baps, jazzy hooks and not much lyricism. Music is now all about having a catchy hook that everyone can recite, get hype to, and reach the top of the charts. Trap, the hardcore 808-based music, has evolved more than ever, and it’s now becoming the new sound of hip hop. Artists like Gucci Mane, Future, 21 Savage and Young Thug are some of the forefront leaders of the trap wave. They’ve gone beyond commercial success and let’s face it, the fans love them.
One may argue that artists nowadays don’t focus on the reflected social issues that artists were mainly emphasizing in past lyrics. Modern rappers compose mere lyrics, but one thing remains the same: their using their music to express themselves. These artists do focus on the up bringing’s in urban neighborhoods, being involved in the gangster lifestyle and other issues. If you listen and compare this to the content in the 80’s and 90’s, they are very much alike, just on a different hook.
Do artists focus on being lyrical? That depends where you look. There are artists that still hold lyricism as their main ingredient in their mixture of music. Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Isaiah Rashad and Joey Bada$$ are just a few artists that focus on being lyrical while still selling forthcoming albums. If you truly believe hip hop is dead, listen to any of these artists to revive the myth.
This topic is hard to get around because of what fans have gravitated towards. If you’re focused on mainstream music, then of course you would believe that hip hop has changed. If you’re more focused on lyricism, you have to go below the surface to get the mind-boggling word plays and personality from MCs.
Long story short, hip hop is very much alive, it just sounds different from what was once the main sound of the genre. This myth can be defended depending on who you listen to. Artists aren’t as lyrical, but they do have unique metaphors and production that fans love. I wouldn’t expect hip hop to sound the same because it’s continuously growing. If it stayed the same, it would diminish the idea that hip hop is versatile and is incapable of progressing. If it were truly dead, it wouldn’t be influencing American culture like it always has, and it wouldn’t be one of the most listened to genres of music.
HCXO