The Decline of Rap

[Guest ant_7000]

Mainstream rap is the mostly about materialistic things and push trends to kids and young adults. There still good rap out its in a slump it happened before so we'll get over it and happens in every genre in music. When did Snoop rap about being broke? Anyway, I think radio is force feeding listeners to this materialistic rap to make money and push trends and styles, when everybody else are saying lets move on to something else.

Eminem was the first white boy make it happen (Beaties are rap but they don't count) so every exec is looking for the next great white hope emcee, And only one came out Bubba Sparxx he isn't bad but some his raps are kinda boring and his Non Confirmist attitude is turing some people off. I also think rap's problem is that cat's get in the game to get a check instead of doing it out of love and then thinking about the money, because that shit be pissing me off when I read magazines and read cats just do it for a check and when they fall off instead of trying to better at it they will quit.

[Guest Cataclysm911]

As time goes on, kids get dumber in general, so the music has to get worse to compensate for the loss of average intelligence.

 

Of course, that is backwards logic, as you would think that the average intelligence would increase over time.. which it does, in adults.

 

Kids suck.

[Guest jtronx]

This is slightly off-topic, but I had a DJ gig last night at a hip-hop night, and I played...

 

Pharoahe Monche

ODB

Cannibal Ox

Dead Prez

Kevin Blechdom

Kid 606

Princess Superstar (I'm a bad babysitter, got my boyfriend in the shower...)

Kool Keith

Tribe Called Quest

Serge Gainsbourg

Sonof

House of Pain (the Pete Rock remix of 'Jump Around')

Scratch Perverts

Peanut Butter Wolf

Saian Supa Crew

Gravediggaz

 

the old heads liked it and it got the girls dancing. WHOOOOOOOOO!

[Guest KOR420]

george carlin said it best when he said FUCK THE CHILDREN!

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

George Carlin always says it best.

 

"How is everybody doing?"

 

(cheers)

 

"Yeah? Well FUCK YOU!"

[Guest whatitistoburn]

My favorite rapper is Del The Funky Homosapian. He needs a new album out.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Anyone ever hear of Pimp Daddy Welfare? I kid you not, that's the guy's name. I have yet to hear anything by him though... that's why they invented file sharing(pirating)!

 

(runs to KaZaA)

[Guest Angle is Wrestling]

I'm telling everyone right now please don't sleep on Crooked I. He is the first artist off Death Row Records to release a CD since Suge Knight has been released from jail. While you may hate Suge, or Death Row records, please get Crooked I's debut album called "Say Hi To The Bad Guy", because he can fricking kill it on the mic. It comes out later this summer.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

The decline of rap started with the stupid Death Row/Suge Knight/Tupac/West Coast vs. Bad Boy/Puffy Combs/Biggie/East Coast "feud". Once MTV got into the game, things just kept going downhill. Now all you hear is MTV-friendly money rap by guys like Ja-Rule and Nelly. The only reason rap isn't completely in the pits is because there are a lot of talented rappers still out there, from newer guys like DMX to holdovers from the gangsta era like Dre, Snoop, and Ice Cube.

[Guest Michael Joel Benoit]

Gangsta Rap died in 1997 after the death of Biggie. The whole era that we have now began in 1998 after a rest period. That is when Ja-Rule, Jay-Z, Juvenille, Big Tymers, and the others came about.

[Guest Spicy McHaggis]

Rap's biggest problems are a lack of creativity in topics (i.e. every "song" consisting of: bitches, pimpin, guns, how rich you are, self-congratulation, and shout-outs) and beats (with the exception of Dre-produced stuff, everything in sampled)... And the fact that the shock of violent, suggestive, and vulgar lyrics no longer has the effect it once did. This is why I am giving Eminem three years, tops, until he loses his popularity.

[Guest Ripper]

I still say that you would be hard pressed to find a majority of songs about "bitches, money and guns" because rap has grown past that.

 

Even the radio songs you hear that are about all of that, if you listen to thier albums, that will be the only song like that. Rap is still a business first and they have to put out something to get the ladies jumping. But after that, most of them, and the EMPHASIS on MOST, not all, are still artist that are trying to say what they are feeling through their music...and then there are guys like Ludicris that do only talk about "bitches" basically because he is a talentless, mysoginistic piece of crap...but there is crap in every genre.

 

I think that the decline of rap is whatever point people started associating the mainstream, radio friendly songs as what the genre is all about.

[Guest ant_7000]

Well, Another about rap is the subject matter and creativity of songs I think their albums are too long 15-20 tracks when it should be 10-12 tracks. As far as Eminem he's going to be in the rap game for a while because his off the wall lyrics is unique. Not everybody rap bitches, guns, drugs, and money all the time thats just mainstream rappers (Jay-Z, Ludacris, Cash Money) some beats are not sampled (Dre, Timbaland, Neptunes) but most underground rap is not like that, its about battling and who's the best. Mainstream is watering down rappers lyrics so they can be radio friendly or they won't get played.

[Guest Spicy McHaggis]

good point.

[Guest Ripper]

I have to stick up for Jay-Z here. I hate seeing him shoved into a group with talentless trash when the guy is one of the best that's done it.

[Guest ant_7000]

No doubt Jay-Z has skills and all but he sold out to mainstream after "Reasonable Doubt" but I don't think he's best right now not over NaS or Eminem, I don't think he can get by saying he is when he is stealling one liners from Biggie and he supposed to be his friend.

That's why everybody wants to battle Jay now since he claims he's the best

[Guest Ripper]

But with the Jay-z albums, it has always been the same formula. He'd put out the radio friendly songs(even Reasonable Doubt had "aint no Nigga" and "Dead Presidents" which were basically all about money and women) but the rest of the album would be real hip-hop. he has done it for basically every album. Blueprint had "Girls, Girls" and H-to tha Izo" and I guess that "Jigga" song, but the rest was pure hip-hop.

 

I ain't so ready to be all over Nas yet. he no doubt had the best hip-hop album this year(well, actually I likes Em's better, but just to avoid argument) but that doesn't make up for the other lack-luster albums and songs that he has had. Maybe he's got his stride back, and if he has, I will be right there with him, but I'm not going to toss him back on top of the game because he came out with a great album. Jay-Z has been consistantly better than Nas IMO. Maybe its just the fact that I basically never listen to radio, so when I hear a CD, I am hearing most of the songs without any of them being over played and annoying.

[Guest ant_7000]

I take that back when I thought about it NaS and Jay is about neck and neck. I like Jay's Blueprint album better than NaS Stillmatic because Jay's was shorter (which Jay benefitted from) than NaS album about the second half of Stillmatic wasn't all that great. But NaS is back thou he realized that he should be himself instead of NaS Escobar and stop worrying about trying to be radio friendly so when his next album drop its gonna be (I hope) hot. I am tired of the radio stations playing "One Mic" all the time. They should play "2nd Childhood" or "Your the Man"

[Guest Redhawk]

I don't see what's so bad about having songs about women (or bitches or whatever). I mean, be honest, we're GUYS. We think about women all the time. And if you were rich and famous and getting as much ass as a rap star, you'd have some songs about bitches too.

 

What I DO have a problem with is when someone has all these songs about how hard they are, but when they get in trouble or are questioned regarding a beef, they're all of a sudden "just business" and "I respect his music." Case in point: Mobb Deep. I read an interview with them in XXL where they pretty much look afraid to go after Jay-Z or Beanie Seigel (or whoever it was). And then the reporter asks Havoc about the rumor about him getting jacked for his jewelry, and he's all, "I don't want to talk about that." Man, what a gangsta.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I don't see what's so bad about having songs about women (or bitches or whatever). I mean, be honest, we're GUYS. We think about women all the time. And if you were rich and famous and getting as much ass as a rap star, you'd have some songs about bitches too.

Yea, but you have to realize that for everyone who DOESN'T have any bitches or money or drugs those songs are annoying as hell. Materialistic mainstream songs just make me hate those guys more for having all the things that I want. That's why I like underground battlers, who trade rhymes back and forth striving to be the best. Granted, hearing somebody just brag about their skills a lot gets boring too, but most battlers that I've heard vary their subject matter or at least whip out a thesaurus every now and then so it doesn't get boring or annoying.

 

Plus, the problem that I have with mainstream rap's subject matter, it's not even just that so much as that they don't come up with any new ways to say it.

[Guest Michael Joel Benoit]

I like poltical rap like Public Enemy and Mos Def. I do like some mainstream rap like Jay-Z, Nas, and Busta Rhymes. I don't like Ludacris, Mystikal, Big Tymers and Ja Rule (I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!) I like Eminem cuz he is different and I like the whole rap-metal thing.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

How come nobody mentions Jay-Z's propensity for stealing Biggie's lyrics?

[Guest Ripper]

Yeah, but lets not act like Jay is the only one. Everyone from the finger pointer Nas, to Foxy Brown, to Nelly and basically everyone left in the business today have raped Biggies lyrics for lines. DMX and Ja Rule are too busy robbing Pac to do it, but for the most part, Biggie is the most bitten rapper EVER.

 

When Jay says he is doing it out of respect and to give props, I actually believe him. I mean, he doesn't go for the lesser known biggie songs to take lines (like, say, Nas did) He uses the lines from the mainstream, everyone in the club can recite line-for-line songs, and everyone knows exactly where the lyrics are from. Its not like he is trying to frount and act like he wrote it.

[Guest ant_7000]

Then that would make NaS a hypocrite when he asked Jay how many of Biggie rhymes come out of your fat lips. Ja Rule is so a 2Pac wannabe and maintream fans don't even realize it. And for the record I did mention that Jay was stealing Biggie's one Liners early. I think DMX has Pac's anger style but he doesnt bite his lyrics like Ja does.

[Guest Ripper]

DMX's first album(and best) has quite a few Pac lyrics or variations of them...I can't remember off the top of my head, but they are there.

 

Nas, while he doesn't/hasn't done it as much as Jay has, he is just as guilty at borrowing some Biggie lyrics. I don't see it as too hypocritical though. I think he was taking a shot at Jay's large amount of Biggie lyrics used.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I don't think everyone knows every Biggie song word for word. Jay-Z takes the lyrics and pits them out like they are his. Jay-Z has always been a dick rider, and I find it preposterous for him to say that he's better than Big. This past Thanksgiving, I was at my cousin's house and one of my aunt's was commenting about how she liked Jay-Z because he was so talented. She never heard a Biggie song in her life, so she was assuming that Jay-Z was saying stuff that he had written himself. It seems like the best lines that he has are Biggie's, but not everyone is going to realize it. Think about how many people there are that didn't listen to rap before 1997. All of the fifteen year old kids were 10 years old back then, and you see the tv stations playing videos from back then and calling them old school. I'm not saying that younger kids can't buy Ready To Die or Life After Death, but I would be willing to bet that a lot of high school kids don't even listen to Biggie. A lot of Jay-Z fans jumped onto the bandwagon after Hard Knock Life came out and even more jumped aboard after Volume 3 came out. Jay-Z hasn't really been shit in my eyes since those albums, but people are buying his stuff because of his name. I'm not saying that Jay-Z is devoid of talent, but the guy has fallen off.

[Guest swan]

I think the Roots are the only rappers to give a damn about. They kick ass.