If any one person is responsible for the decline in quality, my vote is T Pain. He made auto tune what it is today, being a standard for every rapper at some point. BTW best rap album of all time is Nas-Illmatic.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiEgZFKPRxA]CurrenSY - Smoke Sum'n + Verde Terrace Mixtape Link (Verde Terrace Mixtape) - YouTube[/ame] As spitta remains I believe.
keyword "some" even though i like everything he made thus far I've written a long topic not too long ago about the quality of hip hop mainstream. I've voiced my opinions in numerous times through this forum AND this topic. So idk if something's wrong with your eyes or you just feel like patronizing me, but just take the stick out your ass for 2 seconds.. Now i'm gonna have to stop you so you can back up for 2 seconds. you're over glorifying this "back in the day era" to the max as if it were the golden era and if you weren't alive during that time, you didn't know true living. This pedestal you're putting it on is about to be cut down right now. This era which I'm assuming is early to mid-90's was in terms of violent crime rate THE HIGHEST it's been in like almost EVER. Crime in U.S. peaked at that time. Gang violence was rampant. Drug abuse was everywhere and not innocent old weed... we're talkin crack and cocaine. These were all products of the rebellious youth of that era. Gangbanging was the trend. Murdering people got you respect. Robbing people was cool. Graffiti aka vandalism took over everything and you couldn't walk down the block and see something intact because it had paint scribbled over it and it was usually gang signs. NOT THE ARTISTIC graffiti. We're actually living in safer times now. So I'm glad the days of drinkin' 40s in front of a liquor store smokin mad blunts is over. Anything can happen in that type of environment. You think kids have to struggle today? You think it's worse or more difficult today to be successful than it was back in the day? You see all that I listed in the previous paragraph right? Kids had to go through that EVERY DAY. So that is complete blasphemy. There are so many more opportunities now for the youth. Now back to the music aspect. Yeah in terms of lyricism it was way more real back then. It wasn't for the money as much, but for the message. But this message wasn't always positive and if you listened to a lot of 90s rap like I have, you can see that it wasn't always your KRS-One type lyrics to uplift the black community or rap about gaining knowledge or stuff like that. A lot of it dealt with the abhorrent shit I listed above. Those are the forgotten gems that not too many people remember but were popular at the time, AKA 'mainstream'. And ok I will give you some leverage. Ok say hip hop declined since the 90s or whatever. We can agree on that. But as of the last couple years, idk if you've been paying attention or not the modern artists coming out or even taken a gander to the mainstream, hip hop's quality of music is INCREASING.. Production, lyrically, and in mannerisms. Like the gangster trend in the 90s doesn't cut it today as well as it used to back then, thanks to the pop influence and other shit. Of course you still have it today, i.e. people like Waka Flocka, Gucci Mane, Chief Keef etc. but there are only a few compared to how everybody was trying to be like that back then as it was part of the culture. I wholly don't believe that hip hop is dead anymore. I've been on both sides of the fence. I mean think about it like this: 5 years ago in 2007, you know what was the #1 song of that year?.... i'll give you a minute.... ok if you didn't figure it out, it was Soulja Boy's Crank That. 2007. Now you can listen to ANY song on the radio RIGHT NOW and I can guarantee that it's better than that shit. And another thing, mainstream isn't the only means of being successful in hip hop. I understand that you acknowledge the presence of independent artists and labels, but I don't think you fully grasp it. Believe it or not, the radio is just not listened to as much anymore. People either have their own shit, the use Pandora, YouTube, Rap Blogs, etc. Radio is trash. The only way mainstream artists make money anymore is through tours. I don't even remember the last time I sat through 106 & Park and everybody I know say that 106 is wack as fuck now. And with the internet revolution many independent artists and labels are making a step up and getting their music heard. Artists like in my name A$AP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Dom Kennedy even Drake before Lil Wayne signed him, all thanks to the public and the internet made them successful and they're not these lyrically inferior, knuckle dragging, brainwashed, zombies that you like to think of a lot of mainstream as. People from the outside looking in even call them mainstream because A LOT (and when i say a lot i mean A LOT) of people like them even though they don't get radio play like that. or at all. I mean I've said a lot of shit about this already but if you want to read my longer topic just look for it through my profile. My point is that it's changing. Yeah all good things come to an end. The graffiti, the bboying, the call and response chanting MC's the "smokin blunts and drinkin 40s in the liquor store", and all that other shit, they may have been good, but times and people change, you just gotta learn to accept it. And yes I do know a lot about the subject, despite your patronizing efforts. Ur late.. People stopped using auto-tune in 2010. The only people that use it now is Kanye West and Future and only sometimes. And that's a stretch to say it's best album of all time. Yeah. of course. how else are they gonna make money? people need money to survive now. ------ and another thing idk what's with all the hate about the pop-influence? people didn't complain when hip hop took on funk influence in the 80s. people didn't complain when hip hop took on jazz influence in the 90s. people didn't complain when it took on the synthesized influence in the later 90s and 2000s. people didn't complain when hip hop took on the rock influence in the mid 2000s. and now people are complaining now because now we adapted a euro-influence??.... hip hop is the biggest swagger-jacking genre and you get mad cuz it jacked another?.... wow people. and it's not even like the damn beat is comprised of "oots oots oots oots oots oots" like most house music.... fuck y'all man i'm done
Mmmm... I highly doubt it. Many people don't look back on the 80's as a particularly great era for many genres of music, for example. Just because time passes doesn't necessarily make the music better. To me, it's just about quality. Quality is something hard to put your finger on... but most everyone can recognize it. For instance, there's many people I know that claim they "hate" rap. Then I turn them on to a Tupac classic, or show them some Roots, or a Pharcyde/Outkast track, or a J Dilla/Nujabes track... and they instantly go "oh shit! I didn't know hip hop could be like that!" I don't think it's as much about the content of the old school shit as much it is the general quality. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efAm6S7k-_g]Hey You - The Pharcyde - YouTube[/ame] The level of complexity... musicality... poetry... you just don't hear it much these days. There are dudes out making music of this quality or near it... dudes like Kendrick Lamar, Wax, Dumbfoundead, Macklemore, a bunch of other dudes. But I don't know, to me and many others... the general quality of popular artists has just gone down to such a low level. Shit that just anyone can make. To me, I just see it like there was a HELL of a lot more originality and creativity and quality busting out left right and center back in the 90s. An emcee/producer was judged on his or her SKILL... nowadays that doesn't matter, it's all about how well it'll market to the audience, and image. But again... I won't say hip hop is dead. Because there are plenty of artists making dope ass HIGH quality music and bringing it out directly to the fans. In many ways it's better that way... there is no middle man, it just goes directly from artists to supporter... it's a more organic experience. Artists just build their fanbase online. Dudes like Wax go from nobody, to putting out youtube vids on the weekly for a couple years to signed to Def Jam 3-4 years later. (To now off Def Jam due to them trying to fuck with his creativity...). There's so much great creative shit popping off in the underground that hip hop will never die, there are plenty of artists that put quality before all else... even if only 1/1000th of the people that listen to mainstream artists listen to them, the people that do enjoy it and respect them that much more. Also, again... I'll say this... the labels. FUCK the labels man. Like I was talking about Wax... one of the most creative artists to get signed to a big label in recent times that I can remember. And what do they do before he even releases his debut major label album? Stifle him with suits and "additional" song writers and generic "hit making" producers and all that bullshit... essentially cutting him off from his own creative genius and forcing him into those generic guidelines. The labels play a big part in the dumbing down of hte music man. Just look at what happened with Lupe Fiasco's LASERS album and atlantic... he fucking hated the album, it was practically made by the label. And you can really tell. Tommy ain't my mothafuckin boy...
Yo A$AP, don't feel like i'm attacking you bro. I agree with alot you have to say, I didn't agree necessarily with how you got your point across. Their is no stick up my ass either bro? Also for all you know I am KRS-One so for you too say I wasn't alive during that era and I have no experience with it is irrational. Anyways I wasn't "Glorifying" anything, about those days I know for a fact it was a jungle in the inner city. The kids were actually products of the crimes of the 80's and 70's not the other way around. You can't deny their was more culture in the hood, and alot more free will, for better or for worse. For example atleast in New York you could tell which borough a dude was from just by peeping his style. The city used to have alot more heart, pain, and truth. All of which makes for powerful music. I am not saying their isn't more opportunities for the youth these days. If you want the sad truth this probably hurting the state of hip hop. I say this because, stereo typically rap portrays a bad image. And kids are going to be pushed in opposite directions at a young age. Also hip hop is no longer a fun hobby for kids, their is no more cyphers in the park, theirs no more battles in high schools. When you say hip hop now a young kid thinks money, fast cars, and woman. Rather than respect, victory, style. I'm not saying money wasn't a huge part of why they spit back then. But often it was life or death for rappers back then too try and go big and get outta the dope game, as most of the best to ever have done it, did. Immortal said it well if you consider rap a job I suggest that you quit. Which is why I don't like to see pop in hip hop, I would prefer for hip hop to stay where it belongs. Off the big screens, and in the basement, back alleys, hallways, and the park.
Listen to All That I Got Is You by GFK and then listen to A Milli by wayne, and anyone will understand why I hate wayne
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKdYKm9N-lI]Lil B - I Killed Hip Hop Feat Cormega (MESSAGE TO KANYE WEST) - YouTube[/ame] droppin this classic rare jem on yall listen to it tho...its a good song....he explains the "death" of hip hop