I’ve become a fan of the show called The Cypher, which is a talk show about hiphop. I am also a member of three big hiphop groups in facebook, Wu-World Wide, Acquired Taste and Remembering Hiphop. They share a lot of video’s about hiphop. However I am sensing a change on the way hiphop is being talked about. Before we were always the first, the first Hiphop generation president, the first Hiphop couple (with Salt-n-Pepa and Treach), later was Biggie and Faith and now Jay-Z and Beyonce.
However now most hiphopers are not 20yr old kids but 35 going 40. And what used to be playa hating in the late 90’s during puffy era is now consider not just old school but really old.
Granted I never really saw a discussion between the old Sugar Hill Gang, Big Daddy Kane, 2 live crew and Eric B and Rakim fans complaining about true hiphop vs fake hiphop. Maybe hiphop as a general form was just way too young to be old school. Listen to some of those oldschool and musically was a bit too basic. Producer technologies were not really up there, so the beats were pretty much alike. Check LL Cool J – I need a Beat and Big Daddy Kane I get the job done for example.
But fast forward 15 years later and the landscape now is way too complex, there is no west coast coming up but crunk music, with monikers such as Lil B, Souljah Boy and co. Now kids are not into gangsta rap, not into hardcore hiphop, but just want to hit the club and get their dance off. Of course I don’t want to make it sound like all hiphop is just a bad copy of Jersey Shore. There is definitly great music being done like Lost Children of Babylon and Immortal Technique. Or even Kanye is much better than all the rest of the hiphop out there, commercially speaking. Great producers like Madvillan, 9th wonder and even hardcore hiphopers like Joel Ortiz and Vinnie Paz. Lots of veterans want to make a comeback and even help the whole scene to come back like Raekwon pull up Capone-N-Noreaga and now trying to do the same with Havoc and Prodigy. But Rae is doing his thing, he even just drop a new video last week.
Well I guess hiphop will keep evolving, and spreading out. Too many emcees too many albums, most are underground and I guess you need to keep moving and at least keep your ear to your prefernce so you can never be old school.
Last time a friend of mine told me I was old school because I listen to the Wu which is odd since Wu keep making music. Just last year several Wu-related albums were dropped. From OB4CL pt II, Shaolin vs Wu-Tang, Wu-Massacre, Apollo Kids, Inspectah Deck, 9th Prince, Hell Razah, The Swarm pt II and Shyheim dropped albums. Not to mention the odd mixtapes like the Magical Chambers and El Michael’s Affair. New albums like Liquid Swords pt 2, Blackout 3, Young Dirty Bastard, and other long awaited albums are still in the making.
However the hardcore style is a bit forgotten or drain into the underground, true headed hiphop also a bit not as relevant as Rawkus record days. So you gotta wonder if this is just things to come, and is all about Nicky Minaj, lil B, Lil wayne, lil P, Wacka Flacka, and more ignorant hiphop coming our way, also labeled as young hiphop. After all the only innovation in Hiphop in the 2000’s era was crunk music and autotune. I just hope it doesn’t up like Thugnificent from the boondocks…. not.
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