What Happened to Hip Hop?
I imagine that every generation complains about the current music trends. “Back in my day music was more wholesome, more innovative, used real instruments, etc.” I am certain that my parents were not fans of the music that I listened to. Like most kids, I maneuvered the musical landscape. My tastes ranged from Rock, to Top 40 to Funk/R&B/Disco. I was lucky that my dad was a big music fan…we had a record player at home and an 8-track player in the car. Hey, it was the 70s! We didn’t share the same tastes, but I was exposed to a lot of music.
In 1982 (I was in grade 7) there was a musical revolution brewing and suddenly we could see and hear black artists. I remember seeing the Gap Band perform You Dropped a Bomb on Me on Saturday Night Live, Prince and MJ were getting air play on Top 40 radio and MTV launched it’s service and began playing music video 24/7. By grade 8 my friends and I had found Hip hop thanks to the help of 88.1 CKLN and WBLK in Buffalo (if your radio could pick it up). Every weekend I would cue-up my cassette recorder to 88.1…Ron Nelson’s Fantastic Voyage was all rap and Dave’s Dance Music played, you guessed it, dance music. Movies like Beat Street, Crush Groove and Breakin’ engrossed us in the Hip Hop culture; rap, scratching, graffiti, fashion and of course break dancing.
In my opinion, no other decade can touch 80’s and early 90’s Rap music for innovation and ‘funkiness’. The beats from Jam Master J (Run DMC) and Afrika Bambaataa, the story telling ability of Slick Rick, the pollical statement in The Message (Grandmaster Flash) and anything from Public Enemy; the rhythmic lyrics of Rakim. Artists pushed the limits of electronic sounds to uncover a style which was beat/bass driven, accompanied with modern poetry. In fact, I remember my grade 9 English teacher (who was a Rock fan — often seen doing the Pete Townsend guitar windmill) comparing Rap artists to modern day poets. Maybe it was respect for the skill or maybe he was just trying to make the few minorities in my class feel more comfortable. It doesn’t matter, it made me smile.
As the 90s began, there was an onslaught of Rap artists and variations in style. The East Coast (New York) pumped out smooth, jazz driven artists like Tribe called Quest, while NWA exploded on the west with Gangster Rap and Too Live Crew pumped out sexually fueled lyrics which ruffled many feathers. Things were changing. Record labels and artists realized that this was a money-making machine. Then it happened…the artistry moved from expression and creativity to popularity and familiarity. I’ll say it…producers like Puffy sampled everything and softened the sound in order to widen the audience. Anyone and everyone became a rapper, and the sound became generic. By the end of the 90’s I started to lose my love for the genre.
Twenty years later, I find myself still listening to 80’s and early 90’s Rap. I simply can’t get into today’s style. Drake, mumble rap and the trap’s beat is not doing it for me. I miss the innovation, the diversity in sound, lyrics that speaks to me. I know that this is a generalization and there is music and artists driving innovation. But, clearly it has changed!
(Note — while, I am not a fan of Drake’s music, I give him a lot of respect for pushing the popularity of Canadian Rap artists/music).