It is official. With a heavy heart and an angry tongue that I will try to hold I must say that Rap music is dead. It started to see the light on the day of February 1, 2009 and fought valiantly until the Lord called it home on February 12, 2009.
I suppose Nas was merely predicting the future with his Hip Hop is Dead album. Many of us were quick to jump up in defense of Hip Hop or Rap music, but little did we know that Nas owns (or at least owned at that time) a crystal ball.
On February 12, 2009, KRS-One's dreads receded back to their roots and Biggie, Tupac, Pun, even the likes of Darren Robinson also know as Buff Love from the Fat Boys and many rappers who are dead and gone began flipping in their graves.
Frankly I am mad...and I am not the only one. Websites such as rappersiknow.com and illdoctrine.com have shut down due to the depths that Rap music would go to. I am mad because Rap music once stood for something and it was quality music. Rap unfortunately was sold to Pop. Once you sell your soul to Pop, death is evident.
If you don't know what I am referring to, I'll tell you. The We Are The World remake, and to be even more specific, I'm referring to the "rap chant" during the song. I'm not even referring to the autotune, but I do have problems with it.
But anyway, allow me to explain. Hip Hop or Rap music, whatever you want to call it, is the American dream. Don't believe me? Hip Hop comes from disenfranchised people, people that didn't have a voice in the country, in the economy. They took what was considered nothing to the privileged and made it into something powerful and it had meaning. Not only did it have meaning, but it was fun as well. It was something that people at first may have acknowledged it to be a fad, but the music grew. The music had a message, it had a conscious...and it was good.
Then something happened, people realized they could make a lot of money from this genre that was still in its developmental stages compared to other genres that have been around for many, many years before. Hip Hop sold its soul to Pop and while many artists refuse to sell their soul to Pop to this day (instead, becoming Independent), the majority of what we are exposed to is some garbage Hip Hop-Pop hybrid that's not good, but yet sells.
I compare the pool of Rap artists to that of the talent pool of the NBA. There are a lot more teams, thus players and with players leaving college after one year, they haven't yet matured as players so the quality of play isn't as good as it used to be. We have artists that are good, but raw in terms of they don't know what else to say other than the usual topics. The crazy thing about this is that there are just as many great rappers now as there were 20 years ago.
Another crazy thing is that many of the core of these rappers in the chant have been around for a long, long time. Busta, LL, Snoop, even Will-i-am; they've been around for many years. They've made their money and they're able to explore different avenues of music, but I expect them to know when something is wack when they see/hear it.
Let me say before I go on is I have no problem with the cause. But the product doesn't do the cause justice. If these rappers wanted to be apart of this effort, that's great...it's wonderful. But if I may make a suggestion, just be a part of the choir. Even though you may not be singers, just try to blend in.
Another problem I have with this is the fact that this effort wasn't special in the realm of music. Twenty-five years ago you had the biggest artists in the world at that time (except Prince because that would ruin the mystique of Prince) coming together and that hasn't been done before...not like that. Nowadays, everybody appears on everybody's album. Lil Wayne just a couple of years ago was on everybody's album and he's even on Shakira's latest album...and Madonna's I believe. Also, the biggest stars (a lot of great people were there, don't get me wrong) in the world were not there...1 day after the Grammys in Los Angeles. Where were the big winners? Where's Beyonce?
I think I am disappointed because this an opportunity to do something really special, maybe not be the greatest song ever, but really really really special and it was terrible at best. I don't support terrible, lackluster music that killed off a genre. I also think that it would have been great if some of the people from the original came back for this remake. Imagine seeing Stevie Wonder and hearing him with Adam Levine of Maroon 5 since they sound the same anyway.
What a minute, doesn't Busta suppose to have an album coming out called Chemo or something like that. Isn't it supposed to treat Rap music in an effort to cure it of its cancer? Can't perform chemotherapy on something that's already dead.
I would like to thank Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Common, Little Brother, and many others for not taking part of this catastrophe/train wreck.
I miss Hip Hop...who's going to bring it back from the dead if that can even be achieved?
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