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Why
Does Hip-Hop Currently Suck So Much?
by: Malik Sinsear, for Entertainment I got a late birthday gift last week. Real late as a matter of fact, but my birthday is on Christmas Eve, so I can’t really complain. My typical gift is a Christmas card with “Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” scribbled in the bottom left corner that just avoids interfering with the generic message and cheap get-everywhere gold glitter. Sucks, right? I just want to know if it would really hurt to drop another $3.50 to make me think you cared more. Is that asking too much, I understand friends, but family? I mean, really. I... Sorry, back to the gift. Somebody grabbed up an imported copy of mid-90’s rap-technician OC’s new opus entitled Starchild, for me.
OC was once destined for great things. He was a crossbreed of two of the four templates of rap resurrection in New York and moreover the East Coast. The templates being: Biggie, the get-money flosser with charisma and slick wordplay; Nas, the rebellious thinking hustlers lyricist; Wu-Tang, the credible collection of street griots, each with his own story to tell in his own unique (Ason, R.I.P.) way; and Blackmoon, the underground/underappreciated heroes. OC was a hybrid of the Nas and Blackmoon templates. I actually didn’t like Word…Life as much as most others. His second album, Jewelz is what reeled me in. It currently stands as one of my top 10 or 15 albums, ever. Some say O didn’t keep it as real as he had with Word…Life, but to me it was better. It was the perfect balance of what a great hip-hop album should be (obviously, in my opinion); A nice blend of stories, wordplay, street tales, fanaticizing and lyrics over beats that don’t outshine the MC. I’ve only seen it done at this level on three other occasions, with Biggie on Ready to Die, Nas on It Was Written, and Jay-Z on Reasonable Doubt. I had high hopes for O back then, but even some of the best got caught up in ’96 during the beginning of bling. I like champagne, trips overseas in shiny chains (not suits) and prettied up women as much as the next guy, but sadly the bling era ended up being more like Vietnam than a music tour in Japan. It took too many of our soldiers, brainwashed them and sent them off to the trenches. For those that made it back home alive, they were never the same. So instead of functioning citizens dropping imaginative and diverse songs and albums, we ended up with CD’s that were manufactured in the studio almost as quickly and carelessly as they were in the factories that packaged them. You couple that with G-Funk running its course and the death of Tupac and you now had two coasts searching for direction with a younger generation lost altogether. Fast forward to 2005, I’m listening to this Starchild album and it’s a damn good album. Not on the level of a Jewelz, but I cannot stop playing it and I don’t know why. The production is decent, O’s rhymes and flow are pretty good and the beats while not wowing are a perfect fit. Something’s been on my mind since the first listen but I was apprehensive to acknowledge it until someone else who had heard it finally blurted it out. “Is this album that good or is music today that bad?” Two more people followed up, reiterating the same sentiment. I was so relieved to know that I wasn’t getting old and bitter, I can’t even tell you. I mean I do avoid urban fm radio at all costs unless I’m in someone else’s car, at the barbershop or the club, but I don’t consider myself one of “those” people. You know like your older cousin that can blend in at the same club you go to, but only gives up more than the courtesy two step when the DJ breaks out that Ultra-Magnetic or EPMD record (and of course the Frankie Beverly joint). He’s still waiting on the new Jungle Brothers album and refuses to listen to or like anything else until he gets it. Nah, that’s not me. I hope it never gets that bad. I’m actually pretty cool with everything out there (well, except this Reggaeton shyt, I just don’t get it). I may not like it enough to pick it up, but I can listen to it without having a fit. Lil Jon has some good beats, Fabolous has some nice punch-lines, and G-Unit comes up with great choruses. And that’s when I got a clue of what was wrong, so I decided investigate a bit more before I drew my conclusion based on this hunch I had. I listened to some of the “hottest” albums of the last year or so and sure enough, the first thing that jumped out at me was how most of these CD’s were just a collection of songs, real formulaic. They didn’t have an album flow about them at all. Track 8 was a down-south song, while 9 & 10 were blatant attempts at radio hits laced with uninspired one-liners. 11 was the predictable street anthem. Finally 16, 17 or whatever the last song was had the remorseful “Sorry for what I’ve done momma” theme attached to it like the parental sticker on its packaging. This happened on damn near every CD I gave a spin. My suspicions were confirmed, these cats don’t make albums anymore, they make two singles and a whole bunch of filler. Isn’t that the recipe for a fuckin Big-Mac? Believe me, I understand, for the most part, how it goes in the music business, today. You have to look past the black A&R’s and focus on selling your persona and vision to white execs. Yes, you have to retool songs on your albums to get the approval for it to be pressed. No doubt, you have to make sure you put the “banger” single(s) on there to make sure you recoup, but what I’m saying is that with everyone following the same formula, only a few artists are going to eat off that formula. Hip-Hop is a big business now and it can be great or down right depressing, depending on what angle you’re viewing it from. It’s more money and more opportunities, but the creativity, for the major releases anyway, is piss poor and when you don’t sell, it’s almost like you sold your soul for nothing. I don’t know about you, but I get tired of hearing every artist say their album is different when it’s really the same ‘ol shit with a different CD booklet. I’m very curious to see what Shawn Carter and Jermaine Dupree are going to do as presidents of these labels (Def Jam, Arista). Hip-Hop purists always talk about how different things would be if we were in charge. Well, now it’s time to put up or shut up before the street and raw element of our culture is lost forever. I fully expect to see these guys nurture artists and support them for more than one single or album. Lets not forget that neither Jay nor JD were overnight successes. They worked on their craft and felt their way through the industry before they gained their current top billings. These guys now have the resources to make it happen and I fully expect them show and prove. (especially Jay, that scene where he’s talking to the aspiring rapper from Fade to Black keeps running through my head) Anyway,
Starchild is a really album. I recommend anyone to pick
it up, but don’t expect the “Jump-off” single
or “Crunk” anthem, you may end up disappointed here.
If you appreciate superior lyrics, real DJ’s sampling and
cutting tracks and songs that seamlessly transition into each
other, I suggest you find it. As a matter of fact, if you know
any aspiring MC’s out there, get them a copy of it too.
You can both thank me later for the Jewelz I’ve dropped. |
FIYA NBA Ranks: #9 |
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If
you had a hip-hop pulse around ’94 you would know who he
was, but I’m not too hopeful for you guys so I’ll
assume you don’t. ("I’m just being honest”
–‘Dre 3000). Lemme just quickly run it down, when
“Keep it real,” was in its infancy this guy dropped
a brilliant song called Time’s Up. It was like
a grittier, if possible, version of Jeru’s Come Clean.
(YOU HAVE HEARD THAT, RIGHT?) Times Up was on a pretty
good album called Word…Life. Before a white wrestler
stole it and attached it to a silly hand gesture and flimsy jersey,
that phrase commanded respect in the hip-hop community. 
