Rap vs. Pop

Rap music, like it or not, from 2002 to the present, has been the equivalent of boy band and teen pop music of our elementary days. It is the life blood and the most “popular” music in the industry. Top 40 stations have become solely hip-hop stations. If you’re from Atlanta, you remember when “95.5 the beat” used to play bad pop and now plays solely Jibbs and Chingaling. It’s the music that gets played in the clubs and the music you listen to when you drive, when you’re studying, and when you’re sleeping. I mean, just look at this glaring stat: Between December 22, 2001 and today, February 13, 2007, there have only been 8 non-hip hop artists that have had #1 hits. Those 8 artists have had number one hits for a combined 16 weeks. That’s 16 of 117 weeks. That means hip hop has been dominated the airways for 101 of the past 117 weeks. To make that stat even more glaring, of those 16 weeks, 7 of those weeks are songs from American Idol contestants. The point is clear. Hip Hop = Pop.

I struggle with this, because Hip-Hop and Rap Music are, to me, so anti-establishment, whereas pop is the establishment… “the man”, if you will. I like a lot of the songs that are very popular, partly because so many of them are from the A, and also many of them are quite catchy. But with that said, yes, I think it is making “good” lyrical masterpieces a rarity these days. The good thing that has happened, though, is that even though almost every rapper has dabbled in the quick-fix pop-rap hit, the solid ones tend to come back to the dark side and release more classic music.

I mean, let’s look at who is back in old form. Nas is Back. “Hip Hop is Dead” is a classic. The opening track, Money Over Bullshit, takes me back to “Illmatic” and “It Was Written”, but with better production. Common is Back. “Be” is the perfect record. Common found a way say what I have always wanted to say in 2 bars: “Never lookin back, or too far in front of me/the present is a gift, and I just want to be.” There are others, such as Andre Three-Stacks and Big Boi (on remixes), TIP, and Weezy, who are all making great music. So I think Rap is in a good place right now. There is a weed-out stage going on, and the cream of the crop is starting to rise to the top. Hell, Andre is rapping again, and riding the beat like the greatest rapper alive that he is.

If 1994(the greatest year in rap history), was 5th grade(the year when you were the coolest kid in school), and 1998(bling bling era) was the awkward, pubescent phase, 2007 is the mid-life crisis stage. Rappers are finding themselves. All the new, young rappers are riding the pop train, and it’s not a bad thing. We gotta dance/walk it out/snap/throw some d’s/lean wit it/do da heizman/beat that bitch wit a bottle, but we also gotta have some music that goes down as art. And those artists that have gone through their awkward phases are blossoming again and giving our ears and our souls what we need. So, Hip Hop Ain’t Dead, It’s just maturing.
chuuuch
-Rem