Hip Hop

Just finished an email rant in response to the argument that hip hop is in decline. Here it is:

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also, sure "rap" is on the decline...however, with any large grouping/classification, there is a lack of looking at the artists on the fringe, the long tail if you will. there are alot of great acts out there, like busdriver, clipse, or lyrics born. Even the mainstream has some amazing lyrical/musical content: for every one of those pimps and guns crap rappers, there's a geniune act that speaks for the continuation of great hip hop, such as Ghostface Killah (who's Fishscale album was a rebirth of the Wu Tang aesthetic, tight rhymes, excellent production), Lupe Fiasco (who's a progeny of Kanye, who i like, and deals in positive rhyming without dipping to the hippish De La vibe), Nas, Hi-Tek, etc. I mean, that Runaway Love song by Mary J Blige with Ludacris has the soul that was found in the early 90's rap with a social conscious, and there's the ever increasing exploration of the boundaries of "what is hiphop" found in the music of Macromantic or J Dilla.

I don't understand, 2006 was a banner year for hiphop, with the return of strong narrative albums (Clipse or Ghostface Killah), awesome production work (Kanye, J Dilla, or the always fantastic Rick Rubin), the return to form by the Roots crew, Gnarls Barkley (who i'll classify as hiphop/soul/alterna/awesome), the continuation of Southern rap innovation (T.I.'s singer/rap poetics, or Birdman and Lil' Wayne's crunktastic message music), and the ascension of Dead Prez as the king of all things political hip-hop (dude, if you haven't heard Dead Prez, then you're missing out on the current throne holder of the Public Enemy, Zulunation, Tribe, Roots kingdom).

I mean, check out any best of 2006 list, and you'll see that there's a hell of a lot going on that doesn't have anything to do with Jay-Z, P-Diddy, Beyonce, 50 bullshit.

Finally, in argument of the decline of hip hop; there is this love of the old days of west coast/east coast rap. the days of Dr. Dre or Biggie. Sure, they were the halcyon days when alot of our generation was being exposed to rap. however, the shit out there now is just as good, if not better. my bitterness about tim's rap choices come from a visit with him about a year ago, when he got all goofed up and started rapping along to some Biggie. Giggling at the lines about shooting guns and slappin' hoes. if that's the epitome of excellent hip hop, then hip hop never was great. the thing is, technically, philosophically, and musically, there are alot of singles, albums, artists, etc that have gone beyond what hip hop represents in the minds of casual rap listeners. The thing is, I think Public Enemy's "...Black Planet" album was 100x better than that biggie, tupac, nwa shit. Give me Tribe Called Quest any day over gangster wankster bs.

So, in short, what is considered the apex of rap/hip hop should be argued. if we consider some of the "best" artists as simply stones that build that current path that hiphop travels upon, then i think there is a better context for comparison. Hip hop isn't dead, it just continuing...

wow, long email...i might post this up on my blog.

enjoy reading. chuck