How Hip-Hop Has Changed

2009-12-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

Hip-Hop, a Lost Art

Today, many things are changing and evolving around us. Change is happening everywhere and music is one of them; specifically Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop has undergone a few changes within the last decade. Now it is in a hold but it still has room to evolve even more. Hip-hop started out as cultural music with lyrics based on those peoples lifestyle, but now the mainstream hip-hop is about clubs, sex, drinking, drugs, and violence. However, there is the underground hip-hop and that is where one can find the "true" hip-hop. Hip-hip is a style of music which is dying and something needs to be done. Mainstream hip-hop is damaging the art and changing it for the worse.

When hip-hop is mentioned, it is being referred to as both hip-hop and rap. Hip-hop and rap have changed but some of the rappers and hip-hop artist still keep it how it used to be, while the mainstream of today does not. Mainstream music consists of mostly the music a person would hear on the radio and in a club or a bar somewhere. Mainstream is also the music everyone has heard before. Underground artist and also local artist are not as popular but produce some of the greatest music. These people also keep hip-hop, true hip-hop and do not turn it into a bunch of noise or rhyming scheme that makes little sense to the rest of the song like many of the mainstream artist do. However, not all underground hip-hop artist keep it true hip-hop. Finding underground artist that can one can find enjoyable is more difficult, but it is well worth the search.

Hip-hop was created in America by African Americans to help them cope with their problems and in return it helped to reduce gang violence during the 1970s. The African Americans would have battles of art rather than battles of violence or figts. They created true hip-hop which is being referred throughout this paper as song of great beats, and lyrics that tell stories about their lifestyles and struggles. The songs also have great rhythmic patterns which create a style of music unlike any other.

Lil Wayne is an excellent of someone that just makes rap and hip-hop into a creaft rather than a cultural movement. He uses many different rhyming techniques and he even changes up words to make them fit with the next verse. His voice is catchy and his ability to rap is incredible in the sense of him selling his music. However, he does not mention too much of his life struggles or expresses himself from his point of view. Lil Wayne is too worried about making money rather than making a statement. He is a major role model in the hip-hop industry and he would be a perfect candidate to help change hip-hop for the better. In spite of Lil Wayne, there is another rapper from the same state but different city called Lil Boosie. He may not be as popular as Lil Wayne, but he is one of the rap artist that stay true to hip-hop. He actually expresses himself in a way that produced explicit harsh vulgarity, but he atleast tells stories of his life struggles and what he has been through. The only reason he talks in such a language is because that is how he was brought up but that is not a truly good excuse to speak in such a manner. He is more of an underground artist so it is not as bad for him to use such vulgarity. That is what hip-hip is all about. Expressing oneself and talking about the struggles and hardship of life but the vulgarity needs to be cleaned up.

C. Delores Tucker launched a campaign to clean up gangster rap in 1995(Coates). The victory of Pyrrhic, the campaign to clean up gangster rap succeeded and it emerged new rappers such as 50 Cent and Eminem(Coates). "With rappers emerging everywhere from Capetown to the banlieues of Paris. In the U.S. alone, sales reach $1.8 billion" showing that rap was the new best thing(Coates). The strength of rap music gave the artist the ability to say anthing they pleased in their music and "today that same market is telling rappers to please shut up"(Coates). This shows that hip-hop has really changed a lot and many people are not liking the changes at all and that be backed up by the face that rap sales "dropped 44% since 2000 and declined from 13% of all music sales to 10%"(Coates). "Artists who were once the tent poles at rap labels are posting disappointing numbers. Jay-Z's return album, Kingdom Come, for instanced, sold a gaudy 680,000 units in its first week, according to Billboard. But by the second week, its sales had declined some 80%. This year rap sales are down 335 so far"(Coates). "Both rappers and music execs are clamoring for solutions" because they are in a situation where hip-hop is not progressing(Coates). Today's society sees rap as just another style of music and it is not longer much hype to its audience.

Rap music became a top music genre by the influence of a rapper named Tupac Shakur. He has his reign withing the years of 1992-1998. Tupac was eventually murdered in Las Vegas but alive and dead he "sold more than 20 millionrecords"(Coates). "Gangsta rappers reveled in their outlaw mystique, crafting ultra-violent tales of drive-bys and stick-ups designed to shcok and entrall their primary audience--white suburban teenages"(Coates). The rappers had guns which seemed exciting and tough; meanwhile rock seemed to be weaker and dull. This is what really changed the hip-hop industry and sparked it to where it is now. However, the market is dropping immensely because "they can no longer fool the white kids"(Coates). Gangster rap was not how hip-hop was meant to be. Perhaps the style that Tupac made famous has changed hip-hop forever, but not for the best.

Palermo's Views

How Hip-Hop Has Changed