A rant about the state of hip-hop

I definitely wouldn’t call myself an aficionado of the hip-hop genre. I listen to white people music* for the most part, but I do still want to rant about the bad music that’s getting made that’s getting called hip-hop

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As a genre, hip-hop definitely had its best moments in the 90’s. Those were the good old days, when hardcore gangsters were actually gangsters and didn't just wear a diamond knuckle-buster. They were rapping about the reality of living in a world quite far removed from mine, and they were flip cool. These guys were rough and uncut, coming into the limelight from poverty to make a name for themselves. Now it’s just noisy rich kids pretending to have been in the 'hood. Give me a break B-rad. No-one’s buying the ‘boats and ho’s’ routine.

And it’s not just the rappers themselves, it’s the music itself that annoys me. Back in the 90’s there was a much stronger lyrical focus. Everything was underground and the beats were simply there to provide a base for the lyrics. Now it’s crazily over-produced with techno-electro-lameness. I suppose that’s the problem with a genre becoming popular, eventually everyone sells out and makes music that people on 5fm want to listen to.

I say bring back the real hip-hop, not this shmip-shmop that’s currently being pumped into our ears from all directions.

*White People Music (WPM) includes pretty much every song with a guitar. Put on U2 and white people suddenly start playing air guitar and saying ‘flip hey, the Edge is decent’. The next CD on the shuffle will undoubtedly be Coldplay followed by Jack Johnson.

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