10 Reasons Hip Hop is Dead
According to a recent article in Time Magazine, Hip-hop’s Down Beat, Hip Hop and Rap are becoming outmoded and unpopular:
According to the music trade publication Billboard, rap sales have dropped 44% since 2000 and declined from 13% of all music sales to 10%. Artists who were once the tent poles at rap labels are posting disappointing numbers. Jay-Z’s return album, Kingdom Come, for instance, 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 33% so far.
This can be directly attributed to the painful, rehashed crap coming out of the hip hop / rap music industry. For example, let’s take a look at these newcomers to the rap scene, and some of their lyrics:
| Mims: Music Is My Savior | |
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I’m hot cause I’m fly You ain’t cause you’re not This is why This is why I’m hot |
| Sean Kingston | |
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They say we’re too young To get ourselves sprung Oh we didn’t care We made it very clear |
| T-Pain | |
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Teddy paine was born to flirt now u can’t down that Now i’m flirt with her whether i’m in or out of town That’s why they call me teddy bend her ass down |
| Soulja Boy | |
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Super Fresh, Now Watch Me Jock Jocking On Them Haterz Man When I Do Dat Soulja Boy I Lean To The Left And Crank Dat Dance |
| Yung Berg | |
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Oh, and damn right baby girl’s a diva but everytime she out with me she blowing reefa in the coupe looking better than mona lisa tuning into my songs thinkin ’bout features |
The lack of clever or constructive lyrics pervades not just the newcomers rapping about women, money, drugs, women, and cash in a thoroughly tired and worn-out way, but also some of hip hop and rap’s greatest artists who think releasing new “music” as fast as possible is the key to success:
| 50 Cent / Justin Timberlake | |
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She always ready, when you want it she want it Like a nympho, the info, I show you where to meet her On the late night, till daylight the club jumpin’ |
| Akon | |
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I’m sorry that it took so long to speak But I was on tour with Gwen Stefani |
| will.i.am | |
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Baby where’d you get your body from? Tell me where’d you get your body from? I got it from my mama I got it from my mama |
| Timbaland | |
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When timbo is in the party everbody put up their hands I get a half a mill for my beats you get a couple grand never gonna see the day that I ain’t got the upper hand |
| Fat Joe | |
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Yeah im in this business of terror Got a handful of stacks better grab an umbrella I make it rain on them hoes |
If you’re depressed, there’s still some good hip hop left. Some of the stuff coming from Talib Kweli, Young Buck, Chamillionaire, and Lil’ Wayne is quite good. The real gold is Kanye West, especially his song Can’t tell me nothing and it’s brilliant alternate video. Who do you think is still good in hip hop?
| This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 7:25 pm and is tagged with rap music industry, rap labels, rap scene, hip hop rap, tent poles, music trade, thinkin bout, kingdom come, time magazine, music sales, trade publication, recent article, paine, heron, baby girl, jay z, nympho, newcomers, billboard, crank dat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
Whoever made this list a dumbshit. Where Fat joes’s little box is the chorus sung by the worst rapper ever lil wayne. And then in the next paragraph he says lil wayne is good. This guy doesn’t know rap/hip-hop music. This article is sloppily made and unclear. J.T. and sean kinston are both pop artists so they don’t count. Really, the majority of this article is ****.
My suggestion to people who want to hear good rap music: listen to guys like Eminem (obviously), Lupe Fiasco, 2pac, Chali 2na, Cunninlynguists, Big Boi, Ice Cube, Talib Kweli and Nas. Those are just some of the rappers who have actual talent. Oh and Kanye is not bad. I really don’t understand why people hate his music so much. They’re too worried about his big ego and base his music off of they’re judgemental opinions. Kanye is one of people who is trying to save hip-hop, unlike lil wayne, soulja boy and other ****-headed, talentless ***** who are killing hip-hop.
Haha, good point on Lil’ Wayne. When I wrote this, in 2007, he had not released the **** that’s out now. I stand by the JT verse, though, which is 50 Cent’s doing.
Your suggestions are excellent, and I will have to follow this post up with a “10 favorite rap songs” to showcase some of the great stuff out there.
BTW, hip hops not dead, nothing is… real music is out there, just the people who matter and should be heard cant afford to get there stuff recorded and on the air.
ever notice how the same handful of deuche bags like kanye/p-diddy/jayz/shall i go on/etc put out the dumbest ****, only to make money? i mean really- it cant be just me noticing. Ever heard of leavin the game when your runs over? Ever heard of releasing ONE song, when its good, and being content? Music went down the drain when artists became more concerned with their own name than the passion they once had…
Stop supporting rapping hustlers like Jay-Z and 50 Cent. These guys don’t give a **** bout hip hop as an art form. They would do ANYTHING to make money. If a song with Paris Hilton would sell for example, they would both do a song with her. They are not what hip hop is about.
Lil’ Wayne blows, Kanye sucks.
REAL hiphop IS dead.
kanye west? isn't he the one that was caught lipsynching?
hip hop died the day tupac died ………simple as that
You surprise me.
hip-hop need’s real message to a real world, to be present again in the song’s, not gangster’s in suits. Hip-Hop as knowed by the music of the street and of the real people that live in real, hard world, now new (10 year’s) “gangster’s in suits” transformed it into a way of making money, and leave the real hard world, with no message’s to the people that try to survive. They learned it they used it, and “now” they dump it.
soz bad english – portugal
I like what you had to say G it’s all true men.
I liked what you had to say so much I’m using it in my paper on how hip hop effects our youth.
E PLURIBUS UNUM
Sean Kingston is like a pop artist, not really rap or hip-hop. No reason to have him on here. Although 50’s ok, Young Buck And Cham As Well As Luda Are Dope. Lil Wayne’s not bad, but can get annoying.
low volume of sales does not necessarily mean hip hop is dead, this applies to all music genre, sells are generally down
they are dead since late 90s.
you can say whatever you want, but as a huge fan of kanye, i must say that the new 50 cent’ s album is HUGE, it’ s the lound sounds i like to hear, buy both
!
I read that Time article and it had a heavy effect on me… I was just finishing a review of the T-Pain album and I realized, damn, hip hip is dead, and I don’t really want any part of it anymore.
It’s not dead, as there’s nothing good coming out of it… just all the commercial, soulless noise buries everything else.
A couple of good acts:
Pharoahe Munch – check his Public Enemy cover
Jean Grae – cool, slick voice.
I still think Ghostface is cool, though nothing will be as good as Fishscale.
Oh yea and I agree Kayne West is solid today. Finally someone who is a musician and lyricist who takes his talent serious and not necessarily the money first and albums 2nd.
Hands down for me I always thought anything Rakin would say was instant Gold. That’s 90’s old school rap. Nothing like the R&B, bling videos, everyone leases a Bentley artists out there today.
Kanye West is good hip-hop now? Please. He’s as good as anyone on your top 10 list. Good hip-hop needs real music and a real message. If you haven’t heard of The Roots check them out. There’s a bunch out there though.