Opinion
Hip Hop! Where are you?
By Khalid Mokhtarzada at 10:04 pm on Monday, July 26, 2010 // 6 Comments
Hip Hop started from the roots of blues, jazz, dance, tap, break, spoken word, and most importantly, the vision to spread revolutionary and relevant information musically. At least that’s what I thought growing up in the projects (Toronto Subsidised Housing) listening to Hip Hop.
Heaven is What you make it,
And hell is what you go through.
Wu-Tang
Make a business for yourself, boy, set some goals
Make a fat diamond out of dusty coals
Outkast
The rich get richer ‘cause they like to enrich.
The poor get poorer because their minds can’t switch.
KRS-ONE
Sometimes I feel like a falling leaf,
Blown away by the winds of reality.
Strong breeze.
Killarmy
I grew up to quotes like this. Hip hop was a positive influence in my life. Not that I didn’t listen to Rock, or Oldies, or any other genre of music. But Hip Hip music has a special place in my heart. It cheered me up when I was down. It inspired me when I was mediocre. It pumped me full of adrenalin when I was scared.
I just don’t know if I can say that about Hip Hop anymore. In fact, I seem to be struggling finding much good hip hop these days. I find myself resorting to re-living yesteryear’s hip hop. In fact, I’ve actually found some gems that I never had the opportunity to listen to. This makes me happy.
Is it just me? Am I getting old? Or has the industry changed?
Hip Hop! Where are you?
There’s a lot of great hip-hop talent being missed because mainstream/pop hip-hop claims to take the crown the city and the credit for rap as a whole.
Untrue, rap is in the mind of the understanding.
The Influences that hedonism and mass appeal are having on hip-hop, or certain hip-hop artists (OR EVEN YOUR IDEA OF HIP-HOP) is changing the game and the industry that runs it.
imma slow down
imma be specific
Some would say it is turning into a fashion show with hoes in every Cali mansion room/
And this is OK, if not expected because hip hop has come a long way/
KRS never made scott storch, akon, drake, lil wayne, or jay-z money, but he does have profound music.
Instead of a long rant check the video
http://realtalkny.uproxx.com/2009/09/topic/topic/videos/krs-one-says-def-jam-destroyed-hip-hop/
-JD
Justin Davis
Mainstream (+ pop) really does destroy good art. As visual artists, we do our best to balance client work and make sure we invest time in the pursuit of personal, non-for-sale art. BTW, we do ‘Painting with Pixels’ every Friday. We get together and paint pictures. You should drop by sometime.
KM
Khalid
Khalid, great post! Music as a whole has completely changed. The industry has changed. The same can be said for house music, which is what I grew up with. Although Hip Hop inspired you by its lyrics, house music up-lifted my every day. The difference between hip hop and house music, is that house music has completely changed its sounds. Although different types of house, from progressive, to minimal, to electro; house music’s sounds have become more mainstream, to cater to a larger population. It has now mixed with many dance/pop songs such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, etc…and the mixture of sounds has become more ‘euro trash.’ My definition of house music is very different from today’s generation of house music. I think I am going to start listening to all my old house tunes in order to re-live my fun ‘party’ years.
Lorena
Some more of my fav hip hop quotes
I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottle
I make mistakes but learn from every one
And when it’s said and done
I bet this brother be a better one
If I upset you dont stress
Never forget, that God isn’t finished with me yet – Tupac
got you in my mind guess that’s why they say love is blind. – Mobb Deep
..don’t slip up or get caught (y naat?)
am comin for that number one spot.. -Ludacris
It’s so easy for a kid to join a gang, to do drugs, … We should make it that easy to be involved in football and academics – Snoop
Mike
It’s not heard to find good hiphop. Majority of all those groups you’ve quoted still put out the same quality music that inspires and etc… If you find your self often reliving past music you really need to look at these artists today and listen to new material from them, while feeling how you did in your yesteryears.
HipHopUnderYourNose
I guess the difficulty is find a radio station in Toronto that will play good hip hop. We have one urban station (93.5 Flow) and quite honestly, it’s really bad.
Khalid