The Bus

That's a group, not a rapper.



This was the last album that turned my head. I still listen to "Raw Life" regularly.

Actually, 2004 was a pretty decent year for hip-hop. You had Connected, The College Dropout and Madvillainy (off the top of my head).

The problem is not rap. The problem is popular/commercial rap. And it comes and goes in waves of quality. I'm sure it will have a nice resurgence eventually. One thing I am dismayed about is that it almost lacks any type of lengevity as it often has a shelf life of a few months if not less. There are of course a lot of exceptions to this (Enta Da Stage, for one) but you can something similar about other genres which are sometimes geared "for the club": how much techno from the mid-90's have you listened to recently, as opposed to other genres, for example?

Rocketdog2000

Yeah I'll agree with that, too, along with many other good theories posted. You know, having been around longer than the genre of Rap has, I'm surprised it's overall popularity has even lasted as long as it has.

I remember DJ-ing at a dance club back in the early 80's, and back then, in the dawn of the genre with artists like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash and The Sugarhill Gang emerging, it wasn't even called "Rap" music yet. It was still being labeled as "Disco", because it was music being primarily played only in the clubs, and you could dance to it. It was still too new to even have a name yet. We just thought it was another angle on a passing fad, which would itself burn out rather quickly. Nobody I knew in the biz then ever saw it becoming the eventual monster it did become the latter 80s and 90's. I'm not a huge fan, but I'll certainly give it credit for enduring as long as it has.

But still, all along I've been wondering how long it was going to take before it started to burn itself out, or people just started to grow tired of it. I stopped asking that question about 4 years ago. When anything becomes too super trendy, you know it's shelf life is about to become much more limited in the not too distant future. Things can only get so big before they either explode, or implode, and it's usually the latter. I was working in a music store for some years, and you would just start to see the amount of Rap titles in the bins become less and less each year - and the number of hit artist become fewer and fewer. And while I certainly wouldn't pronounce it dead, I would however say that, for the most part, it's approaching it's nadir of popularity.

Double Down

I find that when people say that there isn't any good rap anymore, that what they're typically talking about is the crap they play on the radio. What people forget (intentionally or otherwise) is that it has always been a rare occurrence for good rap to be played on the radio. Did you ever hear NWA, Eazy-E, etc on radio? With a few (very rare) exceptions, you did not. What about Tupac? You might have heard "Dear Mama" or a few other more "radio friendly" tracks on the radio, but the overwhelming majority of Tupac's tracks were never played on the radio.

Bottom line is that you cannot look to the crap on the radio as your "evidence" that there is no good rap anymore.

Somebody else in this thread wrote that there are no more DJs and scratching. That couldn't be further from the truth.

If you want to hear some good hip hop/rap, here's just a handful of people to check out:

Dilated Peoples
Jurassic 5
The Roots
Styles of Beyond
Akrobatik
Mr. Lif
The Perceptionists
Blackalicious
Atmosphere
Murs
People Under The Stairs
Little Brother
Tech N9ne

... and, to name a few that are almost mainstream enough to hit the radio (and occasionally do get played on the radio):

Common
Talib Kweli

There's plenty of good hip hop/rap music out there. Like any genre of music, you just have to want to put in the effort to find the good stuff.

saoirse

Early and Mid 90s was the best for Hip-Hop. And because it was so good then, you even had some hot shit on the radio. Now, you have to dig really deep into the underground to find current gems so it's very rare to find a good track on the radio. Some Bay Area Hyphy was poppin for a bit. But yep, most of what is put out everywhere is garbage. I still enjoy the odd album coming out, but mostly I go back to the good old ones. Yesterday I was enjoying the Alkaholiks and Camp Lo.

Flashback

This is about the time it was the end for me. De La, Cypress, Onyx, Tupac was it. Over and done with it ... and as stated already it became the hair band generation.

PhantomStranger

What happened is the rise of Southern based Hip Hop. It's really a much different form of rap than what had been popular for the prior two decades, which was a New York centric based sound. Much of underground hip hop is still much closer in spirit to the NY sound whereas the mainstream rap of today(outside of older established artists like Jay-Z & Nas) that makes the radio/MTV is more influenced by the South/Midwest.

kingtopher

This is a hilarious post. Are you one of those guys who thinks that hip hop and rap are two different things?

boo-ga

Yeah, I've always found that highly amusing, myself.

Rogue588

Yep, I am.

Glad I could entertain you. My purpose in this thread has been fulfilled.

Jacoby Ellsbury

'rap music' and 'hiphop music' is the same thing.
Rap and hiphop is not the same thing. Rap is what the MC does.
Hiphop is the 4 elements and beyond. Its the culture. Some will argue but you could say video games, skateboarding, smoking blunts are all hiphop they are part of the culture as much as and moreso than graffiti and b-boy-ing is nowadays

The Bus

They are.

josuff247

KRS-ONE...Is that you?

Tarantino

Check out the new Flobots album.

= J

UAIOE

I think the problem is is that the crap on the radio *IS* the stuff that is getting the most attention. I'm not talking about in this thread, I mean in general. There were people who worked hard to give rap some credibility and some justify its existence, and all this "Ho's, bitches, money, and cars" that is prevalent in the "radio crap" does nothing but eat away at that.

The thing is, this isn't a problem that is exclusive to rap.

Double Down

Exactly!

In fact, about a week ago my brother-in-law made a comment to me that he doesn't really listen to much rap anymore because "rap songs now are, at best, just the flavor of the month." In other words, the songs that are "hits" now won't be remembered in 5 years, 1 year ... or even 6 months.

He was using this as his reasoning for not listening to rap anymore.

However, what he said is true not only of rap, but of pretty much every genre. The crap that gets played on the radio, in general, is typically a bunch of stuff without any staying power. Amped up, beat thumping club tracks that will be forgotten next month.

As with most genres, there is PLENTY of great rap music out there, you're just not going to find it on the radio. If you enjoy rap, and are willing to put in a little time, you'll find it.

darqleo

mid-80's to early 90's was also the peak period for me, especially with the immortal Public Enemy.

darqleo

Saul Williams is pretty cool, though:

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Artman

Just the local stuff for me... Blue Scholars, Common Market, etc..

FatTony

Totally what I came in here to post, but I wanted to avoid name-dropping. Thanks for taking care of that for me!

To the OP (and anyone else in this thread having a hard time finding good rap/hip-hop, for that matter), if you live near a city, chances are you have a pretty decent underground hip-hop scene. Find it and love it! You won't find anything better through mainstream avenues.

Rypro 525

well blame this song and video for all the nu metal/rap metal garbage
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Da Thrilla

Michael Corvin

Brilliant song from a great group.

RayChuang

I actually agree with Rogue588 on this. Real decent hip-hop actually has a lot of real singing, for starters.

(By the way, I know something about hip-hop music because they've used this type of music as "bumpers" on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning show, of all places!)

I do think that a lot people soured on rap music after the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, which exposed the seedy side of rap.

Hiro11

...yeah, rap sucks these days.

The Bus

What's that last cover?