Ben

This seems to be a very interesting topic. Although I don't know some of these artists, I think I know what you are talking about. One thing is that you should have more information about the old school rap. I would know how rap has changed more if you had some more lyrics or information about past artists. Also, is there anybody else besides Kanye West that is going against what you thought?

Maybe it does depend on the artist and not on whether it is old school or new school?

Is Kanye West The Future of Hip Hop?
by: Kevin R. Scott

I've always loved when a producer and an artist collaborated on the creation of a sound that was unique and cohesive; when a seamless partnership was the definition of the album ultimately released. Those types of dream teams have existed for years and will continue to be formed. Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, Missy Elliot and Timbaland, Eminem and Dr. Dre, and even Brandy and Rodney Jerkins are all perfect examples. And there are many more. The albums that have been produced out of these musical think tanks have become the benchmarks for measuring critical acclaim. Each generation has its music revolutionaries; anomalies that elevate the genre. With his soon to be released and highly anticipated Late Registration we are being seriously asked to consider Kanye West, single-handedly, as one of them. The most significant characteristics of such an artist is the way that they seamlessly combine their mastery and love for the spectacle of performance with their skilled, organic compositions and arrangements; in other words being both an artist and producer. The release of Late Registration will be the litmus test that determines if he is truly ready for the curriculum of geniuses. Long before the release of The College Dropout in 2004, Kanye had produced enormously successful anthems such as Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A .)", Alicia Key's "You Don't Know My Name" and "Stand Up" for Ludacris. His work as a producer was stamped with approval when Roc-A-Fella records picked him up for his more than buzzworthy ability to blend old school R&B samples and live instrumentation on a hip hop production. This skill set alone is only half of Kanye's musical aptitude but it may prove to be the footprint of his impact on music. Testimony of Kanye "The Great" as a producer can be found not only in the discographies of new artists like John Legend and Keyshia Cole, but his baller status is even further heightened, as he is in demand by a myriad of music executives to save or resurrect the careers of heavyweight veterans like Janet and Mariah Carey. Kanye's often imitated style and approach to production is what has kept him at the top of the game. His official biography states that he left the production booth to focus on his "tremendous talents as a lyricist and songwriter." A statement of that magnitude signifies that this man not only has something to say but that he is uniquely qualified to deliver it. His new video and single, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is the first offering from Late Registration and it reassures Roc-A-Fella that a Plan B to combat the sophomore jinks isn't even necessary. The production on "Diamonds" is signature Kanye. The lyrical style is conversational. The message is inspired. It proves that Kanye, though a college drop out, actually learned something, even if it's from the school of hard knocks. However the skeptic in me makes me wonder if it's enough. Is Kanye really here to change hip hop as we know it? Thankfully, he believes that he is. He believes that his music is medicine, like a cure for cancer. Compared to the other hip hop enlightened prophets, Kanye is still in grade school. But that may not be a criticism; it may be a testament of the growth and movement we can expect to experience. Commercial success aside, has Kanye been a breakthrough? Is his creative duality organic enough to cause the well needed paradigm shift in hip hop? He has been called the most important figure in hip hop today. He has proven himself as a producer however I am still standing with baited breath to see if he is indeed the revolutionary of modern music that he has been proclaimed to be. Late Registration is not only his latest solo project but his latest attempt to prove to naysayers, me included, his worth. Maybe Kanye is the greatest artist slash producer of our generation; maybe he does combine that rare creative schizophrenic genius that we are currently punishing Lauryn for. Or… maybe not. Late Registration hits stores August 30.

The article added to this is all about the famous Kanye West. He goes against everything that I have thought before this point (which was that old school was about the music and new school is about pleasing the audience and molding the minds of kids in the wrong way). Kanye West is true to his music and writes about what he knows and believes in. His music is also different then most rappers of this time era (in other words he does not talk about sex, drugs, and cars). Kanye writes about things that we can all relate to, like the hardness in life, and his life, god, and more. He is someone that will be remembered for the right reasons. He represents what he believes in, like his song Jesus Walks, he is a religious man and this just shows how dedicated he is to his religion. He also goes against the grain, he is doing something different then the majority of rappers are doing, that is risky because he could end up selling no records because people are expecting the explicet style of today. This proves a different point in my thesis, there is a chance that maybe hip hop has not changed for the worst, but that it just depends on the artist, I will try to find more informaiton to back this up.

Comment

I believe this is a very interesting topic. Although, it seems that you enjoy listening to rap, but in this blog you tell everyone how bad it is. For some strange reason this doesn't seem right to me if you enjoy listening to rap you should say why and not controdict yourself. I am very eager to hear more about old school hip hop/rap because I am not very familiar about it, and I enjoy the new stuff so I am hoping to discover a lot more.


Michael

Comment from Erin

Hey Arielle, I really think your topic makes a lot of sense and I have thought the same thing quite often. Most of hip hop is very degrading and it is an insult to women and also an insult to themselves for creating such garbage! I guess my advice to you would be to remember that there are some hip hop artists who actually do write nice songs that are meaningful, but the truth be told that most of those songs are never heard on the air. Why would people want to listen to an interesting and meaningful lyric when they can listen to a lyric about slapping a woman's butt that has a great beat? It sounds awful, but it is sadly true. I can't wait to hear more about hip hop and its interesting style. Good luck!
~Erin

Comment from

Stuff I never knew before!

Arielle! This is a lot of cool information. I don't listen to rap and have only heard of a few on the radio, but the reason is precisely what you are talking about in your I-Search. Rap used to be a cool form of people expressing their feelings in music. Now, rap is a bunch of words repeated over and over with no meaning. Usually, if I am listening to the radio by myself, I just let it play and don't pay attention to the lyrics. But if I'm in the car, with my mom or dad, I start listening to the lyrics of some of the songs on the radio, and I switch the station cause they're awful! I think that anyone can appreciate music, whatever kind, but I cannot connect with rap in most cases.

Is there a difference between Hip-Hop and Rap? I also totally agreed with the fact that out of those 49 people, only 6 of them are known to kids. I probably only know about 6 or 7. I am interested about learning more about Hip Hop and whether old school or new school is better.
~Sara

Here and now...

Many of the most popular songs of 2007 were from Hip Hop artists. For example one of the biggest songs was a song most people known called "Crank that Soulja Boy" from Soulja boy Tellem. In this song, the content is mostly explaining a dance, that pretty much is just appealing to the public. If someone that was a real artist writing their own songs, then wouldn't you think they would write about something more meaningful to them, not just to appeal to an audience. I believe that is what popular hip hop has turned into. Also, A big hip hop artist of this year being featured in an emence amount of the most popular songs of 2007 is T-Pain. The song he did by himself a year or so ago was called "I'm in love with a stripper". Now, this song is nothing more then degrating women and just vulgar words that are not needed to prove his point, I mean if your really in love with a stripper T-Pain, you wouldn't be talking about how you love her body...come on. Let's look at MIMS song "This is why I'm Hot". Well that title pretty much tells you what he is repeatedly saying throughout the entire song. How is that really interesting? I think Hip hop is being degrated to something that is just something to dance and jam to. Not so much an important form of music.

Back in the Day...

The "Pioneers" of the Hip Hop culture are the ones that started it all. To name the most influencial people in hip hop here they are: Afrika Bambaataa the "godfather of Hip hop", The Beastie Boys (the first major all white hip hop crew), Beat Junkies, Davey D, Doug E. Fresh, Dynamic Rockers/Dynamic Breakers, the Electric Boogaloos, Eminem, Fab 5 Freddy, Cypress Hill, Fubu, Sugar Hill Gang, the Fugees, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmixer DXT, MC Hammer, Hype Williams, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Jay-Z, Karl Kani, Kool Herc, KRS-One, Kurtis Blow, Marley Marl, Master P, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, NOGA, Native Tongues, New York City Breakers, Notorious B.I.G., NWA, P. Diddy, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Rock Steady Crew, The Roots, Run-DMC, Russell Simmons, Salt-n-Pepa, Snoop Dogg, TAKI 183, Tupac Shakur, UGA, Will Smith, Wu-Tang Clan, and X-Ecutioners. Now this is a VERY long list of Hip Hops Finest, but I felt if I was going to go through the process of comparing some of them to all new Hip hop stars then I would need the best, and that included all of them. Out of these about 49 Hip Hop legends about 6 are still putting out recent records and kids in highschool and younger would know (as a generalized statement) only about these 6. Is there a specific reason (besides death) that only a select few are still going strong in the hip hop industry? It could be because they changed their old school ways to fit the audience now. I will look at that further.

Which is more relatable to the audience, old school or new school hip hop... or maybe it depends on the artist?

I think that people will take different sides on the topic. Who knows, this question is asking how you relate to the music. People can relate to the music in different ways. How I see it, old school hip hop seemed less vulgar and had some meaning in the words they were saying. Not so much " Shake it for me". A lot of it was about how rough their lives were and you could tell that they had problems and they were letting out their anger and frustration through their music. I listen to a lot of the rappers now like T-pain for instance and its nothing more then trying to entertain us with a beat and repeating the same meaningless words the whole song. Yet, there are some rappers now also that do not follow that statement. We could bring Kanye West into this and look at his past albums. He is new school, but none of his music is about meaningless things, it is empowering music. Also we can look at Sir Mix-A-Lot the One Hit Wonder with "Baby Got Back" (I'm sure you can guess what thats about), he is pretty old school, from the early 90's. His song had nothing more then talking about womens behinds, is that relatable?

BIG NAMES THAT STARTED IT ALL

If you go back to when hip hop started it was not accepted by the public. Some thought of it as horrible and "america's worst slum". It was the Sugar hill Gang that made the biggest impact on the recorded hip hop music revolution which their controversial 1979 song " Rappers Delight".Before that though, there was Kool Herc (Clive Campbell). Before him there was no DJ or MC that made beats for dancers, or b-girls/boys. He made the first hip hop crew called cool Herc and the Herculords (1970's). A lot of people have thought that gangs and rap are interrelated. Generally speaking, gangs were here first and that is were rap/hip hop was derived from.