Welcome To aBlackWeb

Register

Hip Hop and R&B has never been as wack and corny as it is now

Los216 said:
You know how people always clown on The BET Awards and The Hip Hop Awards? The truth is the actual show was never the problem. It was always the music. I don't wanna be that guy posting 90's and early 2000's Rap and R&B videos but look at the songs on the top of the charts. Or look at what's selling. Look at these videos. The interviews suck because the music sucks. Niggas can't even do a functional interview with any sort of insight these days.

The sad part is with the way social media is setup today the game is rigged in favor of every artist now. All of them. There's no artist who's at a disadvantage. They all have the ability and the means to create their own platform so why is the music so bad?

So I'm from Cleveland. I remember in the year 2001 my cousins were playing a lot of Three 6 Mafia and Project. They're from Memphis. I'm from Cleveland Ohio. It literally took years for their music to really start buzzing in our city. Without a social media platform you had to rely on radio play, some type of TV presence, or just word of mouth. Unless you were buy CD's every week it was very hard to keep up with the music if it wasn't local. Internet forums were just getting started back then. Artist had to really grind to get their music out there so you know if their shit was going all across the country that they had some level of support or interest from the fans and listeners. That's not the case now. You don't have to grind to get your shit out there. Plus the bar is so fucking low on music now it's like people are afraid to say that some artist just suck.

The grinding and hustling element of the music is missing and that was one of the main things that garnered respect. It's not like that anymore.
Click to expand...

I do think artists grind just as hard or harder now when it comes to getting their music played and getting on. It’s just a lot of em can’t rap for real. But they do everything they can to be seen.
 
Los216 said:
You know how people always clown on The BET Awards and The Hip Hop Awards? The truth is the actual show was never the problem. It was always the music. I don't wanna be that guy posting 90's and early 2000's Rap and R&B videos but look at the songs on the top of the charts. Or look at what's selling. Look at these videos. The interviews suck because the music sucks. Niggas can't even do a functional interview with any sort of insight these days.

The sad part is with the way social media is setup today the game is rigged in favor of every artist now. All of them. There's no artist who's at a disadvantage. They all have the ability and the means to create their own platform so why is the music so bad?

So I'm from Cleveland. I remember in the year 2001 my cousins were playing a lot of Three 6 Mafia and Project. They're from Memphis. I'm from Cleveland Ohio. It literally took years for their music to really start buzzing in our city. Without a social media platform you had to rely on radio play, some type of TV presence, or just word of mouth. Unless you were buy CD's every week it was very hard to keep up with the music if it wasn't local. Internet forums were just getting started back then. Artist had to really grind to get their music out there so you know if their shit was going all across the country that they had some level of support or interest from the fans and listeners. That's not the case now. You don't have to grind to get your shit out there. Plus the bar is so fucking low on music now it's like people are afraid to say that some artist just suck.

The grinding and hustling element of the music is missing and that was one of the main things that garnered respect. It's not like that anymore.
Click to expand...
You old af but PREACHHH
 
Los216 said:
I know I'm not the only person that has to Google the artist when some of these threads pop up. Who are these niggas? lololololol

It's not like I avoid the music entirely but somewhere in the last 10 years it feels like the credentials to get in the culture went out the window. The things that we largely considered one off or wild back in the day are norms now. Things like tattoos and drug abuse are so fucking normal that if you're an artist with no face tats and don't abuse drugs you're an outsider. Niggas aren't even rapping about just smoking weed anymore. These niggas got whole mixtapes about being on perks and going through all these ranges of emotions. Nigga you need help not music lolololol.

I was looking at that thread about JD and female rappers and I didn't wanna say it but the truth is that none of them female rappers move the needle. None of them. I love Cardi B but her music does not move the needle. Meg The Stallion? I'm, not listening to a whole tape pf her shit bruh. I can't sit through it. It's just so easy for all of these artist to really get put on. They're really fumbling the rock if we're being honest. You all have this platform and the music still falls flat.
Click to expand...

I think folks started rapping about the drugs when our generation started making lil songs about non weed drugs. Niggas had got on X after high school and we were these young niggas role models
 
The younger posters are gonna roast this thread. Lmao

I feel that the media (aka radio & television) pushes the same stuff all across the globe now. Like the thread starter stated in his 2nd post, back in the day you had to be really good from your area 1st to even have a chance for nation wide success. So that helped cultivate different sounds and styles nation wide when you did get put on. It was a more diverse music selection nation wide being pushed by the main stream media.

I'm old enough to remember when the West Coast was popping and the Bay sounded different from L.A., when Texas had their big run and sounded different from, New Orleans and Memphis, I remember NYC having many different styles of hip hop coming out of the city alone, and Atlanta being super diverse with acts like Outkast, Goddie Mobb being different than Pastor Troy, shit Chicago and even Cleveland was blowing up!

It was so diverse and so many different styles of music to pick and choose from that got play all over the radio and television. You didn't have to go search for different sounding stuff or lyricism as hard as you do now because the actual main stream media outlets showcased it if the artist were good enough and original
 
GOAT said:
Im same age as u and felt the same way about hip hop in middle school & HS

The ringtone era was so trash. The south was pushing garbage like Dem Franchise Boys, D4L, & Ying Yang

i never fucked with the popular NY shit like Cam, Dipset, Ja Rule, ect.



The thing is tho u need to look for it. BET and MTV alway gonna push the popular music and truth is most people in general are idiots.

Dope music always gets dropped and with the internet u can find it if u really want to. Might not be most popular but who cares.
Click to expand...

BET and MTV would at least give regional or "local" rappers a shot and would throw their videos in rotation for a moment. Same for radio stations; before Clear Channel and 'nem started buying and consolidating radio stations, you could walk into a radio station with copies of your vinyl, chop it up with the DJ's and station manager, and have your shit playing that day.
 
Last edited:
It's a generational thing.

When I was a kid in the 80s, old people used to say that music sucks and that Rap was the problem. They couldn't sing, they didn't play instruments, it's not music, yada yada yada.

Looking back they had a point, but the Hip Hop that came out in the late 80s was apocalyptic.

Then when the mid 90s came around, all of the rappers that we grew up on were old and washed up (KRS, Rakim, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, etc.) and a new generation came up. It happens every generation; first the elders say that the new music sucks and that the former generation was better, then out of nowhere a new style pops up and sooner or later there's a renaissance. Happens every 10 years or so.

I'm sure in the 70s there were older people that said the new music sucks and the music in the 50s and 60s was better.
 
The biggest problem is that there's no longer any quality control or vetting process for rappers to go through anymore, same for producers/beatmakers. The internet and bootleg software created the conditions where anyone willing to buy a mic can make music and put it out. Mind you, this has been the case since the late 90's, but nobody was really getting put on like that until the Myspace age of social media.

anyways...

Rappers used to have to show and prove and be willing to invest in themselves and their craft. You had to be willing to spend money unless you knew someone that had a recording space to cut a demo. 2" tape ran about $250 a reel, DAT's were $15-$20 each, studio time cost by the hour with $50/hr for raggedy ass demo studios to well over $200/hr for actually good studios. Acetates cost money to cut, white label vinyl cost money and was a complete loss 'cause you had to hand those out to DJ's for free.

You wanna be a rapper? Shit ain't cheap and you had better believe in your own skills and be serious about it before you step in the booth.

Nowadays??? Shit, your homeboy that got the bootleg FL Studio and plugins, a $50 keyboard off Ebay, $30 audio interface, and a USB mic will hook you up. Being a rapper is something you can decide to do while drinking and playing 2k early in the day, and you could conceivably have your first song recorded before dinner, and you can walk away from it with nothing really lost if it don't work out.

Thanks to the internet and social media, you no longer need an A&R to fuck with you to get a deal, just followers on IG, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. You can build a buzz and eventually attract the attention of labels despite your music being trash and sounding EXACTLY like the last hot rapper with the same bars and everything. Drop a "mixtape" or two and now you have a solid fanbase. You could actually start doing local shows off of mediocre shit as long as you have fans on social media and all without someone like an A&R to tell you "yo homie, this shit is garbage, go back to the lab and make some better shit".
 
CeLLar-DooR said:
Jay, Nas, BIG, Pac, Outkast were all 'mainstream' artists
Click to expand...

True but at the same time, there were artist that wasn't getting the same shine that were arguably just as good in some people's eyes. Mainstream back then was pushing a trend that was going on as well. Flashy, drugs, party, sex etc... That is why roots came out with the song and video "What they do". Also, most of us were younger at that time so the music was aimed mostly at us. How can a 40yr old person get mad at a 19yr old not making music for him ?
 
Do y'all have friends that tried to rap? So back when I was in High School there was a couple of my friends who tried to rap. I'd say 2-3 of them were actually good. Like they had bars, punchlines, could ride a beat, charisma. They never got put on though. One of them got invited to go on tour with Jeezy in 2008 and he ended up doing two shows on the tour. He did 1 song in each show and it was a feature with him and another dude. After the second show he got sent home and that was it. Rap career ended before it started.

So fast forward to last year and 2 more of my friends (we're all the same age btw) decide that they want to be rappers now. Mind you that we all know each other, grew up together and all that shit. These 2 niggas literally started rapping from nothing. Like it was never a thing that they did back in the day. They suck. They're not good. They my friends but their music is trash. These niggas have done more shows and sold more mixtapes, had more downloads than any of my other friends. They even have a lil fans base and I swear to god I'm not being a hater because they will tell you themselves that they're not close to as good as our other friend who was on tour with Jeezy.

These niggas have not had to put in as much effort as our other friend did in 2008 in 2018. I mean they literally decided to start rapping on a whim and we able to have more success and support than people who were better and had to go through a fucking gauntlet just to get put on.
 
Los216 said:
I used to laugh when people said stuff like this but there's so much weirdo shit out there with music that industry plants are not even shocking to me anymore.
Click to expand...
Go on his page on YouTube and he only had 5 songs poster. 1 each year and some spanding back to 2016 and they have 6 million views and 12 million and shit. Songs that I never heard or got any play, and all of the comments are overwhelmingly popular. It's like automated bots and shit.



Damn I sound like hater lmao. Sorry y'all.
 
Every era of rap since I was a kid always had its wack and corny rappers.

Some of them were even pushed to the front and sold albums.

My issue is in this new era ALL of the hiphop seems to be wack and corny.

Real talk for the younguns on here, who is the Nas or Rakim or Jay Z of your era?

Even the Lil Wayne's and J. Cole's and Kendrick Lamar's are all in their 30s and from an earlier generation now.

Nas and LL Cool J were teenagers when they came out and made some of their illest music.

Show me the cat that is 16 to 25 or has come out in the last 5 years or so who is putting out quality music.
 
Worldwide said:
Every era of rap since I was a kid always had its wack and corny rappers.

Some of them were even pushed to the front and sold albums.

My issue is in this new era ALL of the hiphop seems to be wack and corny.

Real talk for the younguns on here, who is the Nas or Rakim or Jay Z of your era?

Even the Lil Wayne's and J. Cole's and Kendrick Lamar's are all in their 30s and from an earlier generation now.

Nas and LL Cool J were teenagers when they came out and made some of their illest music.

Show me the cat that is 16 to 25 or has come out in the last 5 years or so who is putting out quality music.
Click to expand...

1563135395443.png 150297

uproxx.com

Is This 17-Year-Old The Future Of Old-School Hip-Hop?

You’ll be amazed at how well this teenager can spit.
uproxx.com uproxx.com










Sadly, this is all I got. A-F-R-O is the truth, but the real truth is that dude is pretty much it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top