Hip Hop: Where's the Beat- Where's the lyrics?

I find it quite amazing the way a music genre has crossed so many borderlines and transformed a generation! Back to when the first rap song was officially noted, or at least by mainstream America, it was Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, which ironically they were not even a real group! They performed a song that was strictly made for the sake of cashing in on a supposed trendy genre and it became an instant classic, due to its simple lyrics and catchy beat which was sampled from some other group!

Fast forwarding to more modern times, we find people still bobbing to the beat, but the lyrics are just plain awful! It’s funny because it’s like the songs that have some of the best lyrics don’t have the greatest beats. This seems to be one of Nas’ problems, even though his words are saying something, but because it still is a song it has to have a tolerable beat!! The same can be said for Tupac Pre-Me Against The World and Post- Makaveli (The Don Killuminati: The Seven Day Theory), because his words were more militant and conscious, but the beats were not up to par! Looking at the state of hip hop now and hearing D4L sing Laffy Taffy, makes me want to vomit! I must admit that it’s a stupid funny song, but it’s still a bad song! The first time I heard that song was on July 1, while attending a family reunion in Atlanta! All the people in the car laughed so hard that people began to look at us! Now, that damn song has been getting airtime in Detroit since about the end of September and beginning of October! It’s one thing to have a good song and like it, but it’s something entirely different to have a song embeded in your head by the radio, when it plays that song a million times a day! After a while, yeah it becomes catchy and you may even dance to that damn song, but it’s not due to you having a genuine like for it, more so because your only other recourse was to change the station, only to find it playing on the other station as well. I simply pop in a cd player and listen to something of my choosing, but that was before someone broke into my car. Now I find myself listening to a lot more AM Sport stations!

Anyhow, back to the music! Depending where you are, there are said to be several so-called best in Hip Hop! As far as my money is concerning we are all bias just a bit, because of our geographic position! If you’re from the East Coast, you’ll probably swear that someone from NYC is the best! If you’re from the South, it’ll be someone from down there, but you get the point! Unfortunately, the problem with the music still remains! Poor lyrics with great beats or Great lyrics with poor beats!

Thankfully you do have some that but out a decent balance, but not many! Actually, what you’ll find is certain artists will come up with some decent lyrics and find a good beat to match and put out a good song, that we can bob our head to and is actually saying something. For example, Talib Kweli is real nice with the flow and the words, but he’s never going to garner the attention of a 50 cent or a Jay Z! Kweli has a conscious side, but his beats are just okay or tolerable! One of his more popular songs “Get by” has a nice mix of both! Talib doesn’t seem to cater to mainstream or underground! It seems like he just makes music, but he definitely gives thought to his words!! I like diversity in hip-hop, so I don’t expect everyone to be the same! Hip Hop could definitely use some creativity in it’s life right now! So, whom do you give your vote to in this arena known as hip- hop!

My Top 15 Hip Hop Artists: In no particular order!

• Tupac Shakur- balance ( message and beats)
  
• Jay Z- extraordinary flow
  
• LL Cool J- longevity
  
• Rakim- ahead of his time
  
• Dr. Dre – beats for days with an okay rap game
  
  
• Ice Cube- balance (political and ghetto)
  
• Scarface- balance (message with lyrics)
  
• Ludacris- funny as hell with a flow
  
• Run DMC- pioneers
  
• EPMD- crazy back and forth flow
  
  
• Snoop Dogg—(Pre No Limit- just smooth with the lyrics and had a hella flow)
  
• Nas – ( music with a message)
  
• B.I.G.—lyrics, and funny as hell with an undeniable flow
  
• Salt N Peppa -- c’mon, they represented for the ladies the right way!!
  
• DMX—(music with a message-pre Great Depression)
  
  Love for these artist too, but somebody had to be on the outside looking in!
  
  Juvenile
  Bienie Sigel
  Too Short
  Kool G Rap
  Method Man
  Redman
  KRS One
  Eminem
  

Okay, so my list may seem flawed, but these are people that I could listen to and they could flow on a whole subject. Most of them were diversified in their messages! You didn’t have to say “What are they talking about” or “Oh that beat is hot” and then not like the song after hearing the words. Granted these artist curse and use hip-hop vocabulary as well, but it’s something more behind their music.

Rap History (subjective)

Until Next time...