The Age Old Question New School vs Old School

There has been a lot of talk within the hip hop and rap community about whether people are feeling the new generation of rappers. Artists like Migos, Future or Lil' Pump get a bad rep from "hip hop purist" who claim their lyrics aren't up to the standards set before them. And to be fair saying Gucci Gang 53 times in your song isn't going to make anyone think you're the lyricist of the year, but is that all there is to hip hop and rap?

After being in its own musical world for decades hip-hop and rap have become a regular influence in pop music. You can hear the "boom bap" being used in almost every genre, from country to rock. While this commercialization has been good for record companies it has left the genre with growing pains that we are still trying to overcome to this day.

When rap burst onto the scene it was written off as a gimmick, you had songs like the Rapping Duke that tried to capitalize of the "growing trend". But the essence of hip hop and rap can not be manufactured by people who do not understand it. It takes a producer and a lyricist who understand the lives of their listeners. The sad truth is those lives aren't always so glamorous and we love hip hop and rap because despite how ugly the reality may be, these artist make something out of it and go from street hustlers to entrepreneurs and CEOs. But the old generation didn't like it, wanted to censor it and make it go away. They made the genre jump through hoops just to hold onto the platform that they built themselves.

Hip hop and rap had to overcome that censorship, artists like Public Enemy, NWA and Tupac Shakur were scrutinized like no other artist had been before. Rappers who were telling the story of their life were being told they were polluting the minds of young people. Despite the fact that television and movies regularly show people shooting guns and doing all manner of things above and beyond what rappers would talk about.

Politicians go so far as to claim that rappers are the ones to blame for the state of the urban community. They see the symptom of the problem they created and call it the disease. But ultimately there has been little they could do to slow the rap game down and the style continues to take over. So when I see these same people trying to put down today's rappers for telling their story I have to take a step back.

It's strange to see a genre that fought to be able to make music about whatever they wanted turn their backs on the next generation who is doing that same thing. People will claim all new rappers sound the same, dress the same and act the same, but there is diversity in today's hip-hop and rap community, people are just blinded by their nostalgia. The new generation is trying to express themselves just as N.W.A did. Their songs have more depth of meaning than they are often given credit for. But folks from the old school have a built up expectation of what hip hop should sound like and anything outside of what they already like is rejected, ironically, just like the previous generation did to them in the 80's and 90's.

If you're a hip hop and rap fan you should let this new generation grow and find their way. All artist grow and develop as time passes on and one of the greatest things to witness is the transformation our favorite artists go through.