At one point I considered myself pretty knowledgeable when it came to all things hip hop. Over the years i've engaged in countless debates about rap styles, lyrical content, influence, etc. Then, the pace of hip-hop was much slower. You actually had time to digest an evaluate an artists potential. Hip-hop was a puzzle with the big pieces! Rappers easily fitted into their respective categories and were judged as such. Greatness could be observed in several genres as artist found unique ways to etch their names on the list of top MC's.
Now I dont want to be mistaken for the guy that's stuck in a certain era and can't embrace the evolution of the game, because that would be totally counter productive to the culture i've grown to love. Its just coming at me too fast right now. Feels like i'm being force fed my favorite meal. I'm fully aware that there's money to be made out there and by no means would I discourage anyone from trying to get theirs. But from a personal stand point it has become extremely difficult for me to partake, in the way that i would like to, because of my inability to keep up.
One of the first signs of change for me was when the popularity of the mixtape started to take off. Wasn't too bad at first, was like a nice sample of things to come, a taste test before the album. Enhanced your anticipation in one way or another depending on quality. So now instead of one, you got two albums you have to devote proper time into in order to correctly gauge its content. Which could be cool at times cause we often thirst for a little something extra from our favorites. But with so many new artist on the come up, coupled with the refusal of the more seasoned rappers to hang it up, its a bit much. You got two and three mixtapes from one artist out at the same time with a album release date coming shortly thereafter. Features, leaks, beef and battle verses, freestyles on random radio stations, alongside numerous Instagram bars you have to struggle to keep up with.
I'm a huge fan of all these things but it's so over saturated right now. In the late nineties Dmx dropped two platinum albums in back to back years and people were some what shocked as to how he pulled it off. At that point it was sort of ground breaking. Didn't feel forced at all, not to mention it was high in quality. It's like i'm being robbed of my will to anticipate. Discussions about hip-hop have to be rushed now. Can't focus too long on one artist, or one collabo, because you have to quickly shift to the next big thing. I feel like a lot of good dialect is being lost in the shuffle. I miss those days when we would contend about the hottest verse of the year. The conversation had real depth, now that can be debated daily and still not come up with a solid concrete top five.
I could remember when juveniles' "400 Degrees" dropped. I was living in Michigan at the time. To this day it's the only album I know that bumped for two summers straight!!! Cars would be literally passing eachbother in traffic playing the same damn song. That was beautiful to me. Hip-hop felt like a close knit family then, now it's like everybody moved away and it's hard to keep in touch. I guess i'm the melancholy uncle who misses Sunday dinners at big mommas' house. Kind of like that old 106 and Park commercial where a group of teenagers were pictured sitting outside on the steps and someone yells "hey, 106 is on" and the streets quickly empty. It felt like hip-hops' voice was much louder then because we were all yelling in unison. Of course thats all a matter of opinion, but my opinion nonetheless.
At this rate, its evolving at a pace where i'm regrettably unable to give a good listen to as many artist as i would like but i'll remain supportive of all artist in there quest to demonstrate their craft on the hip-hop stage. Well maybe not "ALL", but thats a different conversation for another day. So even though I may prefer to always view hip-hop as a scene from RAP CITY in da basement,(such a wonderful space in time), i'll lend my ear to some new bars being dropped by the next generation as much as time permits. Because honestly, if I had the opportunity i'd probably be trying to drop a few myself- CANT KNOCK DA HUSTLE
