Is It All Over For Real Rap Now Then…?

Posted on by raphiphopevolution

Even though everywhere we look we are surrounded by total and utter crap rap music, that doesn’t mean the real stuff doesn’t exist out there. The problem is that all this new school music is blasted everywhere and anywhere thus it completely drowns out anything real and destroys most peoples chance of hearing any real music.

Now for a while myself I gave up completely as I was completely sick of hearing anything new because it was all the same. This made me tune out altogether and I refused to even listen to anyone who wasn’t from my generation of music. I didn’t care what anyone said about them, and I didn’t even go out looking for any new music, I just dumped them all in the same category; yes I’ll admit it I’m a stubborn person.

However, it all changed one day about three years ago when a song I had never listened to by an artist I had refused to listen to started playing. The song was ‘Crooked Smile’ by J Cole featuring TLC. I was shocked; it was real, it has lyrics, it had meaning, it had truth! Even more surprisingly it even had a nice beat and mixed with the vocals of TLC to blend a song that would appeal to the masses as well as getting a real message out there at the same time. One line that really caught my attention was “We ain’t picture perfect, but we worth the pictures still”. Here’s a link to the song for all you newbies who may not have heard this before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzzMOMkjm8A

Thus, I started looking into this guy J Cole, I looked back at all of his albums and mixtapes and it was similar to what I had grown up with! This is great I thought, finally someone I can listen to and respect in today’s generation. This wasn’t the usual crap that you hear everywhere; so was I wrong to completely ignore all new music and put them all in the same boat? Yes, I’ll admit it, I may have been slightly wrong to do this, however I don’t take back that 90% of it is still complete and utter crap. This does mean though that there is still about 10% of this generations rap music that is worthwhile listening to; artists like J Cole, Kendrick Lamar and a few others are still worth a listen.

J Cole comes across as someone who was born into the wrong generation of rappers. He is an old school rap artist whose stuck in the new generation; however this may not be a bad thing as he is teaching them that real old school hip-hop will never die!

I’m now kicking myself because I attended Rapture (Eminem’s concert) in Auckland about four years ago; and J Cole was playing as a warm up artist at his show. However, me being my stubborn self, I didn’t want to know and didn’t turn up until Eminem was playing!! If only I had known then what I do now, but hey I guess that’s what I get, you live and you learn. Luckily I actually managed to see J Cole live in Auckland last year and it was worth every cent!  Such a real artist that reminds us that real music does still exist in today’s music scene, you’ve just got to know what to look for and refuse to accept anything less!

#Itaintoveryet

This was him last year live in Auckland:

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Is it Music or Business?

Posted on by raphiphopevolution

Last week’s post was focused on what rap music has become, but this week’s post explains why us old hip-hop heads hate today’s music so much.

The music by all of these new school artists is focused around having a catchy beat to get people’s attention, and a repetitive hook of a few words that people can easily pick up and mumble along to. It works with a mass audience because its fast, simple, catchy and gets stuck in peoples head rather easily. A lot of the time there doesn’t need to be any real words, verses, or meaning to what they are saying, and the sad part is their fans don’t seem to care. This music is the complete opposite of old school rap, and it spits in the face of the people who created it and the struggles they had to go through to even be heard.

Why is this music being made then if its not real music? The real answer here is money. The industry can use it to sell whatever they want. Sex, alcohol, expensive cars, flashy clothes and jewellery all sell a certain lifestyle. Their fans buy into this lifestyle, they look up to it and admire it, they then want it for themselves. They want to have their own parties just like what they are seeing in these video clips and hearing in the songs, they want to become these people.

This is fuelling a constant cycle though as it is only making the industry even bigger and allowing more of these “rap” artists to come into the industry and make more of the same music, saying the same things, doing the same things, and selling the same lifestyle. If the people said no to this music, and didn’t listen to it then it wouldn’t exist, but because people are buying into this lifestyle which is so far from reality for most, it only carries on the cycle.

This is what rap music has become; it is no longer about the music being made, but instead about the money being made from it. I guess it really is smart on their part, its good business! But now that’s all it is- a business. Most in the rap music game today are complete sell-outs and are only doing it for what they can get out of it. There is no longer any passion behind what is being done, there is no art to creating the music, and there is no meaning behind what is being said.

New School “Rap” Music

Posted on by raphiphopevolution

When talking about new school rap music I am referring to this generations rap music, and that generally means any rap music that was made in the past ten years or any new rap artists that have come out in the past ten years. I am calling it rap, but only by association and only because that’s still how the music industry categories it; however, it is one hundred percent not something I would include in the real hip-hop and rap category. To most old hip-hop heads, today’s rap music is a complete insult to the genre and goes against everything that rap once represented.

When talking about this generation of rap it includes people such as Drake, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Lil Wayne, Lil Pump, Migos, Lil Uzi Vert, 6ix9nine, Young Thug, Lil Yachty and Future. Whether you’re a fan of rap music of not, you have still likely heard of these artists somewhere because they are all pushed in our faces as the stars of hip-hop and rap music.

There definitely are new styles of rap music now and one of the them has been named by many as ‘mumble rap’. Some of today’s artists seem to have embraced the name and are proud that that’s their style of music; however, it was never intended to be a compliment, it was meant to insult the style of “rap” that they have created, and to distance their music from real rap. Why the name mumble rap? It’s an accurate description of the music they create. Most of it is mumbling along to a beat where most people cannot understand a single word, if there are even words in there to begin with.

The problem is that all the young kids today are hearing is this so called “rap” because it is blasted non-stop all over the radio stations, social media, music streaming services and the likes of MTV. These “rap” artists are even winning music awards for their so-called rap music, which is an even further insult to the people who fought to bring rap music alive.

Whether people like the new school “rap” or not, the overwhelming consequence of it is that it blocks out the old school rap which means that no one ends up seeing or hearing the real rap that once existed at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Real rap still exists out there and us old hip-hop heads know where to find it; but the young kids wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Old School Rap Music

Posted on by raphiphopevolution

Old school rap music generally refers to music made in the 80’s and 90’s. Generally, most of the music made after this time isn’t worth the paper that its written on. Back in the 80’s and 90’s music was a real art, and rappers had real talent.

There was real meaning and lyricism behind everything that was written and said. The music was about the skill of rhyming and the lyrics spoken rather than the beat that its on. This meant that if you didn’t have any real rhyming skills, you wouldn’t make it far. This was a time of battle rap and freestyling which meant everything had to be authentic, creative and have an impact!

Back then rap music was an expression of how people felt and what was going on at the time. There was a lot of good party music made, but in addition to that a lot of the music spoke on social issues that were surrounding the times. They weren’t afraid to stand up for injustices and call things how they saw it. This music was something that could bring people together and unite them from all over.

Old school rap is a term referred to by people who can’t stand the music of today; and those people (us) are also referred to by many as old school hip-hop heads. I don’t mind this name actually because to me it means I respect and listen to good music; so, I’ll take it!

The biggest thing to take away about old school rap is that no matter who or what style of rap you listen to from those years, or even whether or not rap music was your type of music or not it was 100% REAL!