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Hip Hop Today

In: Film and Music

Submitted By JayreseJones
Words 436
Pages 2
When Nas created the phrase "Hip Hop is dead" it caused a discrepancy in the Hip hop community. Southern style artists such as Ludacris and Lil Wayne felt as if that was a direct insult to the music that they were making. But what many failed to realize was that Nas has achieved a great deal in his career, which made others artists work harder to compete. When you think of Hip Hop a few artists probably come to mind – Wale, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Drake, etc. When you hear them rap it is as if the beat was made to fit their flow instead of the other way around. Jay-Z once said that “once you hear a beat you must find your place in that beat”. In my opinion certain artists have perfected the pocket presence inside of a beat such as Kanye West, B.o.B. to name a few. Many of them hold the “southern ring tone music movement” which is said to be responsible for the Death of Hip hop. This movement was led by artist such as Soulja Boy, D4L, and New boys because their nursery rhymes lyrics have no meaning and its only purpose is to get the youth to the dance floor. Auto-Tune also threw the rap world into frenzy while artist like T-Pain mastered the craft others have totally massacred it. Once again Jay-Z came to the rescue with his single Death of Auto-tune and ended this well over-due phase in Hip Hop. As far as the current state of Hip Hop, it is on the rise again with the release of The Carter IV, G.o.o.d Kid M.a.a.d City and 2.0. Conscious rappers are taking the art back. I believe that Hip Hop needs to return to the art of storytelling where a kid from the streets of Brooklyn can tell his tale of hustling to pay bills for his single parent home. A child from Queens explaining in vivid detail his story of beating the odds and making it out of the inner city and being a leader for his people. Hip Hop is still very young and has a long way to go. With a new breed of artists on the rise such as Kendrick Lamar and J.Cole, this art form and outlet for many is not going anywhere any time soon. I believe that in fifty years kids will look back and marvel at the lyrics once spit by such artist as Notorious B.I.G, Nas and Tupac Shakur.

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