The year 2003 marked the first time the top 10 spots in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart were filled by urban artists. Almost half of those songs were by hip-hop artists. Fast forward to the year 2010, when anyone thinks of top hip-hop they think Jay-Z, T.I., Lil’ Wayne and Kanye. Since 2003, the mantra “hip-hop is dead” has spread and multiplied as the market becomes saturated by auto-tune, off-beat dances, and songs that make even the most liberal hip-hop heads squirm. The more popular and vast the urban/ hip-hop genre becomes, the more it is despised.
So the question is, what happened? How did we go from a culture where anything that even fell into the genre became gold to an endless stream of scrutiny over lyrics, production value and video quality? It seems that the more mainstream hip-hop became, the more we began to question how it should be. When hip-hop was just a bunch of inner-city kids with microphones, we had no problem with the production quality of the releases because the following wasn’t mainstream.
As suburban kids began to listen the culture itself changed. Suburbia didn’t want an explanation of how life was for an inner-city child. This type of reality and blatant truth telling in the eyes of clean America didn’t sit too right. Instead, hip-hop began to shape itself to be accepted by more than just its original fan base. Cue the removal of lyrics and the multiplication of the one-word chorus. The inventive sampling that reshaped old soul music became single drum kick repetitions. Suburbia doesn’t want to think, it wants to dance.
Nothing lasts forever, and before you know it dance becomes boring and lame to the great kids of suburbia. So, inquisitive hip-hop heads, what’s rapper to do when the attractiveness of rhyming one-syllable words becomes cliché? Why, you auto-tune yourself! Now, the same ignorant statements can be repeated while sounding like a drugged up robot. It doesn’t stop there, because even if you do possess an ounce of intelligence, people still can’t understand what is being said over all the editing done to the voice. Auto-tune’s strong grip on hip-hop, and now general pop music, cannot be underestimated, because even with Jay-Z’s “Death of Auto-tune” (featuring production by the emo-auto-tune king Mr. Kanye West) could not put the medium to rest. Not only has hip-hop become a wasteland of bargain bin pop music, it is now made to require the listener to say “Arigatou, Mr. Roboto” at the end of every verse.
Underneath the pile of recycled production and lyrics, true hip-hop does exist. The music that began in the ‘80s, flourished in the ‘90s, and rebelled in the first decade of the new millennium. As a new decade begins, maybe a new form of hip-hop will emerge. Maybe rappers will realize their résumé’s do not include the word “singer’s” and lay-off the auto-tune and singsong lyrics. Perhaps some will also write their lyrics down with help from a dictionary instead of mispronouncing words because they needed one with three syllables to rhyme with “booty bounce.” Or maybe hip-hop will continue the “take that, take that” culture but instead of flossing Bentley’s and Benz’s the ability to pay for healthcare will be the new millionaire’s symbol. Imagine Swizz Beats on a MediCare club track. We can only speculate.
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