50 Years Later, Is There Anything Left Of Hip Hop?

Now there’s a universal voice, and the verses sound and feel like a string of buzzphrases. Any song could be by anyone from anywhere. The songs convey a shallow, one-size-fits-all black cool. It’s hip hop muzak. On another podcast JPEGMafia and Danny Brown talked about how impossible the old methods of beat-making were, and how layered the rapping. Hip hop these days can be made more quickly, easily, and cheaply, and can spread farther faster. Anyone, anywhere can do it, without vetting, and find an audience.

This resonates a lot. I don’t understand today’s rap music. Today’s rap is cheap, both musically and lyrically. It’s created to sell, not to create or to educate. Rap has lost its soul.