Is Rap Music Dead?

J

Jaxxhits

New member
This is a survey for everyone. and I want to know your perspectives about Today's rap music.

"A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society" theledgerdotcom

Is it dying or dead?
 
Do you wish to have opinions from members here? Surely you will not get much positive results from a website that is based upon recording instruments. No offense, but 'Rap' is typically something that is done over backing tracks, correct? Maybe I am wrong in my assumption, but most of us here, are trying to do every instrument recording ourselves. I suppose that may be an arrogant assumption. You can still record 'rap' in your 'home recording' studio. This just is probably not the best forum for the genre. .

No offense meant.
 
Frick no it's not dead. Just because it has shifted into a more negative view of things (at least as far as the mainstream rap is concerned) doesn't mean it is dying or dead. Kanye/JayZ/Eminem/Drake....on and on the list of famous rappers goes.
 
I likes me some good rap. But it takes a whole lot more than the run of the mill stuff that IMO, seems to permeate the genre. As an outsider to the whole thing, I might sound like someones mom, saying it all sounds the same, but in this case, I would have to say that it really does for the most part. It is one thing to do something unique in a typical environment, it is redundant to copy the same thing over, and over again. Pop country stuff gives me the same 'WTF' feeling. The same feel, the same chords, the same, same, just leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. The last place I want my mouth, is from a place that has no heart, no soul, no creative point. If it sounds, tastes, or smells like ass, my mouth wants nothing to do with it.

That being said, naw, rap aint dead. It is the fire that created it, that so many seem to want to emulate, over and over, has become redundant in my opinion. Those who take it forward, and do something creative with it, are not in any way dead. In fact, quite inspiring. The genre called 'Rap' in general, yeah, I'd call id dead myself. But that is just my own opinion.

Sorry Jon, that is just my opinion yo! :D
 
jimmys69 said:
I likes me some good rap. But it takes a whole lot more than the run of the mill stuff that IMO, seems to permeate the genre. As an outsider to the whole thing, I might sound like someones mom, saying it all sounds the same, but in this case, I would have to say that it really does for the most part. It is one thing to do something unique in a typical environment, it is redundant to copy the same thing over, and over again. Pop country stuff gives me the same 'WTF' feeling. The same feel, the same chords, the same, same, just leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. The last place I want my mouth, is from a place that has no heart, no soul, no creative point. If it sounds, tastes, or smells like ass, my mouth wants nothing to do with it.
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yes! that is exactly what I always say! my brother likes dubstep and rap and a FEW rock songs (he used to like only rock songs, he's been converted :( ), and he always says avenged sevenfold sounds the same in every song?!?!? he is so ignorant, avenged sevenfold have most type of genres I like put into 5 albums - some songs have a similar feel but if he actually listened to them he would realise they were completely different! where as I have heard quite a few dubstep songs and they all seem to be the same apart from a slightly different rhythm and tone in the 'wub wubs' and the 'eeeks'. rap - well, it literally is the same all the way through, quite a few songs usually have someone else featured in them, but how can you buy an album of a rapper knowing that it is the same person rapping in the same voice with little tune over 10 - 15 songs?! it would be so boring. the only thing that would change is the backing track and that leads onto pop - the chord progressions are so booooooring, always very similar and not much variation in tune.

my rant over but one thing I can say is - I give them respect for getting where they are and working hard to do so, but that leads me on to why I hate people from the x factor so much.....(a nobody to a pop star in a few months!?!?).
 
Jaxxhits said:
This is a survey for everyone. and I want to know your perspectives about Today's rap music.

"A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society" theledgerdotcom

Is it dying or dead?
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You're talking about apples and oranges. Rock and roll was also once considered to corrupt young people's minds, blah blah blah. Does that mean that it died back in the 50's, 60's, or 70's??? One has nothing to do with the other. I'm sure rap music sales are doing just fine.

Having siad that, I agree with Jimmy. This website is about MUSICIANS playing REAL INSTRUMENTS. That has very little to do with rap.
 
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I hate to be "that guy", but how does one define a musical genre as "dead"? if it's a definition of popularity then we could ask the same of all popular music genres of the past 70 years (because lets not forget that "popular music" is still very young in terms of the arts as a whole) at one time or another; is psychedelia dead, is funk dead, is reggae dead, is blues dead or have the genres simply evolved into something else more popular leaving the original less popular? all of these genres have sparked so many new genres that even the question of popularity is a difficult one, especially when used in such broad terms. is rap dead is like asking if cars are dead; people still buy cars but the model T ford is not as popular as it once was. if you asked "are 90’s ford’s dead?" then you can at least quantify it. As with music, people may not have the same tastes as they did but newer manifestations of the genres have replaced the old. Rap, like rock, is now split into so many sub genres that all have their own markets and fans. for example, i love late 90's grunge, but i'm not a fan of "death core" or "rap metal", but in broad stokes i can still be classed as liking rock music. assuming we mean "dead" as to be not as popular as it was at it's peak; if asking the same question "is rock dead" then i'd have to say no. if asked "is new metal dead" then i'd say "probably"

This evolution of music, and all arts, is part of the nature of the arts. Music, more than some, is victim to trends and fads due to its link with different youth culture movements, and often it is the choice of music that defines these movements. “hippies”, “Yuppies”, “mods”, “rockers”, “grebs”, “rude boys”, “chavs”, “moshers” are all distinguishable by their choice of clothing, life style, and musical taste. Now, last time I checked, the number of “mods” in my local area is much lower than 50 years ago, but is that because the music associated with it has “died” or because society has changed, or both, or neither?

In terms of “Rap” all sounding the same, this all comes down to the ear of the beholder. To me, all paintings in a similar style all look identical but to judge them as the same misses the point. All art has at its roots a desire to express what is within the artist. For this expression to reach as many people as possible people do one of two things; either they go out of their way to create something completely new and bold that has no proven track record of reaching peoples attention, or they embellish on what is already, or has been, popular, using it as a backbone to their work to build upon. Evolution isn’t the sudden jump from one thing to another with no obvious link, it’s a progression from one thing to another, taking the best bits of something and adapting to fit the needs of the new. Can you hear the similarities between the Beatles and Kanye West? Maybe not, but they’re there!

I personally am not a fan of “rap” or it’s many, many sub genres, but I’d never belittle it because it’s their form of self expression, and there are people who can and do relate to this. However, the “quality” of this self expression varies wildly, and is much like public speaking. Some people can stand in front of 100,000 people and share their views in a well presented way that people can easily relate to, whilst others just stumble over their words trying to put a point across but ultimately failing. The internet and lack of “quality control” on things like youtube and other social media has meant that there is a lot of music available to the whole world at the click of the button that is like the speaker stumbling over their words; they have a point to make but haven’t acquired the skills to make it in such a way that people will fully listen. Sometimes they have a very good point to make, and do it very well, but the point has been made before, in which case people very quickly tune out.

I fear I am starting to rant so I should probably conclude; “rap” music isn’t dead. Some genres of it are certainly less popular than they were but the genre as a whole is now so entrenched in main stream culture that it’ll probably never die, but it will continue to grow and adapt as society grows and adapts. A better question may have been “is rap music as popular as it once was as a whole” in which case the answer may be very different.
 
Im not a fan of rap at all ,but when you stop and really listen, and I mean listen to all the layers, I have to admit that it takes a pretty talented and creative mind to come up with all that. It may not be all real instruments but it still takes skill. I think rap music is doing just fine.
 
I think the most interesting bits, that I hear anyway (which is probably not all that much), has largely morphed into something else... like this:



'twas ever thus.
 
Justsomeguy said:
Can you hear the similarities between the Beatles and Kanye West? Maybe not, but they’re there !
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I didn't want to requote the whole quote but let me say, Justsomeguy, that the entire post was, well, "if I'd had to wait all day for that response, I would by no means have been disappointed !". It was packed with tasty morsels.

No, rap isn't dead. But it has been killed.
What I mean by that is that it has been house trained and subsumed into the general culture of many countries. Rap turns up in all manner of adverts on TV, on films meant to be family friendly, in church meetings, in comedy skits, at sports events, kids programmes. It's not weird to perform rap at an event with royalty or presidential types. It appears in one way or another in the songs of many of popular music's genres and subgenres and some of it's better known artists are on TV, adverts, movies etc. It's not unusual to hear rap segments in a variety of different languages voiced by middle aged white men or indeed, people of quite a span of ages. Many of the people that were most vehemently against it now don't fight it and may even tap a foot or nod a head to the beats, sometimes. Despite the violence and "misogyny" associated with it, it is nowhere close to being as frightening as it was during the "Fear of a black planet"/2 live crew era.
Rap is more prevalent now than it ever was but the genre is at least 32 years old. The first piece of rap I ever heard was at some party in the late December of 1979 {"Rapper's delight"} and it had been about for some years before that in it's underground guise. It's older than grunge and virtually all the offshoots of metal. It predates the onsurge of home recording by years. John Lennon and Phil Lynott were still alive when it first came above the water line. Ronald Reagan wasn't president yet, Mrs Thatcher had only been PM 7 months and Nelson Mandela was still in jail with no hopes of ever coming out. The iron curtain showed no signs of rusting, Kidcage and Guitaristic weren't even conceived. So it's been a long and involved road for rap and it's now where all the bad boy genres like punk, funk, ragga, rock'n'roll etc reside - not dead, but killed. House trained and subsumed into the general culture.
 
grimtraveller said:
The iron curtain showed no signs of rusting, Kidcage and Guitaristic weren't even conceived. So it's been a long and involved road for rap and it's now where all the bad boy genres like punk, funk, ragga, rock'n'roll etc reside - not dead, but killed. House trained and subsumed into the general culture.
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Dude, if you've not, go and read Theodore Adorno's "Mass Culture Theory" right now! your last sentence basically sums up his whole theory in a much nicer, much simpler way :) (i will say try and find a website or overview of it rather than actually reading the book/paper as he intentionally writes in the most convoluted way as one part of his theory was that if you were "intelligent" enough to understand his writing you were worthy of hearing his theory, otherwise you were just some "prole" and it was of no concern to you! in my "challenged accepted" kind of mentality i bought the book and tried reading it...... i still have no idea what he was actually saying but it does make a great coaster!)

and i'm glad you found my rant interesting, i did edit a lot of stuff out in case of offending people as i do tend to get waaaaaay to into this kind of debate :)
 
guitaristic said:
I agree with you that most rap artists fall into the same stereotypical songs!
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But I think THAT is the death bell.
When a genre starts morphing back into itself and just about every "new" release is a stereotypical copy of the previous one...that's death.
It can go on that way for many, many years because each new generational wave wants to take their stab at it...but it's dead.

I think a lot of that comes from the overuse of canned beats/sounds that are simply recycled over and over and over...but with some new trim and paint jobs.
A lot of genres do this...but IMO, Hip/Hop/Rap does it the most and the worst. IT'S ALL THE SAME...and unlike other genres that copy from previous releases, it really has little hear-n-soul which can often carry otherwise boring music...
...it's just a lot of assembled parts with some "rap" layered over it all...not to mention, 90% of the rap messages have also been recycled to death.
They should introduce some melody/harmony to it...becuase that's about the only thing that can give it a new spin, otherwise, just the beats and looped backing tracks with monotone rapping.... :yawn:
 
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