As I got older, rap only got better. Yes, we had to endure complete garbage from the likes of Boyzone and Hanson (if anyone cares, “Mmm Bop” would make my top 5 least favourite songs of all time), but groups like Rage against the Machine, N.W.A, The Beastie Boys and Run DMC were all making great music back then. These groups were using inventive rhythms and combining them with clever and literate lyrics. Rap was definitely the most interesting thing going on in popular music around.
Now, that was about five, six years ago. That’s pretty much when I stopped listening to rap, because that’s when it started to become the most ridiculous parody of itself.
You have to look no further than today’s rap videos to see that this is true. In the beginning, rap videos were campy, funny and over-the-top and you could tell that they were just not taking themselves seriously. But the people in rap videos nowadays all look as serious as death, and worse, expect us to take them seriously when they are acting out their glorified wrestling fantasies on the screen. Furthermore, there is absolutely no originality in any rap video out there—they are all completely identical. In any given rap video you can count on seeing:
1) half-naked dancers
2) champagne
3) leather
4) sports jerseys
5) shiny cars with hydraulics
6) some dude with gold teeth shouting “All the bitches in the house!”
Every rap song is basically about drugs, guns, hoes, and killing people. What is so original about that? Apart from promoting violence and the use of drugs, nothing.
Anyway, let’s face it: rap videos are now as formulaic as heavy metal videos were back in the late 80’s early 90’s (except there is less hair). And just like everyone loves to watch those 80’s shows on VH1 and laugh at people in stonewashed jeans, I’ll bet that in ten or fifteen years when they make a TV program to show you what losers people were nowadays, they will no doubt be playing a lot of rap videos.
Another thing that sucks about rap now is that the whole “gangster” thing that really took off around ten years ago really hasn’t gone away. See, in the beginning, you could rap about other things besides killing people and that was perfectly fine. That’s not the case now. The reason for this is that this element of the music is what is most loved by white kids. White kids are, and have been for a while, the major economic force behind rap’s popularity, and the powers that be don’t want to rock the boat by putting out anything that isn’t “tough.” White kids like rap because of the packaging. They want to drive around and pretend they are bad, because they know deep inside that they are from the suburbs. Their love of it has nothing to do with the actual music. That’s why rap keeps selling, even though the music gets worse and worse every year—the labels are pushing that irresistible ghetto package. So when a white teenager buys a rap CD, he is a) buying into the tough guy image that rap sells, and b) hoping he isn’t labelled a “weirdo” by his friends for not liking the same music as them.
Another problem with rap is that music critics can’t say rap sucks because it’s become so popular. Ask any major newspaper or magazine and they will say that they never carry a critic that says rap completely sucks; if they did they would potentially alienate their readership. Plus critics just want to go with the flow, they don’t want to say anything really popular sucks, so they’ll go crazy over Missy Elliot and every other rap record when we all know they go home and listen to their Dylan records. (It’s also really bloody trendy right now in the music press to say that Eminem is a genius. I’ve listened to his stuff, and he’s definitely more original than most of the crap out there, but that’s just like shining a turd. He’s still incredibly boring to listen to.)
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with rap as an art form. It’s just as legitimate as anything else, and when it comes right down to it, there are only two types of music: good and bad. I think rappers who write their lyrics are talented, and the people who come up with the samples and beats used in the backgrounds are very creative. But all I hear (when I do hear it these days) is the same stale boring music.
Yes, yes, yes, I know there are underground or alternative groups out there like Scissor Sisters, Rage, Outkast, etc., that are doing different stuff. But in a way I don’t really care anymore: I just don’t have the time or money or the will to be honest to search this stuff out anymore. Sitting through just one bad rap record doesn’t seem worth it.
Of course, the record companies are to blame for all of this. They got lazy and are just putting the same “thug” stuff out year after year. They’re not going to take a chance on anything different, and if they did, nobody’s going to buy it anyway because they’ll have no idea how to market it. And the last thing they want is music they can’t market; because that’s the only thing they know and want to do. The record companies in the industry stopped worrying about the quality of the music a long time ago, because they know that’s something that’s too capricious for them to control.
I guess I sound close-minded, but I don’t care. If someone gave me a mix CD of some alternative rap that’s out these days, I’d give it a listen. But short of that, I wouldn’t honestly care if there was never another rap record made. For me, rap was cool in the beginning mainly because it was different. Now it couldn’t be any more stale or stupid.
