In all honesty I am going to try and spark many discussions that will touch upon various topics from time to time and I hope you all join in on the topics at hand. My first post touched on a little about myself and mental health awareness. And I will go back to that because I feel an open forum can reach to anyone in need and it's nice to reassure people that we give a shit. But I digressed, today I would like to discuss a huge love of mine and that is Hip-Hop, so let us begin!
Now I was born in '93, the beginning of the golden age but I managed to miss it due to being very young. I still was exposed to it at a young age and will forever hold it to a high regard because damn near everything in the 90s was incredible. But between then and now the sound changed immensely. As the torch bearers of each passing generation add their own flare to the lifestyle we've come to find that in this day in age, the diversity in Hip-Hop has truly reached a near infinite amount of potential with it's global outreach due to the internet.
From Limewire to Bandcamp, the internet provided a generation of creatives to explore and utilize a plethora elements at their disposal to make music. At the age of twelve I began messing with a little program called Fruity Loop Studio. Now I can't remember if it was FL Studio 5 or 6 that I started with but it did teach me at an early age that anyone can really put their imagination to work if they really put the work and time into it. With this being said, I knew I wasn't the only one. If the early days of YouTube and Myspace
taught me anything, it's that music was going to go through a technological aged renaissance. All of a sudden forums of sampling and sound fonts for producing and tutorials of how to convert any room into a recording studio started sprouting all over the internet. With the proper platforms, the sound of your traditional Dj Premier to your Manny Fresh beats started evolving.
Grant it, it was due to the commercialization that the under the radar cats got a sound to refer back to but it was the imagination that led artists to tweak the sound. From 808 basslines to catchphrase like adlibs under vocals that pretty much didn't make much sense at first but it certainly was catchy. Now since what sold the most as time went on was just what sounded catchy, what got people to move in parties and such and such. The artistry behind the story telling and bittersweet poems slowly faded into the underground or in the tracks that received very little play on commercial albums. You also have that rugged and raw forms of rap that also got less and less light. The audience had changed therefore so did the music. But one thing is for sure, it is making an incredible comeback.
Now a days we have artist coming out of nowhere making a name for themselves and creating a strong buzz towards an evolved for of a lost art. Versatile lyricists are out there and wrecking every and any beat you can throw at them. From the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Oddisee, Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper and J. Cole, all artists who took the time to perfect their craft and catch the ears of many worldwide to further prove that you don't have to dumb it down for the masses to mess with it. Alongside the atrocities happening every day, these artists manage to use their platform to speak out on it. Same way Hip-Hop began, it is going back to it's roots but with a new sound.
Now I know this is all over the place but in all honesty this is all a synopsis to get the ball rolling on talking about Hip-Hop, it's politics, it's evolution, and where you think it's heading to.