We know for a fact that every genre of music goes through peaks and valleys at some point of time. In fact, we’ve seen Rock n’ Roll’s popularity fading away with time. Sometimes this sudden shift in the popularity is temporary like in the case of Pop, Metal, Disco and others. Likewise, hip-hop has always been fighting with the norms of society for acceptance since its birth. A few artists came in every now and then to change the dimensions of the genre but ended up pushing a negative image of the society.
In recent years, hip-hop has buried the popularity of rock music to become the most celebrated genre of music in America. We’ve already seen that a new style of hip-hop emerges in almost every five years. Mumble rap has gained a lot of popularity in recent years that has given birth to the fortune of several young artists like Lil’ Uzi Vert, Lil’ Yachty, Travis Scott & several others. As a result, mumble rap has become the new formula for being famous these days.
While a lot of people are liking this majorly auto-tune driven style of hip-hop, legends suggest otherwise. If you keep a close eye on major music charts, you’ll see that major hip-hop icons are still ruling the charts. Names like Eminem, Kanye, Jay Z and a lot of others drop music irregularly but still manages to be among the top-sellers. On the other hand, Mumble rap is consistently ruling the charts. Only artist from the new-era of hip-hop who has managed to sell his records impressively is Drake. As a matter of fact, he has been on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for more than 430 weeks regularly since May 23, 2009.
Basically, hip-hop charts are being ruled by the OGs and the newest addition of hip-hop artists. As they say, “Hip-hop died when beats became more popular than the lyrics”. Mumble rap is a perfect example of what this statement actually means. No, we don’t hate mumble rap at all but hip-hop actually came to being for spreading knowledge of one’s thoughts. Are we getting that message clearly now?
Hip-hop has been carrying an image of violence, money, drug use and objectification of women in the eye of the general audience. We know for a fact, that it’s not what it looks like but aren’t we the ones who’re enjoying the heavy 808 and a melody that plays on a loop?
Let us back our talk with some statistics:
“Mask Off” by Future was one of the most celebrated track of this year. The song went to number 3 on Billboard’s US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. “Mask Off” also reached on number 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts. ut wait, why did it become so popular? Initially, the Flute-driven melody caught everyone’s attention and then the drug-promoting hook of the track. One can easily notice the violence in the video (not the type that you see on the streets). Amber Rose sitting on the lap of Future is subliminal promotion of sex through hip-hop. In fact, on YouTube, the single is sitting at more than 130 million views. That’s pretty much it.
Let’s have a look at Logic’s track – “1-800-273-8255“. The name of this song is the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. In an interview with Genius, Logic said “The first hook and verse is from the perspective of someone who is calling the hotline and they want to commit suicide. They want to kill themselves.” Logic suggested that people come to him and tell him that he has saved their lives. This amuses him. As a matter of fact, Logic dropped his album – Everybody in May, 2017 and this track is on it. Logic dropped its video recently which only managed to earn 13 million views in 10 days. Its very low if compared with Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Life”. “1-800-273-8255” is reached to number 37 on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts.
These are just a few examples of what actually is happening in the hip-hop world. Again, we’re not against it but aren’t we concentrating on the sales instead of the culture? Let us ask you this question. Is hip-hop compromising on its essence of spreading knowledge to become more popular among other genres? Tell us how you feel about it in the comments down below.