Artist vs. Industry


Since the early years of hip hop I believed things have changed dramatically and I don’t think any of the founding fathers were expecting the puppetry that goes on today in the music industry. It started out as a thing that people did for fun in response to a good DJ and was more about expressing feelings on things not so much as to make money. Today it is the exact opposite because you can be the most soulful and true to the roots lyrical artist and be taken for granted by the labels and ignorant fans if you cant produce that one big lollipop hit radio song. Some artist today come out with a good catchy beat and a dance that will sell records and the record companies love them but people that really like good hip hop lyrical music want to run through a wall when they hear the mess selling the records today.

They use to have places back in the day that rappers would gather along with a crowd and battle each other’s lyrics, most time sharing the same beat just to see who is the best. A lot of these took place in basements and underground separated from society where people could go and just vibe. Great old school rappers started out in the basements battling there isn’t much of that today and rappers like Soulja Boy and even Gucci Mane wouldn’t last a round in the places where hip hop was founded. Now the focus is more on the hook of the song rather than the content, what will sound good in the club as opposed to who made the better metaphors in their lyrics.

I think mainstream America has stolen hip hop from us and I don’t really seeing it coming back in the pure form that it once was because it simply doesn’t sell records anymore. Smoking kush and counting money while cleaning the .40 is all people want to hear about today. There are a hand full of rappers that stay true to their content like Jay-Z, Common, Lupe and couple others but Common and Lupe are underrated and will never be the face of hip hop or recognized as they might have been in the earlier years. The industry definitely runs the business now days because once they sign you they turn you into what they want you to be and how your music should sound and if you give to much lip they simply find another mule with a dream. Like old school Chuck D said in The 13th Message, “ They trying to make hardcore rap disappear.” They have just about done it because even the hardcore rappers save how they really rap for mix tapes or maybe 2 or 3 songs on the album everything is about the next hook that will make you some money quick.