The Decline of Hip Hop

In the past few years, rap and hip-hop have been incredibly disappointing. Artists such as B.o.B., Lil’ Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, DMX, and even Eminem have slowly been degrading over the past few years, while other artists such as Hittman, Dr. Dre, B.I.G., and Tupac have disappeared entirely. Some of the decline in quality rappers can be attributed to their deaths, however far from all - they have been replaced by others. Their style of music and what used to be rap, was replaced by something almost entirely different, to the point where it almost resembles pop. This particular genre of music has lost its roots, and they desperately need to be found again.

The biggest example of this degradation is evident quite clearly in Eminem’s music. His music first became mainstream in the mid-90’s when he released his first solo album The Slim Shady EP. A few years later he caught the attention of Dr. Dre and the Aftermath record label, and has been with them ever since. However, just because he’s stayed at one company for 10+ years, doesn’t mean his music was as stable, far from it in fact. What started as quote on quote “west coast hip-hop,” now referred to as old school rap, is now literally just yelling, with the occasional off-note singing. Yelling isn’t rapping; it’s barely even music. Probably the only reason his most recent album, Recovery, isn’t considered simply a set of angry rants is because of the presence of some kind of beat.

It would be untrue to say that Eminem hasn’t done anything good for hip-hop: quite the contrary. He proved that rap doesn’t have to be about looking and sounding like a gangster or something of the sort, but can also be about real, legitimate issues in someone’s life. His most successful songs have been ones with deep meaning, such as Mockingbird. Its just that more recently his work has almost lost sight of the roots of rap completely.
Something else that can be attributed to the steady decline of this particular music industry would be the disappearance, of so many of the rappers that were around ten to fifteen years ago. Take Dr. Dre, for example. While he hasn’t gone “underground” in the sense that no one has heard from him in the past however many years, he just hasn’t been recording his own music. He has spent his time producing and managing other rappers, most notably Eminem. While he never left, his music’s absence from social media has been somewhat influential on the state of hip-hop as it is now, as its place was taken by what is now modern rap.
Another practice that has been taken up in the past few years by many mainstream rap artists is something along the lines of “rapping with an accent,” where the artist uses a very thick, wheezy, and fake sounding voice in their songs. The Black Eyed Peas did it back in 2004, and Lil’Wayne publicized it even further in 2008. It didn’t take long for most of the other artists in the genre to follow suit, including those such as Drake and Kanye West. Even Eminem’s 2009 album, Relapse, employed the use of this technique, and as a result it was his worst selling album yet.

It’s really quite sad to look at something, and over the years have it fall apart right in front of everyone’s eyes. What used to require skill, talent, ability, has been butchered to the point where all that is needed to be a rapper some type of yelling, a heavy very fake accent, and a whole lot of profanity. While cursing has always been associated with rap, presently it is used just to be used. The topics of rap songs have gone from negative and very racially oriented, to more deep, thanks to Eminem, and to even worse than how it started, with most songs now either making no sense, or just being downright angry. Hip hop has lost its way, and it may never find it again.