Hip-Hop Has Lost Its Way!

[stepping razor]

Hip hop is nothing like it used to be,1982-1998: musically and lyrics.It used to send out a positive message and had a lot of creativity.
Hip hop has lost its way!
peace

[Guest]

i just see a few old videos dem from 1991-1994 just wen it start to come out big, near every video is culturally rich and the lyrics are deep, then there was a boom around 95 wen puff dad came out with him new style and they started to work on the bad side of rap, they could have been have stayed conscious samewy but no one did want beside the white gouvernments & media want the bling bling to drive people crazy, they want ghetto yutes shootin eachother, they want all wanna bes work hard in babylon factory to chainthem self in a bling. so they support it hard.

juck the media and everyone who is blind to it. i see nuff yute a rise up and dey fully babylon minded, materalized and merciless, i dont see even a piece a culture in them nowadays as long dey dont come from Ras Ta families.

[kalcidis]

I do not agree. You can't say that hip hop has lost its way and focus only on the negative things. There are still several acts doing fantastic work. The hip hop played on radio is - like most of the other mainstream music that »represents« a genre - really not representable of the genre in question.

It is also odd for me that you set the end of good hip hop to '98. For me personally I feel that hip hop had an upswing in '99 to '02 that was only equaled with '94 and back. The work Madlib, MF Doom, JayDee and tons of other producers did these years are for me some of the best material the genre ever produced (and yet I always stress that '88 was the best year for the music).

Even though it's several years since I last bought hip hop albums (I occasionally pick up an album still) I still hear stuff that is both intelligent and backed by great productions. ... and in all honesty the intelligence hasn't always been the key selling point of hip hop. As a youth I was more intrigued by gangsta rap than the Native Tongues Posse. We can't forget that the birth of the music was in the 70's ... the first political single was released in 1980.

The last couple of years we've had excellent releases by conscious artists such as Wise Intelligent (from Poor Righteous Teachers), X Clan and several other early 90's acts.

I would even stretch so far as saying that hip hop is still evolving and in a healthier state than what reggae is nowadays. (Time to take cover perhaps).

[Nefta]

Hahahaha, sure no one mentioned KRS One.This mas is one of the fathers of hip hop.He continue to relase classic albums nowadays.Also hip hop now is travelling the world i have heard a really strong movement of hip hoppers comming from Spain with good lirics & riddims.
I doubt hip hop is lost.Maybe you don"t know were to look. (IMO)

[ras_gaks]

...
I would even stretch so far as saying that hip hop is still evolving and in a healthier state than what reggae is nowadays. (Time to take cover perhaps).

run bredda! run! ha ha..

what of the entire underground artists? pls don't ask me their names. there is a underground hip-hop show i listen to, to get d msg but never been interested in knowing the artists names.

but, Immortal Technique is d best, to me.

[Guest]

duck down was wickid

also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWJFBJ1q2SY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LADQfIHmAo

most wikkid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQyDSL1rQVQ

yute name positive k

[super ape]

i agree with kalcidis
there are still people rapping with consciousness, it is just not in the mainstream so to speak.
i am actually not a fan of hip hop because i don't like the amount of bogus messages or lack of messages out there. but when i get turned on to a rapper(s) who relay an important message i tend to like it.

btw, i don't think puff daddy began all teh bullshit that we hear out there, it started before that. it all is based on what kids want to hear, and unfortunately, it seems to me that there is a lot of bullshit out there that has become glorified, thus the demand for lyrics without consciousness.
i could care less about bling, machismo, and the like. machiavellian attitudes do nothing for me other than make me want to not listen.

i do, however, wonder how the term hiphop came into play whereas 20 years ago it was called rap?
correct me if i am wrong, but from what i remember, hip hop comes from the 1920s or 1930s. it is merely the description of a beat that was used in jazz.
that same beat/rythm is nowadays used in what i still call rap music.

i like the rythms of today's hiphop music but tend to dislike the lyrics. there is so much of it out there that i dont search for the rappers with the good messages, when i do hear them they tend to be by chance or played for me by a friend (by chance happens to be a big fan of jamaican music, go figure).
i hope as we evolve and learn from one another worldwide that the messages we and younger generations seek will be based on love and peace and that way it will only spread out from there, leading to more conscious people and thus more conscious music!

[kalcidis]

correct me if i am wrong, but from what i remember, hip hop comes from the 1920s or 1930s. it is merely the description of a beat that was used in jazz.

I think you might have mixed up rap and hiphop. Rapping predates hiphop. Hiphop is the culture while rap is the specific thing that rapper do. Like chatting for deejays. You can have rap in reggae (Sons of Creation - Back A Yard 12" on Clappers for an example) and Hiphop without any rap (the Endtroducing album by DJ Shadow perhaps).

[super ape]

true.
but majority of today's youth have no idea that the term hiphop relating to the beat predates what in 1985/mid-80s we were calling rap when we were playing run dmc, bdp, and so on.
you can trace the term hip hop back to early days to describe a rythm, and that rythm eventually found its way to form funk and disco. i think, but i may be wrong, that the rythm itself, meaning that danceable beat that we all know so well, began with some early jazz drummers seeking a new sound. but the music overall was not called hiphop. the rythm took off as people enjoyed this new beat to dance to.
and then it evolved as music evolved.

rapping itself, by that i mean the action of chatting/toasting/rhyming/off the cuff/etc, goes back a long ways, traced several diffent kinds of music, as you already know, depending on who you are talking to. i have heard people state james brown, ron mckernan, gil-scott heron (who is still incredible in concert), even charles mingus, all kinds of names given the title as the first rapper so to speak. jamaican djs merely got it on the good foot and eventually it came to blossom in nyc in the 70s.

but i am still wondering how what we called rap became hip hop when the beat is still basicallly the same. we had hiphop and added rapping then it was all called rap. now it seems to all be called hip hop, lyrics or not.

i understand your point as hiphop as a culture which really began its uprise in nyc in the 70s. gotta love the block parties!
.

if i was in school, this would be an awesome subject for a term paper. it would be a blast to research it all for real. right now i am supposed to be typing at my job so you'll have to pardon my debating and thinking outloud. otherwise i will actually have to be typing about things unimportant. gotta love working for the man. at least he thinks i am working.

[_Easy_]

yeah i mean i could go either way...i listen to very little rap or hiphop if any, but like a few of you have mentioned, its just those damn lyrics and the message they portray to the youth. All about material things, money, bling, big cars with bigger rims, those huge chains, the grills, the jewelery, its so over the top and meaningless!

You have so many kids looking up to these clowns dancing around with all that ridiculus stuff that i mentioned. Its too much, too much.

But like i said i could go eitherway, i do think that there are still people and groups out there putting out a decent message with a solid beat, but all that is underground. The stuff people, kids and adults alike, hear on the radio is pure garbage, but thats whats made readily availiable to the public. and not to mention that there is too much apathy in general and parents just let there kids listen to it without regaurd.