nobells.blog/the-downtown-illuminati-indie-sleaze

can this be brought back to white people somehow?

Yes lol

villagevoice.com/hiphop-turns-30

Reading this first and it's good so far but

"But from the moment “Rapper’s Delight” went platinum, hiphop the folk culture became hiphop the American entertainment-industry sideshow."

Makes it sound like hip hop was finished less than ten years in

Jay-Z, who has been recording Robert Kiyosaki–style Rich Dad Poor Dad rap albums in his later years

Amazing line

Well I mean...he did go down the same conservative path that is described in the 50th anniversary article and the 30th anniversary article

I get it but I think limiting this critique to hip hop isn’t exactly right

It’s all facets of culture that have been completely watered down in the past 7 or 8 years. Anti intellectualism rose in a major way and in any context in society, the majority don’t care about any culture, art, quality of anything, thinking about anything, etc.

A culture like what hip hop used to be just can’t sustain in a society like that, where knowledge is frowned upon heavily

Yeah this ain’t true because if it was, there would’ve been more rappers delights instead of what actually happened in the 80s which was the real art form and culture taking over and establishing itself

It wouldn’t have lasted as the “sideshow” for as long as it has if the artists of the 80s and then 90s didn’t legitimize it and keep it going

Killer Mike is glad Reagan died. Killer Mike is expressing affinity for Candace Owens. Killer Mike is in conversation with the Dalai Lama. What the f*** is going on here?

we only miss another Ye album and after that it's over

depth and accuracy matter less than the salable aesthetic; the actual spirit of any movement matters less than whether you can tailor it to satisfy (and in some cases manufacture) a sense of nostalgia.

So let’s blow out the candles. Hip hop is 50, and leaning more Andrew Tate than Greg Tate.

jesus

Totally agree with this, tbh like any trend in media or new wave of art it tends to disrupt culture because of the connection it makes with the youth (I.e it’s punk origins) however like any a form of art the more popular it gets the more capitalism plays a part in its longevity. Hiphop is not any different from rock in this nature. Pop as a genre last for so long because it is indicative of its name it’s a genre that just incorporates what’s trendy at the time and assimilates to it

I was gonna post this lol

A good friend asked me the other day what the last universal classic album was. And we talked about how difficult it is for such a thing to exist when you have no meaningful criticism, less and less expertise, and an uninformed market that consumes the art while disdaining the artist

I think one of things about TPAB that made it so special was around the type of discussion that it resulted in niggas having. Whether you was for it or against it, I don't think there's been a recent album that's encouraged the essay-long debates that old users like Pathetic Pixels used to have when talking about the album's flaws.

And whether you was for it or against it, you can't deny that it had people talking.

And Mick Jenkins said it best, "if your comfort aint pivoting you ain't listening right."

And it's a lot of comfortable for the listener raps going on rn. Even the "lemme be controversial for the clout" raps don't move the needle because I already know what you gonna say hello jay electronica

Hip hop at 50 is dealing with that cost; it has reached its midlife crisis. It took the corporate job, bought the Ferrari, left its family, and hit the dating apps. It found new crowds, and is still going out to the clubs, but no one has the heart to tell it that just maybe it isn’t the coolest motherfucker in the room anymore. It has also done the lamentably cliché thing of veering conservative as it aged. There’s a fascinating story to be mined from this mid-life crisis—but few are telling it.

For these new kids getting into making music in genre I get it cause it’s definitely giving them the needs to survive financially but.. it just pays a huge price for the growth of the art.

1000000% agree. Also, Ye not being the leader of the genre in terms of creativity also set us back a lot.

killer mike is such a disappointment

Like a lot of people I know, one of the things it has lost over the years is its ability—or maybe its willingness—to self-assess.

And not only that but when folks put themselves out to self-assess out on front street, the listener becomes too uncomfortable (gone are days like the 90s where "stress" was literally like a welcomed topic that rappers talked about all the time) and dismisses it completely.

even outside of the music itself, the media never acknowledges the times when artists make efforts to improve themselves. How much of black media acknowledged Danny Brown's admittance to rehab? Or Ari Lennox mentioning her months long streak of sobriety and the lessons she's learned from em versus all the interview/podcast rants she was dealing with?

All we focus on is the negativity the artists themselves get into (that sometimes isnt even their own fault)

True movements need to be edgy and new compared to what the status quo is, and I’m glad this lame ass nostalgia bent was presented cause it goes against that in every way

*ye level creativity not being encouraged in kids gaining their own clout

We can’t always look to the old guard to change things

What’s left of hiphop is: hiphop has (for the time being) replaced the church as the leading unifying institution for black culture, and this is its defining position for the last decade. Though, hiphop has come to an unprecedented position of being almost universally shunned by the world of demographics outside its immediate culture, and even within it, lies a prevailing apathy towards the current definitive state of the genre from both a musical standpoint and a cultural representation one

Simply put, hiphop finally got to the throne it sought after. Sitting there, it lost the life and vivacity that got it to the throne in the first place. The rest of the world said “Tuh we knew you niggas couldn’t keep nothing good going for too long. Let’s get outta here y’all”. Now the black and hiphop communities are standing around hiphop: some are celebrating and trying to cheer the king on, some are in hiphop’s ear being yes men about the current state, some have been checked out for a while and just stay out of obligation, and most are like, “…what’s next? This is what’s left of hiphop 50 years later

Hip Hop turned Marlo, the King of Nothing.

Agreed