The start of a new year tends to be a time for reflection. Good thing we have people like Noz to help us focus our idle thoughts. Link
It’s that time of year when I usually tell you that everything is gonna be alright, when i massage your swollen fingers so you little Dillites can tap your pads again. But this year I am struggling. I want to tell you that it’s all good but it ain’t. Rap is hurting. Not creatively, of course. In the opinion of this attic dwelling cracker, 2008 may have been the best year for rap since Boots knocked down the towers. But only the inner circle is paying attention to all that great rap. Commercially and in the eyes of a very confused media we are lost like Zoe said it. Last year our biggest concern was who was snapping their fingers before they disappeared. Now the best rappers are not rapping, going to jail, and just sucking. Now that Wayne has officially evolved into the hip hop personality sphere occupied by such irrelevant recording artists as 50 and Snoop Dogg we have no true rap stars. Kanye is leading the pack, but off the cliff.
The hipster hop crossover (not to be confused with the blogo thundercat rappers, an embarrassment in their own right, but honestly not even worth acknowledging at this point – I am talking 808s, “Swagger Like Us”, “Brooklyn Go Hard”, Jim Jones rhyming over MGMT, etc.) of 2009 will be looked back on as one of the lowest points in hip hop. Lower than snap hop and hip house and all that. Sure some comparison can be made to the all the new wave/punk/hip hop intersections that were going down in the late 80s, all that Fab Five Freddie shit. But here’s the difference: those hipsters went uptown for coolness. Those rappers went downtown for money and exposure. [1] [2] Now the roles are reversed. The biggest rap stars are just chasing the cool, while the Santogolds cash the checks and bask in their (relative) mainstream fame. Jay-Z should not be taking cues from art school drop outs in funny pants. [3]
But whatever. I’ll leave the psychic hotline aspect of rap blogging to the professionals. Not because the crystal ball is looking cloudy, but because I don’t blog to say I told you so. We’ll just talk about the good shit when it does drop. Happy belated new year.
