Hip Hop As We Know It is Gone…And It’s Okay!

The golden age of lyricism which we all love and enjoy still exist. However, when I say Hip Hop as we know it is gone I mean the world is changing. Norms have switched which allows an artist like Lil Uzi Vert (my personal favorite), Travis Scott and more to flourish today. Hip Hop is a voice for the voiceless, but with technology we all have voices, more than ever before. Representation matters more than ever before. Right before our eyes the world has changed and what is acceptable now, many once considered taboo.

Snoop Dogg in his sit down with Freddie Gibbs said “Hip Hop can’t be put in a box anymore and it doesn’t need a certain structure”. Hip Hop isn’t losing substance at all it’s at a cross road for generation biases and norms.

For example; 6ix9ine’s career would’ve died in 1996; hell even 2006. However, since hip hop is now “pop” culture the lines have now been blurred. The real and the parody theatrics coexist. It is one big script kind of like WWE (no offense). Real has become relative to who you ask. Our brushed aside and disrespected genre has become big business. The new motto is if it can sell it will live. Even through the controversy, hip hop itself is in a great space creatively.

Controversy seems to be at the epicenter of our beloved genre and culture; which is nothing new, just think of how the media spun the “East Coast vs West coast beef”. The codes of the street doesn’t hold the same value as Instagram likes.

This is not to say what side I’m on because truly I understand times are changing before our eyes. Many of us millennials have to unlearn a lot of what worked for our parents because their way of thinking is outdated. I understand Lil Boosie’s lack of understanding for Dwayne Wade’s parenting. I understand the need for everyone to be represented. However, the world does not revolve around me. We have to be willing to understand that collectively; although, we may be uncomfortable, misinformed or just inexperienced in many things we have to understand it exist.

Hip Hop has become the new rock music; we have sub genres and a sound to appease a multitude of audiences. And we all can coexist from the Griseldas to the Lil Percos of the world. Nothing is wrong with holding to what is dare to you like the golden era, but it’s also okay to embrace change and we the culture should know better than anyone else.

We once were in the outside looking in, now we dictate the music scene.