Bass in Your Face! Hip Hop of Yesterday and Today

Chuck D and Flavor Fav telling it like it is

Hip hop is now a money making, blinged out, Billboard topping machine.  But, when my older brother brought home our first rap cassette tape (er, it was the Fat Boys` debut) in the early eighties, the genre was only beginning to grab the lapels of the polite mainstream and making itself heard by any means necessary.  What this first album and those by the giants of hip hop drove home was how exciting and forceful a direct message could sound when delivered as a rhyme and backed by a strong rhythm.  

The Fat Boys received a B grade
from Professor Kool Moe Dee

Though hip hop has changed since the eighties, most of the fundamentals have remained the same.  Rap is undoubtedly poetic, but the language is usually concrete and direct.  The style reflects one of the genre`s main concerns: being real or authentic.  Broadly speaking, I`d say that there are four main currents in the spectrum of hip hop music — (i) political, (ii) conscious, (iii) gangster, and, for lack of a better term, (iv) hedonistic — and each of these currents defines authenticity differently.  These differences, in turn, have sometimes lead rappers to call one another`s authenticity or commitment to a vision into question.

Over the years, probably the greatest change that I`ve noticed is that more and more mainstream hip hop artists are taking their visions to greater extremes, sometimes to the point of caricature.  Compare old school Eazy E to the most popular modern gangster, 50 Cent.  Oh, sure, Eazy E sold cocaine and was a Crip; but, 50 Cent did all of that and managed to walk away from getting shot in the face.  Geez, Eazy, toughen up, willya?

Rap's hedonists have also moved from the block parties of yesterday to yacht cruises, filled with Cristal and bikini-clad babes.  LL Cool J‘s songs about all of his ladies sound downright wholesome after you‘ve heard Lil Wayne rap about lollipops.  And, while we‘re talking about Lil Wayne, his unabashed drug use just would not have flown in the early days of hip hop, when the message used to be Just Say No. 

Now, if all of these comparisons sound like the grumblings of an aging suburbanite longing for more comfortable days, let me set the record straight.   I'm not writing a modern day Kool Moe Dee report card or one of those Hip Hop is dead articles (sorry, Nas). No, hip hop is alive and well.  In fact, what sparked this blog entry was hearing three truly amazing rappers this weekend at a monthly CD swap that I attend.  The rappers are Aesop Rock, Wale, and Mos Def; and, while they aren't underground or obscure, I only wish that they held greater sway in  mainstream hip hop.

Aesop Rock, Wale, and Mos Def

The public hasn't fully caught on to Aesop Rock yet.  Sadly, I doubt they ever will.  He ignores many of the common tropes of the genre, showing that you can create great hip hop outside of the four currents.  Also, the speed of Aesop Rock's delivery and the complexity of his rhymes are truly staggering. 

Wale, on the other hand, is on the verge of blockbuster success, having now recorded with the likes of Lady Gaga.  Success seems to have pitfalls for Wale, because, after gaining the support of a major record label, his songs became increasingly generic.  Yet, in the early Mix Tape About Nothing, he showed remarkable depth, originality, playfulness, and versatility.  The album is structured around Seinfeld references, but it is not about gimmicks.  In "The Perfect Plan" he seems to reject the materialism that he celebrates in some of his major label debut; while "The Kramer" is a scathing reflection on racism and the use of the n-word.  He is a masterful writer, and I hope that he casts off his glossier new sound.

If Aesop Rock is an underappreciated innovator and Wale is a truly gifted rapper being distorted by the industry, then Mos Def has chosen a path between these extremes.  He is no stranger to fame, though he is probably better known as an actor than as a rapper.  His acclaimed albums are on major labels, and no one can deny his sound is distinct and new.  Yet, Mos Def is probably the most committed of these three artists to respecting the roots and maintaining the legacy of hip hop. 

It really isn't clear if hip hop will follow the path of these new, varied artists or continue down the road of caricature.  I'm no expert on the subject.  But, rather than concluding my one and probably only entry on this subject with empty speculation, I'll close with Mos Def's lines about the potential and limitations of a great musical genre: 

Hip Hop will simply amaze you
Craze you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
But black, it can't save you