A shift from hyper-masculinity in mainstream hip-hop.

I had to watch the video about hyper masculinity in hip-hop my freshman year in my critical analysis class. I thought the same thing then as when we watched parts of it in class; that this was an issue ten years ago, not as much now.

I’m not saying that mainstream hip-hop is good today, it’s generally terrible. I’m saying that what popular rappers talk about is different than the era of early ‘00’s hip-hop.  I think the general public gets burned out with repetitiveness as a whole in mainstream hip-hop. Putting up the tough guy front, just got old. For example, ten years ago. I think there is no way a white guy from Seattle gets famous for rapping about buying cheap clothes in thrift shops, or flea markets. But fast forward ten years and Macklemore and has like a billion YouTube views.  Times change and music fads change. Out of the rappers interviewed in “tough guise” the only ones still around making good music are Mos Def and Talib Kweli. When’s the last time you heard someone say, “Hey put on that new Busta Rhymes.” You haven’t because he became a causality of the hyper masculinity in hip-hop era.

People always compare artists to the people who did it better before them. In early ‘00’s hip-hop, there wasn’t an emerging talent to come out that lived up the likes of Tupac, Biggie, and other legends of 90’s hip-hop.  Of course there was Eminem, but I feel like he didn’t capture the audience that was black America at the time.  Don’t think I forgot about Outkast either, Andre 3000 is one of the best artists of all time, but they were a group at that time. People wanted the lyricism of Pac, Biggie, and others at that time but it wasn’t being offered. Now, look at Kendrick Lamar. He has 6 songs in the top 100 presently and he is being labeled as the next savior of hip-hop. I wouldn’t call him that at all, but what I would refer him to is the next savior of mainstream hip-hop.  I say this because he is actually good at lyricism. Lyricism is what makes true hip-hop heads happy, and always if the lyrics are good enough it will get the artist famous in mainstream media, like the case of Kendrick Lamar. For the good of mainstream music, I do in fact hope Kendrick becomes the next Dr. Dre and changes the course of mainstream hip-hop towards good lyrics and storytelling like it was in the past. He has to rise up and be that person out of the current pool of “popular” rappers. No, 2 Chainz, you aren’t different, you’re just like most of the current “popular” rappers, talentless.