Do you think it's time for HipHop to stylistically step it's game up?

Question

I'm a life long hiphop head and have recently grown bored of the redundancy within my beloved music even with it's more prominent and talented figures such as Nas, Wu-Tang, Immortal Technique, Jedi Mind, Lupe, even Rakim. I started venturing into different genres of music and upon returning it's evident that hiphop has been stagnant for about the past decade. It's supposed to be constantly evolving as innovative and an ever expanding boundaries, which, hiphop was designed to do as it adheres to no particular classification of style.. as long as the MC is spitting on the track the music will inevitably be 'HipHop.'

However, quite the opposite has taken place. De-evolution. Which started way before real hiphop was phased out of the mainstream media outlets. When it sold itself to major labels it became their property, and the artists began to stand by while execs took the creative helm and dictated what this music would sound like.. that's the world we live in today.

HipHop heads are now forced to disown the current image of today's hiphop and cling to vintage styles and blueprints of the early 90's and seek out new stuff the old heads are putting out on that skeleton steez but revamped with the modern sound.

Do you think Hiphop is destined to die out at this rate or that it will reinvent itself?

I'm an artist and an MC and plan to introduce some drastic stylistic changes in production as well as lyrical format. Do you think today's hiphop crowd would be willing to embrace more instrumentation? Guitar/bass/drum/wind soloing and soundscapes? Live drums and constantly changing patterns? Do you think HipHop is ready to become more creatively & artistically geared once again?

Answer 1

I guess I see where you are coming from, but you act like this doesn't already exist. The Roots do exactly what you are describing as a "drastic stylistic change" every time they're on stage.



You also speak about the de-evolution of hip hop as if it's a bad thing. I'd be happy if we wound the clocks back to some degree. Dope beats, dope lyrics, rhyme scheme, flow, etc. Back to basics...cut out the commercial nonsense and the overly stylized junk.



Hip hop is not destined to die, because there are still cats coming out every year that breathe life back into it. They may not be totally reinventing the genre, but they are very much feeding its soul.

Answer 2

I believe (or should I say "optimistic") that Hip Hop will go back to the basics. Two turntables and a mic, the cyphers on the corner. Where skills matter more than gimmicks. More and more people are getting tired of what's coming out of today's mainstream outlets. I think that more and more artists are going to take the indie route instead of getting the creative control cut by record execs.



But that's wishful thinking.

Answer 3

To answer your first question, yeah, I think it needs to have other influences tied in with it and be more... not quite like today's main steam. More old school with other genre influences.