Photo credit: Brandon Davis for A3C Media & Services
Heated discussions came left and right during the “Dead in Hip-Hop” panel hosted by radio personality Headkrack Friday afternoon. Panelists spoke on controversial subjects in relation to the differences between Hip-Hop in the early days versus today. The panel also touched on other topics that centered around how important it is for the current artist to know prior hip-hop history, as well as how their needs to be more of a balanced between "trendy" rap, and rap with applicable substance.
Panelists Mike C- Town gave his opinion on the current state of music, and why many listeners in his generation have stopped listening to "traditional" Hip-Hop due to party artists like Lil Uzi, Yachty, and Rae Stremmurd. “ I do not knock or hate on any of the music that these artists are doing, but I do believe that there needs to be more of a balance in the industry." With so many trendy artists making it to stardom in the industry, it more or less influences younger aspiring artist to follow behind. Panelists Ken Inge spoke about how the lack of balance in Hip-Hop has influenced kids to practice the same type of rapping styles and methods. Due to it being a lack of rappers in the industry with substance, there are fewer instances where listeners can be inspired by both types of rappers.
Photo credit: Brandon Davis for A3C Media & Services
If party rap is the most popular form of Hip-Hop today ( which is music focused more on drugs and women), then what are our kids listening to? The fact of that matter is that the industry needs more J. Cole’s, and Kendrick Lamar’s. There is not anything necessarily wrong with club music. The issue is that there are too many of those types of records being push to the forefront. Ultimately the panelist had a mututal agreement in terms of what needs to happen to push Hip-Hop culture forward: The masses will support many things that are given to them. However, if the masses are given one type of product or sound to support, they will grow accustomed to listening to only these types of records.
The truth is that many listeners do not search for new music on their own, which they rely completely on radio and word of mouth. As a result, these same listeners miss out on talented artists because they are not mainstream or viral rappers.Essentially, if Hip-Hop music becomes over saturated with too much of the same content, the culture will fail to evolve.
