Has rap gotten extraordinarily awful, or have I just gotten old? It’s a question which has plagued me for years. I’ve even written about on this very website. There’s nothing about bling, oversized baseball hats, expensive cars or beats that sound like they were made on a rusty Speak N Spell that appeal to me. “I’m a player, a smoker, a deadly loan broker!” If a rap song doesn’t contain a creative sample I wonder, how much of this is dumb luck or crack debts being repayed? And it kills me – because I used to be a huge hippedy hopper, albeit a subtle one. So where’s the real disconnect?
There’s still a slim enough chance that some of you haven’t seen this that I feel comfortable pointing it out. And I read a great quote written about the silly short that makes me feel a little closer to some answers.
“People aren’t forwarding this video because it’s a parody of what’s bad about rap; they’re sending it around because it’s an ode to what can be great about it. Instead of aurguring a new day for SNL, maybe it points up what’s missing in mainstream rap is an awareness that it’s OK to be goofy.”
The greatest moment’s in rap’s golden age were all silly – sometimes intentionally. The first big rap hit of all time featured fairies, keopectate and woody chicken. Phife busted off on your couch and made it Seaman’s furniture. Biz Markie picked boogers like it was his job. Is this what I miss so much? Can I not truly enjoy a rap song anymore unless someone rhymes “birthdays” with “worst days”?
Hip hop the hippie to the hippie the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang the boogie say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie the beat, indeed.
Rap has gotten pretty stinkin bad you’re right about that. Getting old only means you can remember when Hip-Hop was about “The Message”. The Hip-Hop of present day is a major step back of where Hip-Hop came from.
Somebody better call KRS-One.
Pulling out “Rapper’s Delight” as an example of good rap is like pulling out the Monkees as an example of a good rock band. Sugar Hill Gang was a made-for-TV/Backstreet Boys conglomeration that built on what actual rappers were doing by having a bunch of funny looking guys they found on the street rap.
…and it was the first big crossover mainstream hit, which is still my point.
Completely agree with Dave. Sugar Hill Gang is classic. Dare I say the grandfathers of mainstream rap? Right up there with KRS-1 and Kool Moe Dee. Had the chance to see them live in a very small club in Utah a few years back. I think that song still sounds as good in todays rap genre as it did then. How about 3rd Bass,’Pop Goes the Weasel’? “You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo – Yo-Yo”. So corny, but oh so good.
Using Sugarhill Gang as an example is very legitimate. While it was not the first rap record, it was the one of the very first rap records on the radio. The song sold over two million copies (the biggest 12″ single ever) and hit #4 on the R&B Chart. At one point, the record was selling over 50000 copies a day.
Yeah it’s true they weren’t a group before the song. In the grand scheme of the universe though, that’s not important. What is important – is what the song did for Hip-Hop in the mainstream world at that time when Hip-Hop’s real existence was underground and in the NYC clubs & house parties.
Chuck D of Public Enemy said, “It wasn’t how long the 15 minutes were, but how short the 15 minutes were.”