Every sub-genre of music has its place in the culture. I can never take that away from ANY artist. However, the newer generation of rappers promotes a lot of laziness and a lower quality of music. And this causes other inspiring artists to follow suit. Allow me to explain…
I have identified 4 qualities of artists nowadays that seems to be recurring constantly in music:
1. Low-quality lyrics
2. Excessive drug references in those lyrics
3. Reliance on the production to carry the flow of the song
4. Length of the song
1. There's no other way to put this: the quality of the words that people use in their songs now is down across the board. Only artists that have always been lyrical or knew how to manipulate words seem to do so. Equally as annoying for most fans that appreciate the words in the songs is the overuse of ab-libs, in particular, the word "aye". This ab-lib takes away from the structure of a bar and essentially removes all impact of the words that precede it, especially when it is said over and over and over again. This also applies to artists who repeat the name of their song in a verse or hook over 50 times. While using less complex rhyming schemes and repetition is a common formula to make hit songs, it also shows that a lot of these artists aren't even trying. But do I blame them? Absolutely not! People are still listening.
Gucci Gang (October 2017)
790,000,000+ Views
Magnolia (July 2017)
75,000,000+ Views (that AWGE promotion tho)
Computers (October 2014)
35,000,000+ Views…How Sway????
2. There has always been a lot of drug and sexual references in Hip-Hop, this is undeniable. In my opinion, the drug rap scene was re-pioneered around 2009-2010 by artists such as Domo Genesis and Wiz Khalifa. That being said, it seems as if a lot of newer artists talk about the drugs they use now more than ever, and those drugs are more than just weed. A common gripe used by older listeners of Hip Hop is that the tone of the music has changed from selling drugs to being the drug user. This also leads to lower quality music as there's less storytelling (well, there is storytelling, just telling a story about how u popped 5 xans and got lit).
3. This should've been #1 to me because this pisses me off about new artists more than anything. Producers are killing it right now with beats that are raising the bar even higher and higher than the last and being ingrained in our minds and souls. And that is exactly why it is an issue. Because these beats are so catchy and melodic, you subconsciously don’t even realize that you don’t even like what the artist is saying! If you don’t believe me, do this experiment with your favorite song: See if you can recite at least 2 to 4 bars of a song by heart acapella. There's a good chance that you won't be able to, cause the lyrics are pretty forgettable. When artists put substance into their lyrics, it can carry themselves. This is why artists say a lot less because all you need is the beat to carry the verse and throw a couple bars here and there and Magnolia!...I mean Viola!
4. The average length of a song by a run of the mill hip hop artist has gone from 3-4 minutes to less than 2. I have no data to back that up, but considering the hottest songs of 2018 were under 2 minutes and 30 seconds, it's not that crazy assumption to make. This ties back to point #1. If there is less being said in a song, then you have no choice but to make the song go a couple 16's and throw in filler to complete it. I will, however, acknowledge that this may also be due to factors such as Soundcloud, as you can only upload a finite amount of minutes (180) for free on the platform. Since a lot of these artists are discovered on Soundcloud and subsequently blow up, this means that you have no choice but to use the platform to compete for that chance to be up next.
Now, why is this a problem? By itself, it is not a problem. If people like the music, they are going to consume the music, low quality or not. That’s not even my issue. As I said in the beginning, there is a place for this type of music in the culture. The problem is the fact that these artists blow up VERY quick. Due to social media and the memeifcation of the culture, these artists get their song spread like wildfire to a large audience fast. This makes other artists believe that if they come with their own style, it will not catch on like a Lil Pump or Yatchy or the like. The fact that only a couple artists are in the game with lyrics of substance back up that point even more. So the end result of all of that is that these artists just end up copying that style of music in hopes that they will be the next Pump. This doesn’t seem like too big of a deal until you realize that a lot of people are making the exact same music. Regardless of our acceptance of low-quality music now, we still won't accept ALL low-quality music. It's about the right song at the right time. But that won't stop everyone from trying. The worst part about it is that a lot of these artists that blow up usually fizzle out in 2-3 years because their fan base would've already have moved on to the next meme artist. The best example I can give of this is Trinidad James, who had a song that
1. Had low-quality lyrics
2. A lot of drug references (of which one lyric was memed into oblivion)
3. Had great production which hid the flaws in the song
4. Was very short
Trinidad James career quickly went into a death spiral due to the fact that the buzz off of "All Gold Everything" could not retain fans so they could listen to his later mixtapes and albums (which admittedly showed that he actually had a creative bone in his body). Stories like these should be enough to discourage most aspiring artists from taking the gimmick route into Hip-Hop, but as long as there is always one person who makes it big, they will always believe that they can be up next.