I Do It For The Culture: New Hip Hop

I hear a lot of hating on Hip Hop. We all know the story, the whole 'Is Hip Hop Dead?' debate.

In my mind, Hip Hop is an highly discriminating culture (musically), with an extremely essentialist mindset. Now I know I would get a lot of shit for saying something like that, but let me explain myself. What I mean by that is that within Hip Hop itself, there is a ridiculous amount of hating, almost to no end. The 'underground' rappers hate the 'mainstream' rappers and are constantly looking for the 'real Hip Hop', which promotes the idea that there is only one acceptable type of Hip Hop. Now, I understand why someone would hate on the Soulja Boys and Lil' Jons of the world, because let's be honest, they are definitely lacking the lyrical content of some of the underground stalwarts such as say Slum Village, AZ or any other rapper usually referred to as a lyricist. And it is a little unnerving the fact that the some of the best rappers lyrically, are getting no love in the form of record sales. However, I don't think this should have anything to do with the the mainstream rappers not being 'real Hip Hop'.

I think of it like this, Hip Hop should be able to recognize different subgenres within the larger umbrella of 'Hip Hop'. For example, the aforementioned Soulja Boy in my mind makes party Hip Hop, which is still a type of Hip Hop. Like how within Rock and Roll there is alt rock, punk rock, pop rock, etc etc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't like the whole "this is Hip Hop, that IS NOT'' mindset. I would prefer that the ''This is one type of Hip Hop, and that is another type of Hip Hop'' mindset be adopted instead. Because there is a need and definitely a place for 'Club Bangers' and w.e. When I go to a club, most of the time I would prefer to listen to my Nas, J DIlla and Biggie tracks and go buckwild, but also there are times when I wouldn't mind listening to G-Unit, Dipset and whoever else is being hated on (I sound a little outdated). And that's just me. I know there are other people who would like to listen to the radio stuff all the time as opposed to just some of the time.

Now I don't like Gucci Mane, I actually think he is a little retarded, and I don't like Wacka Flocka Flockofseagulls Flame or w.e. , but that's the thing, I just don't like them. It just isn't my thing. But I don't think that they are 'NOT HIP HOP' or anything like that. And Soulja boy annoys me a lot, but at the end of the day he is making music that someone likes. It's like it's a different subgenre that I'm just not into.

If anything, the type of Hip Hop that I like is back to where it used to be- in opposition to the mainstream. It is what it is.

And I'm sorry if this is a little ramble-y and all over the place,but I kind of just wanted to get it off my chest. And even though there I'm not loving most of the mainstream music that has been coming out lately, there is still more than enough Hip Hop emerging that I'm quite content. Just a couple of guys I've been liking lately are as follows-