A few months ago at the VMAs, Will.i.am and Nicki Minaj performed their then-new single “Check It Out.” Take a snapshot and there you have it: rap in 2010. Let’s not oversimplify matters; it’s always been a business, take a peek at the checks that were coming in and out of Death Row. Regardless, it was all about getting the music out in the moment; do you think Dre or KRS even contemplated 2010? For some time now, hip hop heads have been going around banging their drums and shaking their fists—heck, according to plenty of heavyweights, rap’s been dead.
Let’s be real for a moment: of course it’s not. It may have mutated into something we wouldn’t have recognized in ’92, or hell, it may be undead, but somehow, some way, it’s still going. If anything, it’s probably time we quit bitching. How long does any “new” musical expedition survive? They say grunge died with Cobain, so if anything, let’s give rap a pat on the back for enduring this long.
Not that we need to worry about beef, we’ve killed that. Nicki and Kim can catfight all they want, but no one cares nearly as much as they did once did. Puff’s working with Nicki and still boasting love for Kim, sullying his fallen comrade Biggie’s legacy for a Rick Ross feature. God damn. Here we are. And you know, Last Train to Paris is one hell of a pop album. While I write this, reminiscing about “real rap,” you’d better believe it’s what I’m listening to. There’s nothing “wrong” with it; it’s the natural evolution of sounds, did you really expect – or even want – for everything to sound like BDP forever? Ghetto Music may well be my all-time favorite album, but even if KRS hadn’t dropped a notch with Edutainment and kept putting out records nearly identical to, and as classic as, The Blueprint for the next decade, do you think you wouldn’t have tired of it? Like Nas said, “KRS already made an album called Blueprint.” Over a decade later Jay was dropping a classic under the same banner: it couldn’t keep going. The shift in focus was clear: KRS was the philosopher, Jay was a business, man.
Back to the VMAs. Nicki and Will dropped their song: 80% autotune and 20% rap with performers in science fiction costumes. To her credit, Nicki managed to more or less kill her verse, but it sounded nearly identical to that Fergie song Will.i.am did. He caught shit for being in “black face,” which he responded to by saying it’d been to match his costume, not reflect race. Add in awkward, forced drama between Kanye West and Taylor Swift, and there you have it: hip hop in 2010. Production saves all, rappers are characters in a reality show, and the race issue is pushed to the back, disregarded altogether – although they proved a ditzy blond white girl can nearly derail the career of a black virtuoso.
So what’s the deal? Well, you gotta know the rules to play. ‘Ye may have had to sit through an overly made-up Swift playing some dumb song, but he still managed to drop what was arguably (actually, no, it’s not up for debate) the best album of the year. Right at the end of ’10 a song entitled “Syllables” leaked: Eminem featuring Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Cashis and his one-time-underling Stat Quo. The song is believed to have been recorded in 2006, perhaps for Stat’s woulda/shoulda-been debut. On the song Em opens, “It is not about lyrics anymore, it’s about a hot beat and a catchy hook,” and each and every guest (OK, Cashis aside) proceeds to drop a clever satirical verse. Jay says he’d rather market his album through a reality show than drop reality flows, Dre worries that the torch will burn out before it’s passed, 50 spits gibberish, saying you aren’t listening anyway, and Em drops a bitter sing-song chorus, just to make sure you really get the point. This was years ago: Eminem spitting down on the very sort of music that appeared on his earlier dud Encore. A few days after the “Syllables” leak, a remix of “Hello, Good Morning” also featuring Em leaked, and a Swizz Beats/Will.i.am collab is rumored to be on the horizon for the MC. It’s too bad they never dropped “Syllables” back when it would have counted, but the message is clear: they all get it – nay – they all got it.
Of course they do (and did). Do you think rappers are dumb? 50 took a chunk out of Vitamin Water for a reason; these guys know perfectly well what they’re doing. It’s perfectly simple: these are survival tactics. It’s easy for us to sit at the computer and talk shit about the guys who were our idols a decade ago, but if a “real” rap song isn’t going to play on the radio, and you’re expected to sell records, what you want a rapper to do? It’s 2010 and we’ve been going since the ‘70’s, what did you expect? The fact is that any artist works within limitations, and for every play “Love the Way You Lie” gets, the more the influence expands. Prior to 2010 the future of pop rap wasn’t even certain, not even Jack and Jill were feelin’ Soulja Boy and Lil’ Jon. With the music rappers like Em and ‘Ye are putting out, rap’s regaining the spotlight, and for every listener they retain, that’s another dollar in hip hop’s favor. Who knows what they’ll be able to accomplish. Recovery’s three times platinum? With that level of popularity, who knows, maybe they’ll even get a song with just rapping on the radio again. And not just on the hip hop station.
