The trusty Google Reader. Always faithful to bring me my news – best part is I don’t have to let him slobber all over my slippers as payment. I came across a story the other day talking about how hip-hop’s power is on the decline because the quality of the music is as well. The solution? Black rock.
Rap is quickly running out of ideas just like presidential candidates run out of ways to talk about the same topics and keep it interesting and relevant. After a while it just gets tired. With majors saturating media on every conceivable front they can think of in order to promote their artists and mainstream radio playing mostly what the majors are offering there isn’t much diversity in rap spread over television, radio and major media canals.
That lack of diversity has given the hip-hop community tunnel vision. Let’s be real, in today’s society it’s assumed black people listen to rap and white people listen to rock. This assumption is made, to varying degrees, every day. It was not always so.
Every era in American history has music, and musicians, to go with it. But it isn’t the Jim Jones’ or the Flo Rida’s that are pushing today’s rap to new depths. Black rock artists like Ben Harper, Janelle Monae and Tracy Chapman have gone past the fear the normally binds people to following their interests, and the flow, and reclaimed a little bit of the crown titled “musical innovator” through their music, through the perspective they bring to the genre and through the social and cultural ramifications of them simply being where they are and doing what they’re doing.
If we want hip-hop to thrive, and I’m not saying Rebirth is the answer, we need to promote crossing genre lines in hopes of fostering a rekindled sense of originality and passion. And as much as I hate to admit it, Weezy might be on the right track.
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