First of all, you have to look at what Hip Hop is all about. Let's just focus on one of the elements of Hip Hop, which is rap. Rap music was birthed in the 70s amongst African Americans as a way of expressing themselves, and speaking about what they go through in the society, and just generally what the individual rapper goes through in his every day life. In the 80s, rap was more politically inclined than it is right now. You had the Public Enemy's, the Run-D.M.C's and the KRS1's speaking about society ills, and the black community, and using their music to educate the youths on the right part to take. Then in the 90s, the whole gangster rap genre took over the scene. It has extended to date, although it has many forms now, that element of the streets and having street credibility is still very evident in popular rap music of today. Whether it is Rick Ross doing the whole Mafioso Rap, or Kendrick Lamar narrating how a good kid made it through the mad city of Compton, there is still that element of celebrating the bad side of the black community...milking the negative side of the black community
As i said, there are variations of gangster rap music in hip hop. You still have new rappers like Chief Keef celebrating that life, and using that to get to stardom. Or you have rappers like Raekwon and Ghostface Killa rapping about their old coke stories. You also have the ones that brag about their money; about how they made it selling drugs, and now they are clean, and making money from their new hustle, which is music. There is still that bragging element in there...that character you can witness in a teenager or someone in his early 20s. Now, tell me why wont this rappers run out of content? Why wont rappers have expiry date when they keep talking about the same thing they were talking about in their teens, and they are in their late 30s and early 40s now?
This is the problem with Rap music. I think it is only Jay-Z that has been able to get away with this. I mean, he is wise enough to make good songs with good production, even though he is saying basically the same thing he has been saying the last two decades. He has been able to re-invent himself in a way that he kept his old fans, and got newer fans. But a lot of rappers have expired along the way. You can't compare other genre's of music which have issues like love, politics, world peace and the likes in their music, with a genre of music which is homophobic, and believes someone has to be a tough person in the streets for him to be considered a good rapper. That is not art. Art has nothing to do with street credibility or how much money you got. This is the problem with some rappers that have expired in the last couple of years. And that will also be the problem with a lot of current rappers who have that thug life mentality. It is only a matter of time before the audience start looking for the newer face on the scene.
Out of all the rappers that blew up in the early to mid 90s, I think it's only Jay Z, Nas and Snoop Dogg that are still relevant in today's Hip Hop scene. Snoop Dogg had to change and reinvent himself many times, but he is still around. Nas, just off the fact that he pays attention to deep lyrics and creative song concepts, and not just making the same type of music over and over again. Jay Z is a great business man, and he will always find a way to stay relevant; whether it is by jumping on one or two tracks from the hottest rappers at the moment, or making some huge moves outside music, that would keep people interested in his music and everything about him. This is not taking anything away from Jay Z's skills on the mic, he is a very skilled rapper, and one of the best to ever to ever do it; but it is not really the skills that sell him right now, it is the Jay Z brand that is selling.So, in conclusion, who and who do I see in the current state of Hip Hop that would be around for a long time? The first person I would mention is Drake. Hate him or love him, Drake is going to be around for a very long time. Apart from being a good rapper, he can make good songs and he puts his emotions into his music. Point to note, he makes great "music", and not just rapping three "16" bar verses on a song every time. That is the problem with most rappers. They keep making the same type of songs, and talking about the same thing over and over and over. How do you expect to keep selling off that alone? You got to be creative. I am not saying every rapper has to sing on his song like drake, but there are a lot of ways to be creative and re-invent one's self but still stay true to what you are about. The problem right now is that there are a lot of very skilled rappers that can rap their asses off, but can't make a song to save their life.
Kendrick Lamar will be around for a long while too...off the fact that he is passionate about Hip Hop, he is not talking about what he is not, he is a good creative story teller, and also off his crazy delivery and wordplay. J.Cole will also be around for a while, because of the same reasons as Kendrick (maybe minus the crazy delivery). I think those are the three I can think of right now from this generation of rappers that will be here for a long time. Every other rapper that is hot right now, that is depending on street credibility or money and all that shit will be old news very soon. I think Hip Hop has to transcend all that celebration of the negativity in the black community. That is happening gradually, but the funny thing is that, most hip hop listeners want things to stay the same.
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