Aging in Hip Hop

[JustCKing]

Often on here the terms "dated" and "aged horribly" are used on here to describe music. Most times, the terms are used interchangeably to describe music that sounds "of its era". It's also used as a knock against certain sounds in Hip Hop. The two aren't interchangeable as dated definitely refers to something that looks, sounds, or feels "of its era". That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As something can be classic and still look, sounds, and feel "of its era". Illmatic definitely sounds "of its era", but that is part of its appeal. Listening to it in 2023 takes you back to 1994. It sounds like the 90's and there's nothing wrong with that.

Then there's aged horribly, which a lot of times is thrown around to describe music that the person is describing didn't like in the first place. News flash: this is Hip Hop, a genre where what was old is rendered obsolete to make way for the new. ANYTHING that isn't classic will age horribly. Even on that token, music that is still staples in shows and songs that stil get sampled could never be labeled as "aging horribly".

That is all.

 

[Ghostface Trillah]

There’s a difference between sounding dated and aging horribly.

Run DMC albums sound dated

Jay-Z albums age horribly

 

[TripleAgent]

 

[CrimsonTider]

Often on here the terms "dated" and "aged horribly" are used on here to describe music. Most times, the terms are used interchangeably to describe music that sounds "of its era". It's also used as a knock against certain sounds in Hip Hop. The two aren't interchangeable as dated definitely refers to something that looks, sounds, or feels "of its era". That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As something can be classic and still look, sounds, and feel "of its era". Illmatic definitely sounds "of its era", but that is part of its appeal. Listening to it in 2023 takes you back to 1994. It sounds like the 90's and there's nothing wrong with that.

Then there's aged horribly, which a lot of times is thrown around to describe music that the person is describing didn't like in the first place. News flash: this is Hip Hop, a genre where what was old is rendered obsolete to make way for the new. ANYTHING that isn't classic will age horribly. Even on that token, music that is still staples in shows and songs that stil get sampled could never be labeled as "aging horribly".

That is all.

There’s a difference between sounding dated and aging horribly.

Run DMC albums sound dated

Jay-Z albums age horribly

I was coming here to say “aged horribly” is just used to by haters because they think it adds legitimacy to the hate but there you have it

How well something ages in the context of the OP has everything to do with how much of fan you are of the artist and music

And your overall point is right. There’s nothing wrong with with Luda music sounding like 2001

 

[ADP]

I'm actually interested in a discussion about fans aging in hip hop...

Personally can't listen to some of the hardcore hip hop like I used to

love love love xxplosive but the lyrics are too much these days...

 

[JustCKing]

Jay-Z albums age horribly

There's no way to quantify that. You say it aged horribly, but there's many that will disagree with you on that. I liked "Empire State of Mind", but because it got overplayed, I can't listen to it now. Doesn't mean it aged horribly. There's Jay albums I don't listen because there's bunch of songs on them that I NEVER cared for. Doesn't mean they aged horribly, it just means I don't like them. To drive the point home even further, "Allure" used to be one of my favorite Jay Z songs. Now, I can't listen to it. Maybe, I overplayed it. I am not about to say it aged horribly, because a lot of people actually still love that song. I don't.

 

[En Sabah Nur]

Good production doesn't age. You definitely know you in the 70's listening to Off The Wall, but nothing horribly aged about the sound.

To me, most of the badly aged rap music is the stuff built on cheap keyboard beats that actual
musicians would scoff at. They don't stand up outside the era they were made it many times... But the songs with actual instruments or good use of samples containing actual instruments don't age badly imo.

 

[CrimsonTider]

I'm actually interested in a discussion about fans aging in hip hop...

Personally can't listen to some of the hardcore hip hop like I used to

love love love xxplosive but the lyrics are too much these days...

What is there to discuss?

 

[CrimsonTider]

Good production doesn't age. You definitely know you in the 70's listening to Off The Wall, but nothing horribly aged about the sound.

To me, most of the badly aged rap music is the stuff built on cheap keyboard beats that actual
musicians would scoff at. They don't stand up outside the era they were made it many times... But the songs with actual instruments or good use of samples containing actual instruments don't age badly imo.

What has aged bad in rap? This is all subjective

 

[En Sabah Nur]

T

What has aged bad in rap? This is all subjective

There's a whole thread about late 90's & 2000's music fitting the very criteria I described. Call it subjective, but there are many people that feel that stuff that sounded good at the time sound like trash now. And it's not because of the rapping.

 

[CrimsonTider]

T

There's a whole thread about late 90's & 2000's music fitting the very criteria I described. Call it subjective, but there are many people that feel that stuff that sounded good at the time sound like trash now. And it's not because of the rapping.

Something sounding different 20 years later doesn’t make it bad. That’s the point of the OP

 

[Womb Raider]

Pretty much every song from the ringtone rap era has aged badly

Classics like illmatic, reasonable doubt, BP all sound amazing regardless how far into the future you listen to them

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Good production doesn't age. You definitely know you in the 70's listening to Off The Wall, but nothing horribly aged about the sound.

To me, most of the badly aged rap music is the stuff built on cheap keyboard beats that actual
musicians would scoff at. They don't stand up outside the era they were made it many times... But the songs with actual instruments or good use of samples containing actual instruments don't age badly imo.

Yup, exactly this. Most stuff that "ages badly" are cheap, pale imitations of trends that might get some burn by sheer proximity to audience taste, but once removed from an environment where that's the hot style, people are able to see all the problems that were always there.

 

[Funcrusher]

Good music has no expiration date. If something 'aged horribly ' it wasn't good in the first place, but it may have been hot at the time because it was pushed to be.
As this thread seems to be a response to the threads critical of Swizz Beatz, yes I would say he falls in that category.

 

[re'up]

There's things that were good in their time, for me, a lot of like Lloyd Banks, Cassidy, Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit era, 2002/2003, that type of thing calls into this category, early 2000's songs that I liked at the time, and realize now, don't have the quality to hold up for 20 years.

For example, there's a song I liked at the time, "New Jack City", it was like a half dozen battle rappers, Cass, Posta Boy, Shells, it would be unlistenable now. A LOT of Eminem's music, I never really liked, but imagine listening to even a good song like "We All Die One Day", now, it just sounds dated. You can see the flaws a lot more clearly, sometimes you can see the record companies touches too much, like 50's debut, is one example.

That's where I would use a term like "aged badly", or "dated"

Truly timeless music, the highest quality, movies, music, art, writing, manages to capture the moment, and era, and transcend it. It's ok to like stuff that doesn't do this.