Hip hop had a real tangible resurgence between 2007-2014 roughly. All different types of rapping styles, lyrical approaches and subjects, and diversity of production. After that, you had this major push of people like Young Thug and Future. Drake really rose to prominence as the top dude in hip hop and pop. And that's where I feel this muddying started to happen. Can you consider an artist like YT or Future hip hop? Or is that just "trap"? Because now EVERYTHING is trap. Trap took over the world. Was Gucci Hip hop? Idk if I can answer these questions. But I get what he's getting at. And now we're in Attack of the Clones. The feeling and vibe of hip hop is just not present.
The early/mid 80s hip hop is just not even in the same universe as what comes out today. It's ironic because there was lots of 808s on those early records. But it's not even close to the same. It hits harder, feels more present, doesn't take itself as seriously somewhat paradoxically, had messages, felt more vital. 90s brought in the classic hip hop sound with a lot more jazz samples, hard hitting breaks, all that shyt. It became more serious but had content and even more technical growth. Another irony of the whole thing is that even though there was a ton of sample recycling, especially with drum breaks, everyone had a unique approach and more individuality in that time.
Trap is like this compressed thing where everyone uses the same tools and drums to get the exact same sounds and they're all CHASING that same sound everyone else has. Creative approaches and "trying different shyt" are looked down upon. Lil Baby and Gunna really took what YT was doing and made it palatable to the masses. Travis Scott is so autotuned you can reliably recreate his entire vocal inflection if you have the auto tune plugin. Look it up on youtube, I think more than one person has recreated his vocal sound to a t just by autotuning the voice as much as possible. That's squashing the sound. That's taking anything that makes you a unique person and removing it. And EVERYONE is using this shyt.
That's why DaBaby kind of stood out through his avoidance of the effect for the most part. Auto tune as an effect has completely run its course but for some reason people continue to use and abuse it. So now we're in this wash of 808s and autotune that has finally reached a point where I think people are just kind of over it. There's a still a massive amount of holdovers, and the industry is still pushing their Travis Scotts, and their Yeats, and Cartis. Carti may be trying something new vocally but that doesn't make it good. His new singles were ass, and because of his persona rather than his music, everyone was riding his dikk like their life depended on it. I don't know how you listen to those beats and don't immediately start snoring. They're not even high effort trap beats. They sound like someone whipped them together in 5 minutes. Just like most of WLR did (there were some exceptions). Flashback real quick. Do you remember the evolution of the sound from the 80s to the 90s? It's like night and day, but the spirit is still there. 90s to 00s is the same with producers like Timbaland and the Neptunes avoiding samples and still keeping it hip hop. 00s to 10s where Kanye brings back the sampling, Cudi brings alternative angles, Cool Kids have a classic feel with new flavor, etc etc etc. earlys 10s we have Danny Brown, Odd Future, Big KRIT, Killer Mike, Flocka, ASAP Rocky. HUGE range of sounds.
And now we're here and we really haven't moved from Flocka. People still use those Lex Luger snares. People still use those Zaytoven snares. That's all fine if you're trying something new and trying to push things forward with them but no one is. Go listen to old trap beats. Go listen to a Metro Boomin beat from 2014. I'd almost argue Metro has REGRESSED from that sound. He made his beats even simpler and more boring. And people continue to ride his dikk about EVERY GENERIC BEAT HE PUTS OUT! Just like Carti. Because I think this new generation of fans don't want innovation. But I also think the industry doesn't want to push it either. It's a feedback loop. They care more about the cult of personality around the artist than the actual music. I'm a music guy. I want to hear music that is fresh. Kanye hasn't innovated since Yeezus, and the innovation that brought is extremely overblown. Just like 808s & Heartbreak was. I have watched in real time a whole new generation of fans (with no understanding of the context of the time) start to believe that Kanye is/was this huge innovator, which he's not. That's all PR shyt they've been pushing for years. You know who made autotune fashionable? T-Pain. You know who got into it shortly after? Lil wayne. Lil wayne was right there with Kanye, if not ahead of him on using that shyt like crazy, yet he never comes up in that convo. Why? Because Kanye has through both marketing and his own words manifested his "genius" into existence. Yet he needs teams of people since MBDTF. MBDTF also had 0 lasting influence on hip hop vs Flockaveli. The proof is right fukking there. What do you most modern beats pull from more. Flockaveli or MBDTF? If you're honest you'll know it's Flocka (and of course Gucci, 3 6, Shawty Redd) all the way. The only real innovation of recent was UK style Drill melding into that Americanized Pop Smoke style (not the confusing chicago drill like Keef, which isn't even the same thing besides using trap drum SOUNDS), but that's almost dance music at that point. Pop wasn't really lyrical at all. Ice Spice has no talent on the mic whatsoever but the industry created her and people lap it up.
You might think, why even rant about Kanye? Because the whole aura around him is why this fukking low effort garbage persists. Just like Carti. And maybe that's the answer; once it wasn't about the music anymore, it was no longer hip hop. People like J Cole and Kendrick sort of keep the flame alive but they're b tier rappers in a d- tier time. They also capitulated heavily to trap several times over. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
Don't get me started on that drumless shyt either. Not saying there aren't gems in there but most of that shyt you might as well feed me a sleeping pill. Hip Hop without drums? Get the fukk out of here.
