Too me what makes a rapper fall off is forgetting themselves.
Look at mobb deep, look at how their sound had a sharp change. I think this comes from not realizing
what mobb deep was musically, thematically etc. and this stems from not only changes in the market
but also from a lack of musical understanding which to me is the bane of Hip Hop.
It's not that mobb deep's early 90's sound is impossible to recreate, it's that Havoc as great
a producer as he is, likely had no idea how it was done outside of sampling and when you run
out of records to sample and the new hot sound isn't about sampling, you're in trouble.
How do you create a foreboding atmosphere rife with strong basslines, ugly discordant
chord progressions and banging drums if you cannot communicate that musically without
an MPC and someone else's record ?
Your old fans might not like that new shyt and there's no guarantee you'll appeal to the new
younger people picking up Hip Hop for the first time.
As for rapping, I feel some people become bored or sick of it, their heart isn't in it like
it used to be OR they never really took it seriously in the first place. So they fall off over time
and/or forget what makes them great. Some rappers seem to forget they're ultimately out
to make songs and get hung up on JUST their verses, completely ignoring all the other
aspects of song writing.
Then you've got a whole generation of people who were raised on singles and not albums
which is another issue. Hip Hop isn't seen as a genre that's "high brow" or to be "taken seriously",
now I'm not saying I personally feel that way, obviously I don't but to a record exec, they see a
rapper no different than they see a pop star. In their eyes it's "you're here to make me money, not
"music", not "art", MONEY. You produce a PRODUCT for ME,your EMPLOYER and FINANCIER which
I will then spin on radio, t.v., the internet etc. to make a return on my investment".
In my opinion when you move away from creating "albums" and having a musical "scene" to pushing
singles to a wider audience who has no real interest in "Hip-Hop", you're eroding away potential customers
who actually do value music and have a connection to it. And when you focus an entire genre into a needle point
through marketing, you get Gangsta Rap at the height of it's powers from the 90's to the middle of last decade.
All of a sudden a genre which is actually thematically and musically diverse is marketed to the public
as JUST Gangsta rap to the point that even on TheColi "Hip-Hop/Rap" is just a euphemism for "Gangsta Rap"
and this is well after the fact that "Gangsta Rap", has lost it's shock and cool factor for many.
Adopting these tactics and marketing to a fickle, youthful crowd causes Hip-Hop to forego aging (thematically)
or growing musically because it's resetting every couple of years for a new group of (young) people and this to me
is what causes rappers to fall off, combined with the reasons I mentioned before.
With all of this said, I do feel there are several "album rappers" today who genuinely respect the craft and
create their music with care, there's just far too few of them on majors with real money behind them.
J. Cole , Kendrick Lamar and Wale show that the every man rapper/song writer isn't some dead end
avenue reserved for bedroom emcee's and this only happened because these types of artists were
given a chance to succeed.
While last decade they would've been turned away like "Little brother" or "Danny!" or any other "backpack" act
who was hoping to get spins on B.E.T. while still crafting an album experience that wasn't to be listened to once
or twice and tossed into the pup culture black hole.
* and I wanted to stress that I know there are heads who love and appreciate a well crafted album, even some
that are younger than the average poster on here. This is just meant for the large casual crowd who doesn't
care about metaphors or punchlines or drum patterns or basslines just whether or not their friends think it's dope.
Well no kidding, I'm asking why the skills in general would diminish. When it comes to rapping it seems you would improve until you physically don't have the breath to do it anymore. Otherwise why wouldn't you get better at riding the beat or rhyming?
I think some rappers have a style they stick too.
B.B. King had been playing for decades but he only got better
at being B.B. King and what that represents, he wasn't hell bent on
being the greatest guitarist or some sort of virtuoso (outside of the blues
context at least) and he was better for it.
A Hip Hop equivalent to that would be a Scarface or Ice Cube who are "simple" but
the topics they explore and how it's communicated is anything but that.
