Technical lyricism lost popularity because it was perfected over a decade, almost 2 decades ago.

[Reebok Jones]

All the rappers considered "best" at rhyming alone came out from like 98-02. Pun, Eminem, DOOM, Fab, Cam. Other too but those were the best ones from that time IMO. I feel like the idea of technical lyricism and how much you can rhyme in one verse got perfected because these dudes were using the English language to the best of their ability to rhyme as much as humanely possible

This is why hip hop started to gravitate towards the south more in this same time. People needed a new sound because being able to rhyme alone just became trite, and it stopped impressing people.

If you look at verses from dudes like Papoose, he would probably be considered one of the more proficient rappers of the 90s, but he came at a time where his shyt was just snooze because it wasnt anything new...

Thoughts? And I love lyrical hip hop, just something I observed

 

[Juggalo Fred]

we still got super lyricists in 2016 like Lex the Hex Master, they just on the underground

 

[Wild self]

You have a point. Even many of the 90s rappers like Busta dropped weed plates in 2000. If Hip hop became more black power and less flashy in the bling era, things would have been much different

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

As a fan of "technical lyrcism" I say this is true. It peaked in the late 90's.

 

[The Ruler 09]

You can't perfect something that is limitless in my opinion, nobody can do every single technical skill perfectly as it's endless. It's too broad as there's countless styles that fall under the bracket of technical skill or lyrical skill, it's something that will always be ongoing.

 

[Piffery]

People love lyricism, not sure why I understand the existence of this narrative.
We just like melodies and the such as well.
People in thebooth also for some reason believe "the youth" consider Drake the GOAT or a GOAT as well though.

 

[Reebok Jones]

we still got super lyricists in 2016 like Lex the Hex Master, they just on the underground

lol that's exactly what i mean bruh. they're underground, none of them are famous

 

[Reebok Jones]

You can't perfect something that is limitless in my opinion, nobody can do every single technical skill perfectly as it's endless. It's too broad as there's countless styles that fall under the bracket of technical skill or lyrical skill, it's something that will always be ongoing.

you must be thinking of creative skill, because what defines "technical proficiency" in any field pretty much means there is a objective greatest possible outcome, and in the case of rhyming it would be the most possible rhymes one can fit into a line/verse within the English vernacular. There are only so many syllables in your raps, and depending on what you're discussing you may or may not be able to rhyme near every single syllable, or not. Creative skill definitely assists in technical skill because you need to be able to come up with the words just based on sound, but in terms of how technical skill is defined itself I feel like it can be objectively measured. The most important stat IMO would be rhyme density.

 

[th_412]

Breh this is actually a really true observation. I never thought of it that way but yeah I definitely think you got a point.

 

[The Fire]

Pun, Eminem, DOOM, Fab, Cam.

none of these fools are even close to the best lyricists ever
eminem and doom are cac cartoon rappers and cam and Fab are just corny punchline rappers
Pun is just okay

 

[MrPentatonic]

Ionno about the examples but the premise is spot on.

 

[Reebok Jones]

eminem and doom are cac cartoon rappers and cam and Fab are just corny punchline rappers

you clearly don't know what technical lyricism means

edit: if people don't believe me look up the genius stats on rhyme density. Those five guys I named are literally rated as the rappers who have rhymed the most out of any other rappers in their verses, percentage wise.

 

[neph27]

LOL PERFECTED IN 98

you fukkin grandpa's get more outlandish every day

 

[The Fire]

you clearly don't know what technical lyricism means

if technical lyricism is good lyricism then you can keep that shyt
only cacs think good rap is how many syllables you can rhyme or whatever dumbass shyt

 

[Reebok Jones]

if technical lyricism is good lyricism then you can keep that shyt
only cacs think good rap is how many syllables you can rhyme or whatever dumbass shyt

I never said it was good lyricism... there are whole aspects to good lyricism and technicality is only one (though I do think it's essential if you wanna be considered a GOAT)

The whole point of my post was showing that yeah rhyming just for the sake of rhyming was cool when it was being developed and improved at such a rapid rate in the 90s (compare technicality in a song from 1991 to a song from any of the dudes I listed)

But when it got as good at it possibly could be, people realized that it doesn't mean you're really a good rapper. People remembered that rap has a storytelling/picture-painting aspect to it as well that is really what gives life to hip hop (and was still present in the goats of the 90s like Big, Nas, Pac)

So now we have a lot of dudes who didn't understand that and still don't understand that and they think all rap takes is to spit some "lyrical miracle" shyt. Nah, I am not saying that makes good lyricism.

But at the same time we have a lot of dudes who don't understand technicality and don't try to be in their raps (i.e. trap). HOWEVER I think this is okay because lyricism had its shine for so long, and died naturally, and trap influenced music is still coming out with a lot of new and interesting stuff.

I think a lot of people wanted me to list people like Jay or Common or Nas or a real GOAT of lyricism in general but that wasn't really what I was aiming for in my point.