Does respect for the history of hip hop make any difference to the quality of the music?
Posted by adminNov 21
What I mean is, there has been a marked decline in the number of successful mainstream rappers who seem to know/respect the history and roots of hip hop. Do you think there’s a correlation between this and the decline in the quality of mainstream music?
Is knowing and appreciating the history important for an emcee or do you think it makes no difference?
Explain your answer if you can.
9 comments
Comment by hynroc on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Definite. How can you excel in something if you don’t know roots? The product you create would have a higher quality, which is one of the many reasons why music is what it is today. Folks want to go back as far as they were born to get a clue on music. The result of that is weak producers and garbage MCs. Some music don’t even have the fundamentals of hip hop in it (except rapping). Some music don’t even have a genre, its just there!
You can’t know where you going if you don’t know where you been!
Comment by TLC FO LIFE: RIP LEFTEYE on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Yes there has been a decline in rappers who recognize and respect those who came before them. That’s why hip hop is dying. If you know alot about your genre, you will most likely want to make music similar to that of the past.
Comment by Truly on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Yes
Comment by Knowledge Infinite on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Respect of the history and quality of their artwork will usually determine whether or not they will be here in 2019 or become an Icon. On the same note always an exception to every rule. How ever most anything will shine if enough "Lime Light" is on it. Whether its crap or diamonds.
Comment by Mar2 is Mr.TC on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
It doesn’t make a difference but it’s something that can’t be captured either…What were Tribe’s hip-hop influences when they were creating their first work or what was Slick Rick’s understanding of hip-hop history, and how did it allow him to write perhaps one of the most noted hip-hop albums ever? I see where you’re going with this, but it all boils down to the respect you’ve mentioned. It’s what’s lacking within the industry but has little to do with the quality of music.
Comment by pinoyboy on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I think that the respect for your place in hip hop history to not make wack tracks helps, but not necessarily knowing the history. i’m sure it wouldn’t hurt, but i don’t know that if the same rapper would be drastically different if he one day knew everything there was to know about hip hop and it’s roots. one guy mentioned lupe, and although he’s nice, i agree that i don’t believe that he knows too much about the history of hip hop. i can even take it one step further and mention p.o.s., he himself stated that he grew up on rock music, but i don’t think that makes him an inferior hip hop artist, in fact i think it was beneficial because that infusion of rock influence makes his music unique and great. but i digress. i think knowing would be good, but respecting/appreciating the history you do know would be more beneficial. personally i think you need to respect whatever you do, be it music or art or even something like accounting, because if you don’t, you won’t really care about it and you won’t want to push yourself to be better. that is why i think they would need to respect hip hop history about themselves, so that they don’t go down in hip hop history as a wack artist.
Comment by Jack Kerorap on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
It obviously makes a difference. Someone who knows the history has much more respect for hip hop than someone like Soulja Boy who had to Wiki Ice T and are less likely to tarnish it.
Comment by Carlos Ray on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I honestly don’t think it makes a difference. I think an artist of any kind can create brilliant work without thoroughly knowing their predecessors.
Comment by NYi - Was "Left 4 Dead" on November 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
The irony is that there has been a decline for ALL artist….i think only 9 albums actually charted gold or better in the past two years…
24 months…..only 9 albums….damn thats not even a gold record every two months….
No….its about the ideals they are pushing…people who have respect tend to not rap about how much swag they have in most cases….And its pretty obvious that Swag is what the masses want…for some reason….
And Knowing the history makes no difference in the quality of the music…if you can make good music then thats all that matters….i think it would be nice for a guy to actually know something about hip hop…but its not a necessity…It just looks better when they do interviews…
For example…i doubt Lupe is as Knowledgable about hip hop as people think he is….but he makes some dope songs…Same with Nelly….or Fabolous….