I realized something deeply troubling today. After checking out the latest releases from Ghostface and Statik Selektah I’m convinced that we have now officially entered the Elevator Muzak era of rap music. While The Roots have been churning out tunes seemingly designed for coffee shops and cafes for the better part of the last decade, we’re now at a stage where previously reliable CRC stalwarts such as Lil’ Fame, Sean Price and Ghostface Killah are often rapping over music that lacks any sort of urgency, excitement or abrasiveness. Does this signal a change in the dynamics of the rap game where everyone over the age of thirty is rapping over stuff that Kenny G would consider vanilla and the so-called ‘underground’ fans want a soundtrack to sip pumpkin ales and chai lattes?
Outside of Days With Dr Yen-Lo and the new Czarface record, the current strain of beats this year have favored pleasant, soothing sounds instead of the confronting noise of a ‘Rebel Without A Pause.’ Some may argue that Run The Jewels have gone against the grain in that regard, but I don’t consider El-P’s brand of industrial noise to fit the fill in terms of speaker-smashing excellence. What with DJ Premier touring with a live band and Pete Rock delivering phoned-in instrumental projects, it’s clear that the future is bleaker than ever. What happened to the kind of music that annoyed your girlfriend, offended your parents and upset the neighbors? Are we to start listening to drum machine rap from Chicago in order to fulfill our quota of belligerent, anti-social rap? Now that most of Queensbridge wants to move with the times and rap for the ‘national audience,’ one has to wonder who is capable of maintaining the faith that is non-progressive, hardcore rap. While The Lox seem to think that freestyling over nineties instrumentals is the answer, I’m not so sure.
Should we just be content with a couple of Alchemist produced gems and the odd Roc Marciano track every year? After the outstanding effort that ALC and Boldy James gave us with My 1st Chemistry Set, the Detroit based rapper fell back into old habits. Traditional rap seems to have tripped itself over in vicious cycle of empty nostalgia, hollow throwbacks and a refusal to back itself. Surely we have moved beyond third-string Preemo wannabes at this stage. As I’ve continued to champion, the concept of brag rap over hard beats will never be perfected, so there’s no excuse to stop trying. Has New York become so self-conscious that it’s no longer capable of making anti-social hip-hop that builds on it’s rich history without throwing out the baby with the proverbial bath water in order to be as suitable for the next fashion show as it is for riding the train at 3 am? Fuck you and your brand.
Statik Selektah
Everyone copying that marc style.
I trace it back to the “indie boom” of the late 90’s where any schmuck off the street could press up a 12″ and make 10k off stupid college kids under the guise that it was “underground hip hop”.
In reality it was boring shit made by mediocre artists, bought by kids who later became Brooklyn hipsters desperately looking for street cred and in the process turned a bunch of generic 12″‘s into collectors items.
Yeah I miss the hard shit, it’s much less prevalent these days.
Agreed for the most part. Never liked statik and can’t stand Adrian younge production. With that said, dr yen lo from a music only standpoint is elevator personified as well.
your favourite 90ies acts are all in their forties. at that age, even the roughest hoodlum from brownsville is happy with the simple things in life like watching their kids play, or having a cold one with a friend while discussing everything that’s wrong with in the world today. it’s unfair to expect them to remain 20 forever. the urgency of 1980ies hip hop was a direct influence of the environment it sprung out of. meanwhile, 9 people died and 46 people were injured by guns this 4th of july weekend in chicago…
good point. except keyboard beats and auto tune isn’t for everybody. chicago drill music contains all the testosterone and nihilism that made 90ies rap classic, but none of the craftsmanship. weed and hennessy > pills and lean when it comes to making memorable music. angry rap music today is the soundtrack for teens trying to guilt their parents into giving them more money to buy a new skateboard, or drugs or whatever.
“content with a couple of Alchemist produced gems and the odd Roc Marciano track” + I always want to know what Black Milk is up to, Nottz as well. Honorable mention is Freddie Foxxx (Great ear for beats, and still got energy). Then there’s always an unknown producer with a hot beat, which is a refreshing.
Pretty much the only Hip-Hop I appreciate these days.
co-sign.
i dig starvin b.
and some british acts like cappo.
czarface for the win.
You know your up shit creek when kas a poster boy for hard beats.
If you want raw beats and TRUE TO LIFE hardrock, roughneck warlord bars look no further than MF GRIMM & DRASAR MONUMENTAL “Good Morning Vietnam 1-3″…….
Appollo Brown’s beats can be a bit formulaic at times, but he’s one of the few new generation dudes consistently putting out samples based neck snappers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ByazcCCZ2c
we are certainly past the era of “broken language” starting fights at clubs…
I like to listen to justin bieber and wear pink leotards i dont like doof doof bling young thug music,i thinks total orgasm kool keith is sensational in turning my leotard inside out!byes
I know I’d probably be in the minority on this, but I would also add drum-less rap music as boring too
Redman has just dropped a slice of nostalgic boom-bap with ‘Somebody got Robbed’.
@Hooligan: Not bad at all.
STATIK SELEKTAH IS LIKE ONE OF THOSE EUROPEAN STRUGGLE PRODUCERS IN CROATIA OR WHATEVER THAT PAST THEIR PRIME RAPPERS COLLABORATE WITH FOR WEED MONEY BUT HE IS FROM MAINE OR SOMETHING. IT SOUNDS LIKE HE MAKES HIS BEATS OUT OF HERB ALPERT RECORDS FROM THE GOODWILL. PRO TIP TO HIM AND EVERYONE ELSE LIKE HIM: YOU ARE ACCOMPLISHING THE SAME TRAGIC SATURATION THAT WENT DOWN DURING THE FAT BEATS/SANDBOX ERA FLOODING THE MARKET WITH STUFF THAT IS BARELY WORTH A SOUNDCLOUD CLICK ALL SO SOMEONE WILL FLY YOU TO DJ IN OTTOWA OR WHATEVER THE EXTREMELY LOW STAKES END GAME IS FOR THESE GUYS. QUALITY NOT QUANTITY DONT BE THE MUSICAL EQUIVALENT OF SPAM IN MY INBOX. IT CHEAPENS MUSIC FOR EVERYONE.
@Dick Slipmat Statiks from Mass which sucks cause being from Mass myself having him and Termanology being the face of Boston hip hop is pretty sad.
@Ben What about Seamus, though? He makes it hard for me to get on board with Czarface.
Statik has made bangers..boring albums but always a classic cut or 2. Shit 99.9% of producer albums suck anyway..
@Fosterakahunter who’s Seamus?
Check out Grand Killa Con
I remember some idiots claiming Statik is the new and improved DJ Premier. Don’t fucking think so.
Wish fulfillment for great white hopes to surpass black genius and prowess is what propels wack corny MF’s like Statik along. Technical mastering of fundamental skills doesn’t equate to real soul being in the art.
Random occurrences and luck finding the odd sample that gives the music a real feel happens occasionally with producers like Statik, but for the most part there is always something missing and I can’t feel their music.
Marco Polo is the same way. Even rappers like Your Old Droog is like that. The technical abilities are obviously there, but the experiences heart and soul are absent.
The funny thing is I want to like their shit because I obviously hear the mastery in the skills but damnit I just don’t feel anything in their music, and can’t stand when the only emotions they can put in their music is some bullshit anger and angst about the state of Hip Hop. Nothing worse than hearing music that’s only only conscious of the technical weakness in other artists and/or their music.
Listening to rap music that is primarily only about rap music. Rapping about rap, is like listening to and watching a toilet bowl flush.
For the record I quite like a lot of drumless rap if the sample is ill. Most “drumless” rap still has the original drums in the sample anyway and I like hearing the real non fucked with music.
I’d rather have the feel of the music intact than have generic boring boom bap drums with the same old patterns or even worse trap style drums just for the sake of habit.
I really hate when generic boom bap drums make a genius piece of music that’s being sampled sound cheap and amateur. Only a small amount of producers actually programmed and chose drums that really matched and even made the sample better than it originally was.
@ben esoteric
“Has New York become so self-conscious that it’s no longer capable of making anti-social hip-hop that builds on it’s rich history without throwing out the baby with the proverbial bath water in order to be as suitable for the next fashion show as it is for riding the train at 3 am?”
Yes.
Pre Giuliani/Sep 11th NYC is dead & buried, never to come back.
Man, must admit – mentioning last Statik album and elevator muzak in the same sentence felt funny and there is probably some truth in that claim, but don’t shit on the dude that hard all of a sudden!!
He has perfected his style to the point it is bit too safe already, that’s true – but he is still doing the right thing here..
@357 STATIK HAS MADE PRECISELY ZERO CLASSIC ANYTHINGS IN HIS LIFE. I SEE YOUR COMMENTS ON HERE ALL THE TIME SO I KNOW YOU KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT RAP MUSIC TO CONCEDE THE ABSURDITY OF THIS STATEMENT. LETS NOT DEVALUE THE WORD CLASSIC.
Statik is from new Hampshire not Maine or new York or Massachusetts