5 Rap Trends We Don’t Want to See in 2014 Posted by Lucas G. on 12/17/13 | Filed under Opinion, Fail

Three powerhouse emcees dropping albums on the same day, a young star from Chicago who couldn't be shining any brighter, some epic Kanye-ness, a surprise album and Kendrick putting the rap game on notice...it has been an epic 2013. But it isn't all flowers and albums, unfortunately there has been some ugly, crazy, and downright moronic trends that have become way too common in hip-hop.

I get that it can't all be perfect, but still, we can dream of a day when annoying shit stops ruining it for the rest of us hip-hop heads. While we have been all over the good stuff from the year, but now it's time to  take a swig of the haterade\. Here are some trends from 2013 that we hope go the way of swag and wearing your clothes backwards.

Twerking

RefinedHype is and always will be an ambassador of the booty in any way, shape or form, but this whole twerking thing has just gone too far. It was all well and good when Beyonce-like booties were shaking like Rob Ford after a crack binge, but when Miley Cyrus popped on that teddybear/sillyputty costume and started shaking it all over Robin Thicke, I think it officially jumped the shark. Kids were getting suspended from school, Jimmy Kimmel was trolling the internet with fake twerk-gone-wrong-videos, and Juciy J was offering a scholarship to a girl who could shake her booty the best. Things got out of hand fast. These dance crazes go just as quickly as they came, so hopefully twerking is just the next Crank Dat. The only dance for me is the "Hey Ma" dance.

Molly Rap

With the exception of Danny Brown, who you know, actually probably eats Molly for breakfast,  Molly has become more trendy than Ciroc or Nike. What started as an underground craze heavenly rooted in EDM is now a watered-down, generic drug that rappers can't get enough of...well, they can't get enough of rapping about it. I seriously doubt they all actually take as much Molly as they say, because if they did hip-hop would be a giant "Intervention" episode.

Never having done it, I can't really say whether or not Molly really is the bee's knees, but I feel like all this talk about it makes it sound much cooler than it is. I am ok with a Molly song here and there (especially from artists where it feels real) but when every other song sounds like Juicy J or Trinidad Jame$, something's gone wrong. In other words, when Tyga is rapping about it, you know its time to cut your losses. 

Twitter Beef
                                                       

A time long ago - the 90s - beef was nothing to be trifled with. Pac vs. Biggie, Shady vs. Murder, and East Coast vs. West Coast were serious rivalries that actually had some sort of meaning and consequence (unfortunately the beef rarely stopped at the mic). A great diss track could sky rocket your credibility and embarrass your enemy, but now, even that's gone. Rappers have gone from writing well-crafted diss tracks to firing off 140 character jabs as a method of "beefing".

Like teenage girls, Angel Haze, Azealia Banks, Gucci, Joey Bada$$, Kanye, A$AP mob, Nicki Minaj, have all taken to Twitter for their catty, meaningless squabbles, and it makes hip-hop look more like a high-school than an artform (not that Nicki was doing much for the art of hip-hop but still).

The winner of 2013's Twitter beef was obviously Gucci Mane for his epic rant that harder to decipher than ancient hieroglyphics. As entertaining as that was, its time for that shit to stop and for rappers to act like grown ups.

Kanye Rants

At first, I couldn't get enough of these. Not only were they pageview magnets but they were entertaining as hell and if you could filter out the fluff, Kanye occasionally made some good points, plus they made for a damn good quiz. Now, it seems like Kanye can't go anywhere without hopping up on his soapbox and telling everyone how he is the next Nelson Mandela and that the fashion industry is refusing to acknowledge his genius and blah blah blah. I think as soon as he started yelling at Sway, people jumped ship. I tried to defend him, but now it is almost impossible to do; he has become such a zealot for his own religion that you can't really root for him anymore. 

Hell, we even put a ban on posting Kanye rants because they happen too often and mean too little. For Kanye it has become less and less about the music and more about fashion and getting treated like a king. Here's hoping he gets back to his musical roots, which is why we love him so.

Migos

Because Migos... Migos satire, however? Keep 'em comin!

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Phew, doesn't it feel good to let the hate out? All therapeutic and shit. I know I am feeling more optimistic about the New Year. Of course, the catch 22 here is that if these things fade out, you know there will be about a million new trends that pop up for us to hate on, but such is life as a rap nerd. Nobody said it was easy, but if we don't call this stuff out nobody will; with great power comes great responsibility. If we have forgotten any trends, be sure to include them below; let no hate go unhated!