Gangsta Rap is Dead, Long Live Hip-Hop

Hello. I am Jacques and I do not relate with guns. Nor crack.Nor cocaine. Nor movin major weight. Nor AYE!

But I do relate with: Girls. Weed (barely). Money.

Looking at that list I bet you can't help but wonder if I'm talking about rap's mainstream progression. Well of course I am.

I am part of the new generation listening to hip-hop. After it was declared dead, it is almost practically revived by the likenesses of Drake, Cudi and Asher. (yes, Asher). With the originality of Donnis and the creativity of B.o.B, rap is reborn.

It took three (years) to come back from the dead. Could we call this new generation, “The Second Coming”? Of course not. However, I do feel that hip-hop meshes well with the generation right now. Ten years ago, the generation wasn't comprised entirely of gangbangers running around stabbing babies, but “gangster” hip-hop was in. To be frank, I will go as far to say that if 50’s "Get Rich or Die Trying" dropped today, I do not think it would be as acclaimed as it was. Why?

Let me put it this way.

Honestly, the other day someone told me my type of hip-hop (hipster) was the one responsible for putting the final nail in hip-hop's coffin. Well, in that case I hope that guy bought flowers for it.

I cannot sit here and listen to someone talk about running up and down blocks sticking up fools. Why? Because I have never seen it before. I have never witnessed it, and no, I do not want to. I respect that type of music though, why wouldn’t I?

Mobb gets frequent plays in my Zune. So does DMX. But they are known for that. They are known to talk about this stuff. And at the time when they were talking, people were listening. But right now? We’re not.

As we sit here and contemplate how this could happen to the beautiful “violent” gem we call hip-hop, please understand that I am firmly not against “Gangsta” rap. Nope, I respect the people arguing on message boards TYPING IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS.

WHY?

BECAUSE IN ORDER TO LOVE HIP HOP, YOU HAVE TO LOVE ALL OF IT.

(Am I screaming at you or am I just way to “gangsta”?)

You don’t marry a chick and hate her breath, nor do you buy a car and hate the way the door closes.

What is wrong with this “hipster” rap? Why can’t we all just get a long. Gangsters with Hipsters. The same people mad at me because my jeans are too tight, I’m mad at because their pants are way to baggy. I hate the fact that some rappers talk about Coke all day, while they hate that some rappers talk about money, teenage girls, and sonning other rappers all day.

It’s all relative, cousins in music. Now we just have to figure out what to do with Cudi.