For The Love of Hip Hop… Part I
Since my eyes were opened in 1996, I’ve heard all types of music. Growing up with a brother who is 8 years older than me, we listened to a lot of hip hop. Some of my most fond memories with my brother is when we would sing songs by Yung Joc, Lil John, Snoop, Missy Elliot, Usher, and Nelly. Of all the songs we listened to, my favorite songs had lyrics in them that talked about love, struggle, chillin at the holiday inn, and even asking if you’ve ever seen a chevy with a butterfly door.
Now, I know music has changed over the years, but now a days most rap music just sounds like awful noise. Hoes, sluts, and pimps… Some of the most common lyrics heard in rap music today. Don’t get me wrong.. I love some rap songs that have those words in it. But in today’s hip hop world, that is ALL I hear! It seems like people just put words together and say “Hmmm, that sounds good.” What happened to good hip hop that rapped about love, struggle, and the joy of life without talking about guns, banging multiple women, and how much money you have?
It’s not that you can’t make good songs without talking about your struggle. Rap is a way that people talk about struggle. But artists, when you talk about women in vulgar ways and how much weed you smoked last night, that is not struggle. Struggle is when you got home from school and there was an eviction notice on the door. Its when your parents weren’t there for you, and when the water got cut off and you couldn’t take a bath.
One of my favorite rappers, Lecrae, knows a ton about struggle being raised in the projects without a father figure. In his song, “Nuthin”, my favorite lyrics are as follows…
“Let me guess you counting money to the ceiling
Difference ‘tween us like at least a couple million
It’s foreign cars, pretty girls everywhere you go
Yeah I heard it 30 times on the radio
Lou Vuitton ain’t gon’ pay you for that bragging
And Donatella prolly never heard your album
Yeah they probably ‘bout to label me a hater
But I know these people greater than the songs they created”
In these lyrics he is talking about how rappers are just talking about how rich they are compared to others, how many cars they have, and how many pretty women they can get. The songs are overplayed. He then goes to talk about famous fashion designers who do not even care about their albums or their bragging.
His song then goes to say,
“I think we were made for more
Than just, ya know, the simple things that we aspire toward
We were made for more than just telling stories about
How much money we can get by selling poison to people
It’s time to talk about who we are and who we can be
And we need to build each other up and not put each other down
I feel like we not talking about nothing right now”
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m ready to hear songs that aren’t talking about nothing.
For The Love Of Hip Hop,
Katherine
