Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary

Hip Hop Lineage: JID, a new generational great

JID is an emergent artist with a catalog, skill, and community credibility to claim the crown as one of the best of his generation

“Lemme bear it all when I’m tellin’ God/

You know I’ma rant [Morant] when I talk to Jah.”

— JID, “Dance Now”, The Forever Story

Hip Hop is still young enough to see the unique influence of one artist on successive artists that follow them. This is true in every dimension of the culture — graffiti, DJing, emceeing, breaking.

For instance, here is what a likely totem pole of one style of Hip Hop lyricists looks like:

> Kool G Rap begat
> Rakim begat
> Big Daddy Kane begat
> Black Thought

Begat might be too strong a word—more like influenced. But, when their influence was so potent that it gave birth to an entire DNA strand of rap style, I decided to make the upgrade.