P.S. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.

Dirk

It’s all opinion, and that’s the best part of Music-it’s all that you make of it.

Joe Tomlinson

But you’re right, we’re looking at it from totally different angles that can’t really be compared. Mainstream and Underground rap will always be different. It’s my fault for comparing them, really. I still don’t know if I agree Souljaboy is the voice of the new age, but then again you know the culture better than I. I live in suburbia, far from the culture of hip-hop, so I can only judge based on the music.

Heck, I’ll support both our points with one verse from Jay’s Moment of Clarity:

The music business hate me
Cause the industry ain’t make me
Hustlers and boosters embrace me
And the music i be makin
I dumb down for my audience
And double my dollars
They criticize me for it
Yet they all yell “Holla”
If skills sold
Truth be told
I’d probably be
Lyricly
Talib Kweli
Truthfully
I wanna rhyme like Common Sense
(But i did five Mil)
I ain’t been rhymin like Common since
When your sense got that much in common
And you been hustlin since
Your inception
Fuck perception
Go with what makes sense
Since
I know what i’m up against
We as rappers must decide what’s most impor-tant
And i can’t help the poor if i’m one of them
So i got rich and gave back
To me that’s the win, win
The next time you see the homie and his rims spin
Just know my mind is workin just like them
(The rims that is).

I would never consider Souljaboy the best rapper/MC out there, but as far as him making it himself and getting sales, good for him. He may sell more than a lot of other artists, but I’d never place my money on him in a freestyle battle against someone like Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. And I’d still never try to boast him as a technically good rapper. He is far from it. But I guess you’re right about the culture. He’s what people are listening to nowadays, along with Weezy. Sad but true. We are comparing too mostly separate categories: the technically skilled and the mainstream popular.

Lupe is great content wise but I wouldn’t even go as far as to place him as one of my top 10 artist of today. He doesn’t have both angles of what it takes to be successful in the industry. You have to be able to parlay your talent well in both the lyrical aspect and within the wave of what the mainstream hip-hop audience wants. And thats not to say he should ‘dumb it down’ but to achieve that he needs to find a way to make himself something people actually want to listen to. Also let me reiterate the fact that I listen to everyone and everything: so let me kick it to you like this. Lupe can’t even deny Soulja’s influence. On Enemy of the State(since foltzy wants to bring up mixtapes) the hardest song that Lupe laid verses to was on a SOULJABOY SONG! He went as far as to say in an MTV interview that “the south always has that heat before it up comes up north so I wanted to find the hardest song down there before it would made its way here”(i’m looking for the interview now). When artists take time to select beats to rap on for mixtapes they choose what is the hardest song out at the time……soulja…

P.S. Men Lie Women Lie Numbers Don’t, we can all argue we want this and that for hip hop or hip hop should be this but at the end of the day Lupe has never achieved anymore more that Gold(500,000 copies sold).

First, however, I feel I must address the first few comments that were posted: Music is given power through the memories YOU create behind it. The only reason that you all feel so strongly about the past state of hip-hop is because that is what you grew up hearing. Those songs were songs that you can remember rapping with your friends, listening to on your first date, or your first time………………kissing a girl to. One of my pet peeves is that people are so quick to say “well it used to be” BUT ITS NOT ANYMORE!

The current generation of hip hop youngsters does knows little of who artists of the Rakim age are, and more importantly DON’T CARE. Their attention span would not even permit them to listen to and appreciate it the way that generations of the past were able to. And this is not to their own discredit, it is to say that the music that they are exposed to reflects their world: the style of dress, the slang, the SWAG(even though I hate the world) of the time. The same way that I would not expect you older hip-hop cats to show up wearing clothes from the Fresh Prince era, why would you expect these kids to have to same taste in what they like from an artist? Simply put THINGS CHANGE…’GET OVER IT’(drake reference for ya).

The music that they are growing up on is what they will come to appreciate into adulthood, not for its “quality” as some of you put(which is as subjective of a word as you could find because the ear of one is not the ear of another) but because of the memories they will come to ascociate with the songs they are currently listening to.

Second, never did I make the argument that Souljaboy is my favorite artist, nor did I state that he is the best rapper alive. I happened to grow up during Reasonable Doubt/Vol. 2 times (and I hope you all crying for the old hip-hop actually know what i’m referring to). Therefore, I have been alive when Biggie Smallz was Biggie Smallz and not the Notorious BIG, I was a avid lover of the music when Bad Boy Records was the only thing played on the radio on ever station from Craig Mack to Mase to the Lox to Puff Daddy to Faith Evans to Black Rob to Carl Thomas (get your hip-hop thesaurus), I was alive and remember EXACTLY what I was doing when they announced the news that TuPac was dead. But because I lived through all this and still am emersed within the CULTURE of hip-hop not just the msuic, Jay-Z will always be the best rapper EVER TO DO IT(we’ll save that for the article after the next). BUT in an industry where you have to ’sell your soul’(again grab your thesaurus if you don’t get the reference)to go platinum, I can’t comprehend how you can quickly pass judgement on a 19 year old kid you paved HIS OWN WAY into the music industry. He did it without major producers, without big artists pushing him, and all the while has still remained consistent with dropping hits. ‘MEN LIE WOMEN LIE NUMBERS DON’T'(hope you picked up on that one too). What were YOU doing at 16?……exactly

We all love Drake and claim he is the panacea for the lack of the lyrical ailment in recent hip-hop but where would he be without being backed by Wayne? There are plenty of extremely gifted emcees that just will never break out BECAUSE THAT IS NOT WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR RIGHT NOW. Yes I know and am aware of who Jay Electronica is, but J. Cole is just as great of an emcee(listen to The Warm Up) but lets be honest there have always been ‘great emcess’. B.o.B, Cory Gunz, Charles Hamiliton and Wiz Khalifa are just are creative and equally as lyrically impressive but only time will tell whether the hip-hop’s next wave will take us into a more lyrical trend. People just aren’t as concerned with the lyrical content of hip-hop as they once were. For this reason artists like Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and Common, who have put years upon years into the game will never be mainstream music

ALL THAT SAID… we are arguing from different places. To know hip-hop and to live hip-hop are two different things. I grew up in the middle of the two generations, The Biggie/Pac Era and now I live in the Soulja Era, so I can see where all of you are coming from BUT, it is remarkable how at the end of the day how much hate people have for this KID. Respect that he made himself, produces his own hits from the start to finish, and is own of let’s say 6 artists who can still actually sell records. He doesn’t have to be your favorite artists but you can’t deny his influence, the fact you all took time out of what should be productive days to write these elongated responses does nothing but illustrate the fact that:

WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT SOULJA IS HERE TO STAY AND IS LEADER OF THE NEW SCHOOL ….BOW!!

This is Hip-Hop’s New School:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMwi8vFXUpo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuX6QB-SUHA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLFPB_lqnuY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94xa0NBeN0g

R.I.P. Biggie Smallz

P.S. if you didn’t get the majority of the references your either out of date, don’t know the current state of things, or maybe even don’t know what you are talking about.

Mr. Kontroversy

1. When you refer to the Southern Movement, I would like you to consider T.I A.K.A “The King of the South.” By your definition of the south, T.I clearly does not fit the mold; lyrically, I challenge you to find me a list of songs that follow the criteria you have created. (Don’t look to hard because you cannot find too many) Overall, he is a “dirty” rapper and how can a rapper who just spent a year and a day in jail rap about having a good time or whatever you use in your blog.

2. What part of Lil Wayne should we understand? A very over produced rapper, he is more concerned with quantity rather than quality. I know you will rebut with “No Ceilings”, which clearly does not belong in the pile of garbage Lil Wayne has to offer. He makes catchy beats, and clever dirty rhymes (and i will admit I saw him in concert last summer), but I cannot stand this “little rock faze” he is currently a part of. Notice that Eminem is featured on the best song of Rebirth

3. Hello Samik! So glad to hear from you and see that we see eye to eye on this topic. You did steal my thunder on Drake, but let me elaborate a bit more. Drake is quite an anomaly, well at least his story is. Drake’s best decision was to start rapping with Lil Wayne, because it gave him the chance to outshine one of the “hottest rappers” in the game, and get his name out there faster. The kid from Degrassi really can rap, but his biggest mistake was signing with Young Money. Sure they gave him the 5 album deal, and I am sure a great deal of money, but it may perhaps have not have been the best thing for him. Drake in my mind has already out shined Weezy and Drizzy Drake is continuing to be the new voice of Rap. (Download “Over” although I am sure that you have already heard it)

4. Rap music has sadly turned into something that is completely controlled by the internet. Soulja Boy is only popular because he took advantage of this. He had a catchy tune, and blew it up all over the internet. Rap is completely ruled by the underground and mix tapes, and a “popular artist” is a term that jumps from rapper to rapper as soon as they put out a catchy song. They feel pressured to put out more music to surpass their competition (much like Lil Wayne) which lessens the quality.

We all know that Em is my favorite, but perhaps I will be a bit more careful and able to defend my solid points when my blog rolls around.

Foltzy <3

Today marks thirteen years the game has gone on without Christopher Wallace. Rest easy BIG

Souljaboy is weak. He lacks good, quality producers, lyricism, flow, rhyming patterns, rhyme difficulty and every other nit-pickey category existing in rap today. Maybe you’re unaware, but RAKIM introduced the multi-syllabic rhyme to hip-hop, and was one of the first to switch up rhyme schemes. If not for Rakim, we would not have Ludacris, who is known for long, complex multi-syllables.

The issue is that people mistake Pop/Dance music that includes a rap verse as Rap/hip-hop. Flo Rida is not an MC. Souljaboy is not an MC. Ludacris is hardly an MC. They may rap, but they don’t make Hip-hop music, they make Pop and Dance music!

Sure, as far as Pop/Dance music is concerned they are some of the top artists, because they make people move in the clubs. I will give you that.

Lil’ Wayne should be considered a rapper, and an attempted MC, but the truth is he is trash. Who would ever wanna “Fillet Mignon that p****” anyway? That hardly makes sense! Unless you’re a cannibal…

No, to me, an MC or a real rapper raps about life and the world. Not DANCING and sexy ladies, we save that for DANCE MUSIC–what a novel idea, eh? Jay-z and Em occasionally cross this boundary, as do many others, but for the most part they have rapped about their lives and their views on the world.

I’ll give it to you again, though. Em and Jay-z, though spectacular, are growing old and this generation needs someone new. Who is it? Who should it be? I’ll give you two MC’s who have the capability to be the real game’s new leaders–yes, by real game I mean true rap, not trashy, vulgar dance music.

1. Jay Electronica. Download his song Exhibit C and you’ll understand. It’s amazing. And if you’re too lazy to download it, I’ll give you a piece now:

They call me Jay Electronica
F*** that.
Call me Jay ElecHannukah
Jay ElecYarmulke
Jay ElecRamadaan Muhammad Asalaamica RasoulAllah Supana Watallah through your monitor.

Souljaboy would never be able to come up with a few lines like that, with as many rhymes, multi-syllabs, intricate meanings, or the flow that Jay Elec does.

2. Lupe Fiasco. He is one of the few rappers to have true intelligence and use it without mercy in his rhymes. He is not afraid to make political illusions. He renounces gang life and new hip-hop, rapping:
“Now I ain’t tryna be the greatest (the greatest)
I used to hate hip-hop… yup, because the women degraded,
But Too $hort made me laugh, like a hypocrite I played it,
A hypocrite I stated, though I only recited half,
Omittin the word “b****,” cursin I wouldn’t say it,
Me and dog couldn’t relate, til a b**** I dated,
Forgive my favorite word for hers and hers alike,
But I learnt it from a song I heard and sorta liked,
Yeah, for the icin, glamorized drug dealin was appealin,”

Lupe is boss, and on his newest album dropping sometime this year he preaches that people are not losers, but lasers and that we shine with our own individuality. Souljahboy can’t even spell individuality.

That’s not all the good, true MCs out there, but only enough to prove my case pretty darn well for now. If you want to further debate it, I’ve got way more knowledge and opinion up sleeve about true hip-hop than you’d expect from a sixteen year old white kid.

- Joe Tomlinson

*Get well soon, GURU!