Chuck D Slams Older Rappers Who Still Rap About 'The Same Street Tale'

[Piff Perkins]

I'm fine with street tales from older artists as long as it's not the dominant subject matter of their music. The problem I see is regressive artists who do not grow at all, and keep making the same project over and over. I'm looking at Griselda, mainly. You know exactly how Benny is going to rap, what he's going to say, etc. Same with Conway, same with all those dudes. For such big Jay-Z fans it's hilarious they never got the memo that Jay stopped rapping exclusively about street shyt after a couple albums.

 

[BK The Great]

Gatekeepers didn’t really do much but let that kind of music gain more attention than the conscious stuff. Record labels also pushed it to popularity. The problem is they can’t co-exist, one is more dominant than the other. Younger fans want that ignorant street shyt and don’t want knowledge in their content.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Most of these fans live through these guys… what u listen to is what u absorb

I love Nas but I know for a fact that he is believable . Even Nas can talk about black celebrities kooning(These Are Our Heroes) and make a song about every chick he screwed(Remember the Times).

A lot of rappers in this day and time don’t wanna talk about the bad side of things as well.

100%

And while Nas does talk about street shyt, it's from an introspective and more mature space. There is a lane for more mature rap and I do wish that more social commentary rap was a thing. It was during the golden era in the late 80s and early 90s before corporations bought up all the smaller labels and started pushing "reality" and ridiculous capitalist rap over everything else. The fun, black empowerment, and social commentary in rap was killed from a mainstream perspective to be not cool. It wasn't by coincidence either.

 

[MikelArteta]

lox gonna be in there 60's still rhyming those fake gun and street tales

 

[Art Barr]

I feel like you have been dropping aggressive content lately. I'm worried breh

Be worried.

For them tho.


My sword is thirsty at the table.

Art Barr

 

[Pop123]

Bro is older than Nas, think about that..

I don’t knock him completely because he probably just genuinely thinks that this is what will work and what he has to do (that shouldn’t be an excuse tho, )…but still, at some point you gotta lead instead of follow, once you know better you gotta do better, old head. This shhit flopped and bombed miserably anyway, smh

 

[tremonthustler1]

Bro is older than Nas, think about that..

I don’t knock him completely because he probably just genuinely thinks that this is what will work and what he has to do (that shouldn’t be an excuse tho, )…but still, at some point you gotta lead instead of follow, once you know better you gotta do better, old head. This shhit flopped and bombed miserably anyway, smh

Maino probably thinks that because he's made a career out of being Maino, that nobody who truly fukks with Maino wants to hear him be any other way. He'll be 65 years old still tellin you he's a Lobby Boy even if his life is drastically different than what it was (and because of that, why switch up?)

At the end of the day, rap is entertainment, and most of those topics he listed are just not interesting to listen to to the average fan. Especially not consistently. Y'all can lie to yourselves, but 99% of rap listeners are definitely not trying to hear no raps about prostate and mortgage payments for over 16 tracks.

Sex, Murder, Crime, Money is what America loves to listen to. That's just the harsh reality. That type of content is what sells and this is a business.

Same people still want Andre 3000 to put the flute down.

That said, Chuck D said, Different ages have different appeals and elder folk money ain’t stupid. He's right. Hip-Hop turns away that kind of money and for what? Hip-Hop for the most part does a poor job of counter programming. Not to say that there ain't alternative rap out there, especially underground, but now it's impossible to tell the difference between underground rappers and some random guy picking up a mic.

The biggest shows on TV are generally shows that older people watch too. Some of the biggest movies are big because the whole family comes out to see it. Boring ass movies get made every year because old folks money can hold you down. Rap's still tryna comprehend the concept of 40, 50 year old rappers being commonplace when we used to see rappers fall off before 30, legendary ones at that. Big Daddy Kane was considered washed up at 23. Rakim at 31 was so in a way it's understandable as to why hip-hop has no game plan for fans and consumers that get older.

 

[Lonj]

At the end of the day, rap is entertainment, and most of those topics he listed are just not interesting to listen to to the average fan. Especially not consistently. Y'all can lie to yourselves, but 99% of rap listeners are definitely not trying to hear no raps about prostate and mortgage payments for over 16 tracks.

Sex, Murder, Crime, Money is what America loves to listen to. That's just the harsh reality. That type of content is what sells and this is a business.

People listening to a chick telling y'all her booty hole brown.

If the beat knocks people will listen to anything.

 

[Turbulent]

At the end of the day, rap is entertainment, and most of those topics he listed are just not interesting to listen to to the average fan. Especially not consistently. Y'all can lie to yourselves, but 99% of rap listeners are definitely not trying to hear no raps about prostate and mortgage payments for over 16 tracks.

Sex, Murder, Crime, Money is what America loves to listen to. That's just the harsh reality. That type of content is what sells and this is a business.

I partially agree with this post.

I think rapping about a wider range of emotion through stories as well as stream of consciousness type raps could be interesting coming from older rappers. Doesn't necessarily have to be about diabetes or mortgages though.

 

[MajesticLion]

No man is simply just one thing. Whether you have the capacity to explore those other facets of yourself without fear is up to you.

 

[Harry B]

To me shyt like Rae and Ghost, or Griselda or Pusha T or whatever are sub genres just like directors still making gangster movies.

It really depends on how you execute

 

[Da_Eggman]

 

[I'm Blackman]

he absolutely right

 

[FreshAIG]

I partially agree with this post.

I think rapping about a wider range of emotion through stories as well as stream of consciousness type raps could be interesting coming from older rappers. Doesn't necessarily have to be about diabetes or mortgages though.

I agree. I was just speaking more towards the topics Chuck D broached. Now if you speaking personally about dealing with ailments you're going through, that's fire. I love personalized content, that's actually a struggle you're going through. But rapping about random Doctor Check ups and paying your rent through your Apartment's web portal is not it.

I wasn't trying to say you can't make dope songs without the murder, sex, money topics, just that the audience for things outside of those topics are very miniscule. At the end of the day, these people are all in the business to draw in as many ears as possible.

 

[Turbulent]

I agree. I was just speaking more towards the topics Chuck D broached. Now if you speaking personally about dealing with ailments you're going through, that's fire. I love personalized content, that's actually a struggle you're going through. But rapping about random Doctor Check ups and paying your rent through your Apartment's web portal is not it.

I wasn't trying to say you can't make dope songs without the murder, sex, money topics, just that the audience for things outside of those topics are very miniscule. At the end of the day, these people are all in the business to draw in as many ears as possible.

Yeah, i think we agree overall. The only thing I would add is that the anchor of the song should be the feeling (love, sadness, despair, fear, hope, etc) and not the subject matter (mortgage, health, etc)