Conscious rappers that are better than Kendrick
- Thread starter the elastic
- Start date
FruitOfTheVale
Superstar
Depends on what you mean by "conscious". A lot of shyt that gets labelled conscious in 2022 is pandering to social media activists at best and trojan-horse virtue signaling at worst. When's the last time you actually heard a new conscious rap record that showed a deeper understanding & stronger conviction of its topic than what you can already scroll on your IG/FB timeline? What's the last conscious rap record that made you want to actually get up and do something about whatever the song was about? IMO the question's a non-starter, I legit haven't heard a rap song with a message that actually felt heartfelt and new in many years. I've heard conceptual songs that touch on black trauma history (slavery, lynchings, etc.) with a certain amount of conviction but none of them are coming with any new ideas about how to move forward from any of it. For example, where are the songs demanding reparations? Where are the diss records calling out labels and 360 deals with some actual teeth? Hip Hop's discourse is 90% retrospective these days and rarely looks forward or, really, even at the present without being vague.
NormanConnors
Detroit/MSU Spartan Life
I mean, assuming you're older than 25, there's only so much depth that could go into a song before you feel like you've heard it all. There's still a ton of youth that haven't heard the messages in music that are so status-quo to us more seasoned listeners. And with Twitter, YouTube and podcasts, activism is probably the most accessible it's ever been. So a lot of people might not even seek conscious messaging in their music once they've consumed it in those alternate media forms.
As far as music that speaks on bad music business practices, JPEGMAFIA is pretty good with that.
FruitOfTheVale
Superstar
I respect that you actually responded to what was written
I'm 28, I get your point about being a more seasoned listener but I also think that's a little bit of a cop-out. There's never gonna be anything new under the sun per say, but what makes one song feel "newer" than the other imo is if its actually addressing what's going on rn and not just in a "restating the issue" type of way. A lot of rappers will restate an issue (police brutality, gentrification, blacks killing blacks, etc.) but won't actually share their beliefs about said issue to a level that makes you (the listener) feel uncomfortable with the fact that the issue is still going on. Some rappers take a political approach that's more direct but others will do a storytelling or conceptual approach where you're forced to read between the lines if you want to understand what the rapper thinks. Great conscious rappers will use all three approaches imo, it's one thing to take a political/philosophical stance but its another if you can make the listener understand where you're coming from about whatever the issue is when they hear your story/concept.
If your song has the depth of an instagram caption but is packaged/advertised like its a manifesto that shyt is fugazi to me. A lot of fugazi conscious rappers will claim they do that because the listeners don't want to engage with anything more in-depth than that, and yet some of the most classic records in the genre are classic because they're in-depth.
Link the JPEGMAFIA record you're talking about, I"ll listen to it.
FruitOfTheVale
Superstar
Also I'll list my own example. Take this record by Boots Riley:
The first few verses tell a story about a character that, at first, doesn't appear to take a stance on the issue (prostitution). In fact, its about the fact that he agreed with it because he was literally raised by a pimp and a hoe. By the time he's grown, he's going through an internal battle where he sees himself repeating the sins of his father when he should've known better because he knows firsthand what it cost his mother. Boots Riley doesn't interject his own political/philosophical views on pimping until the last verse when, as the listener, you should've already picked up from the story he told in the first three verses that pimping did no one in the story any favors. The direct anti-pimp rhetoric he dropped in the last verse was just the emphasis, but if he hadn't told the story first it would've came off as preachy and most mfs wouldn't have cared to hear a song w/ a diatribe. Instead, it's considered a hip hop classic and literally inspired a book because the rapper showed his depth on the subject.
Very, very few rappers these days go to any type of depth about any topic, never mind anything pro-black.
FruitOfTheVale
Superstar
I listened, the first record feels pretty vague lyrically and the mix doesn't help.
The second record is better, the point is much clearer and he sounds believable like he's rapping what he actually thinks. Beyond that, it feels more like a diss record than a "conscious" rap song imo because it didn't really point out what the core problem is with the "Drake Era", it just voiced his dislike of Drake type rappers. It would feel more like a conscious rap song if it felt like he wanted to change the listener's mind about something or make them pay attention to the issue because it was getting worse. Those two things could both be true as far as what he originally intended but the way the song is framed, its more like a diss track with some very subtle commentary about music industry trends.
I love Latina women
Veteran
Saafir
Beat Street
Rookie
Y’all corny
Yo...this album is amazing.
WaveWhisperer
Stainless Steel
Brownsville KA
Deltron 3030 is up there with Kendricks best work. Quit playing with that man.