What happened to Rock is slowly happening to Rap. You are seeing the beginning of Rap no longer being the dominant genre in music

[Formerly Black Trash]

I’ll never listen to no fukking Afro beats over hip hop

sick y’all hyping that shyt up all the time

I don’t wanna hear that shyt

They think everywhere is NY

Africans don't have a stranglehold everywhere like that

Flyover states count too

Because they stream and go to concerts

 

[Hathaway]

80s and 90s R&B was bridged very well with 60s and 70s R&B.. Then neo soul jumped off in 2000.. Been down hill since then.

Agreed. There was not a huge drop off from the 80s to the 90s. It wasn't a drastic decline because artist were still being innovative. Teddy Riley with New Jack Swing. Boyz II Men bringing back 1960s 4part harmony over fresh ballads. That infused pop/r&b sound from Brandy, Mariah. Then nikkas like R. Kelly came and crushed the buildings. The talent and innovation was still there from every perspective. Production, song writing, musical composition and vocal ability. It was all still very much present despite the slight drop in quality.

 

[Wildhundreds]

Agreed. There was not a huge drop off from the 80s to the 90s. It wasn't a drastic decline because artist were still being innovative. Teddy Riley with New Jack Swing. Boyz II Men bringing back 1960s 4part harmony over fresh ballads. That infused pop/r&b sound from Brandy, Mariah. Then nikkas like R. Kelly came and crushed the buildings. The talent and innovation was still there from every perspective. Production, song writing, musical composition and vocal ability. It was all still very much present despite the slight drop in quality.

Its started to get really interesting when you started to see a decline of the formation of R&B groups. You literally had groups of 4 where 2-3 could actually sing. Now days its tough to find one solid R&B singer with decent range.

 

[King Poetic]

Rap has become the new drug game which led to over saturation of terrible product

U got the most untalented motherfukkers from all over the country making trash music thinking that shyt is hot and dumb ass people on social media giving these trash people likes…

Almost 1 in 5 chicks today are rappers..same ass my butt hole brown, p*ssy good, nikkas are lames and they buying birkin bags

Almost 1 in 3 nikkas are rappers with the same future and lil baby autotune

 

[kingofnyc]

I feel you and I won't ever knock somebody for preferring 90s rnb over previous eras. It was top notch. However, when I think of peak R&B, I think of Off the Wall, Earth Wind, Fire, Debarge, Luther. Just look at the variety. You got your mainstream shyt with MJ and Debarge. You got your conscious, soul moving shyt in EWF then you got your crooning, tear jerking ballads in Luther.

In the 90s, you kind of started to lose that variety. Everybody was kind of on that same type of style: jodeci, dru hill, silk, blackstreet. Not much difference between these groups.

Look at the women: SWV, Xscape, En Vogue, Destinys Child, 702, Blaque. Again, not much variety. Formulaic.

The industry started eliminating individuality. That's why I loved that small neosoul transition we got in the early mid 90s. Sade, Tone, Toni Tone, D'angelo, Erykah etc. It was a breath of fresh air because it was creative, exciting, odd and fundamentally black. No white influence.

These days, you don't have none of that shyt. Nobody's pushing the art forward. Nobodys being innovative. I mean, yeah drill rap is "new" but it's trash. It doesn't push the art forward. It actually holds it back.

great post


like I said, the 80s was strictly traditional R&B
but the 90s added a whole noon dimension to R&B

It did have is traditional R&B artists ei. Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, Keith Sweat, Brian McKnight, etc. etc.
And like you said, that neosoul ei. Sade, Tony! Toni! Toné!, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu etc., etc.
Then, when you add the fact of my personal favorite urban/new jack swing/hiphop-soul ei. Teddy Riley Guy, Mary J, R Kellz , Jodeci, Usher etc. etc.


At the end of the day, the 90s R&B diversity is unmatched … just another reason why that decade is hands down the GOAT

 

[MVike28]

Good riddance to this current iteration of hip hop/rap

 

[Depreciating Asset]

Go Go got next

Spoiler

in the DMV , maybe

Go go is great but it had 'next' for the last 30 years. It will always be local like Raheem in Juice

 

[Digital Omen]

Yes the mainstream music is trash but the culture has gone worldwide.
You go to Europe and they're preserving and appreciating artists old and new
That may be the life saver, Euro cacs and Japan.
men lie, women lie, but sales and show ticket numbers don't

 

[semicko82]

It's quality rap out there. The problem is no one supports the good shyt, and rather complain about the trash.

 

[trillanova]

we just need music that has a catchy hook. once you start getting borderline avant garde you kill your appeal to the masses.

drill was cool when it was pop smoke with catchy hooks. that kay flock song is only good because of the akon sample under it but it had no hook

These nikkas sound like literal gremlins. Who really wants to listen to that for 3 minutes straight outside of a small core?

 

[Laidbackman]

Go go is great but it had 'next' for the last 30 years. It will always be local like Raheem in Juice

You may not rock with what I'm about to say here about go go, but it never really did much for DC imo. I'm from DC/PG, and I watched go go from it's early stages. I remember the fights it use to cause when you went to see go go bands. Although I jammed off of go go, the only time I paid to see it was in it's early stages, when TF, RE, or EU would play late Friday night at Parkdale Senior High, or Saturday Night at The Club LeBaron in Palmer Park. The only other times I saw go go was when I watch it free at one of DC's annual Stone Soul Picnic festivals, when go go bands would come out first, then were followed later at night by real popular R&B groups like Kool & The Gang, etc... One time the festival finished with George Clinton and The Parliament Funkadelics, and it brought out the old Funk Mob. The Stone Soul Picnic use to bring all the Black people together in DC, whether they rocked with soul, funk, r&b, go go. or rap. And you wouldn't see absolutely no fights. It was almost like a large family picnic, and nothing we were use to seeing in the 70's and 80's festivals in DC.

Later on go go took over the Stone Soul Picnic, and Chuck Brown became the main attraction, and the festival would end with him. But Chuck wasn't really from DC. and he really liked playing jazz. Anyway, the next thing you knew, the festival got replaced by hood people, and even a few skeezers. And Chuck be chanting, "Remember those welfare checks at the first of the month". Then he'd say, "Remember those powder eggs". I guess he hit my group that time. Anyway, the crowd be saying "Yeah Yeah". But what was good was, they never fought at these annual events, even when the crowd changed. I can't write that in stone, but at least there weren't no altercations when I left in 2006.

Anyway, I don't have anything against go go, but I don't think it should be tryna claim DC. When I think back, I sometimes wonder if they had us brothers twerking a little with those sisters...lol. It may have had some brothers twerking by themselves without even knowing it . Then again, who don't shake their a** a little when they dance. But I gotta admit, go go was on another level with it, and it does make those sister wanna shake that a** little. I saw that when I was in the DMV during the Memorial Day weekend at a function. You don't really want to play too much of that at a family picnic. It can mess around and have somebody's female cousin about to shake it, if they had a drink or two. Another reason why I don't think DC needs to be claiming go go. With that said, it does make a brother wanna rock his head a little. Guess it ain't nothing wrong with that

 

[Laidbackman]

True story. I just sampled some Afro Beats for the first time, and was expecting to hear something like go go

 

[verbalkint]

Gonna be mexican music

I usually throw on top 50 from time to time at work for an easy mix and the number of Mexican songs I'm skipping is getting concerning.

 

[Firefly]

A generation of men killed themselves.

Strippers and whores became the go to.

Drake and programmers being lazy just turning playlists into Drake 80% and 20% everything else.

Oversaturation.

The same lazy beats, cadences and patterns. Eventually people will look for something new.

There are other reasons but those are a few.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

I just looked at the Billboard top 20. There's about 5-6 rap songs which sounds like a lot but up until last year the top 20 was usually more than half rap songs.

It's mostly country and pop bullshyt and Bad Bunny.