First off, let me say that by no means do I think that Hip Hop is "dead". There are a lot of great artists putting out quality music today, you just have to be willing to seek them out. Also, I am in no way some kind of "elitist, "bitter" or worst of all a "hater". We all have different tastes, and that's a good thing. I'm only offering my opinion based on my own long history, both as a fan and participant, with the art form and the changes I've seen occur over the last decade or so.
In a nutshell, I think the overall creativity level has taken a serious dive. It seems like many of today's "artists" are more interested in portraying an image and cashing in than actually creating something of merit. Not to say that this is a new phenomena, or exclusive to Hip Hop, music or any other form of entertainment...it just appears to be more prevalent these days.
For the sake of brevity, I'm going to focus on three major areas that, in my opinion, have had the biggest influence on the downward spiral we've witnessed as of late. I'm sure many of you will be able to come up with plenty of other valid reasons for the decline, and I invite you to comment and add on to the discussion. However, I feel my own thoughts on the matter are best condensed in the following three points, the first of which being:
1. The Disconnect
They say if you don't know history, you're doomed to repeat it. In the case of Hip Hop, I believe that a disconnect from that which made it such a powerful and innovative creative force has lead later generations of artists astray. By that I simply mean an appreciation for a wide spectrum of music. Hip Hop music was so powerful because it pulled inspiration from all the great music that preceded it and combined those different influences in a way that had never been done in such an extensive way. I'm not going to debate the artistic validity of sampling, that is a post for another day...but suffice it to say that all the greatest talents of the genre were raised on and influenced by all the great Jazz, R&B, Soul, Rock and just about ever other form of music that came before.
Many of today's performers that come under fire from Hip Hop "purists" were born in the late 80s to early 90s. For the most part, Hip Hop was already well established as they came of age, and many of them listened to it exclusively. I'm betting a good number of them didn't have the benefit of hearing different genres of music growing up. I can remember my parents playing a wide variety of music in the house throughout my youth, which no doubt shaped my deep love for all music and expanded the creative palette I would draw from later as a teen taking my first steps towards making my own music. I can't imagine what my stuff would have sounded like had I been raised on only Tupac, Puffy and Cash Money...no disrespect to those individuals.
The next area I feel has had a direct impact on the decline of creativity in Hip Hop is...
2. Technology
Now I know you're thinking, "WTF??" but give me a minute to break it down. I realize that the vast majority of Hip Hop was made possible by the advancements in electronic musical instruments like the sampler, drum machines, synths and affordable recording equipment. Anyone that knows me will tell you I'm a self-professed "Gear Junkie". That may seem at odds with me saying that technology has played a role in a creativity drop, but read on.
My first serious piece of gear was an Emu SP-12 Turbo. As you can see in the pic below, I still have it:
It had 5 seconds of sampling time and earned its nickname "The General" at least a thousand times over. I used that thing exclusively for years. Some of my favorite beats to this day have come from the tapes of those early forays into beatmaking. 5 seconds. All my drums, music, sound effects, and anything else I decided to throw in when making my latest masterpiece was done....with 5 seconds.
I've always been a firm believer that limitations force you to get creative. It certainly held true in my case. More often than not, the ideas I had in my head far outclassed the limitations of that machine, but that only forced me to find ways to accomplish what I wanted. To innovate. It helped me develop the ability to solve problems and focus on the most vital components of a given piece, lessons that still serve me today. I'm thankful for that SP-12, which is one of the main reasons I've kept it all these years. I even plug it up now and again and make some stuff on it.
Years later I would add an Akai S-900, with its 63 seconds of sample time, to my setup. I remember thinking "HOLY SHIT what the hell am I going to do with all that?" And to be honest, for the first few beats, I was stuck. I had so much power at my disposal, but that laser beam focus that comes from having to do more with less was gone. It didn't take long for me to get over that hump, for my ideas to advance and grow in complexity to test the limits of my new toy, but the lesson never left me:
TOO MUCH TOO FAST IS ALMOST NEVER A GOOD THING.
At this point, the list of gear I've owned and/or used has grown to include a TR808, Korg Triton, Akai S-950, S-1000, S-1100, MPC60, 3000 and recently 1000, EMU E4, Alesis QS7 and many many more. And every time I added a new piece, I would use it by itself for the first few weeks...learning its every function, its limitations, what it could add to what I already had going. Only then would I add it to my production line. They have all contributed something to my creative process, whether good or bad, and I've learned and expanded my abilities for having used them.
Still, those early and sometimes frustrating sessions with the SP-12 stand out as the most fruitful and helpful moments of my musical education. I look in forums today and I see people complaining that a piece doesn't have a color lcd screen or that the waveforms look too "choppy and unusable". It makes me laugh...and that laughter quickly turns hysteric when I listen to what some of them are doing musically, with all that limitless power at their fingertips.
To summarize this section...I think a big part of the reason we're seeing less creativity on the production side of Hip Hop is that with the huge gains in electronic music technology, GBs of storage and memory, pre-made "construction kit" sample libraries, many feel the need to be creative simply isn't there.
There's also the tendency to not want to be an original, but rather the latest incarnation of the most popular "artist" at the time, which brings me to my third and final point:
3. Success
I know, I know...I'm sensing another "WTF?!?!?" moment, but consider this:
There is a definite conflict of interest between the world of Art and the world of Commerce.
Art, by nature, is a very personal affair. Often lovingly crafted over years, evolving along the way, until it is the perfect representation of what the artist envisioned. The concepts of profitability, ease of replication, potential for mass appeal, seldom exist in the world of the true artist. The most important, and in fact, ONLY important factor that goes into the creation of art is the art itself. Did I accomplish what I set out to accomplish? Did I deliver the message (or non-message) that I intended? Is this a true representation of my skills, and will it affect/influence/enrapture/disgust my intended audience? These are the questions that plague the creative spirit.
The world of Commerce is a different beast entirely. Business is the realm of math, of numbers, of efficiency. Successful businesses are the result of a well laid-out plan and sticking to that plan to the end, straying only when economically beneficial to do so. Commerce, for the most part, has to be cold and calculating, somewhat soul-less, valuing the bottom line above all other considerations. Repeatability, a large and far-reaching customer base, getting to market quickly and ahead of the competition, profitability and maximum return on investment...these are the tenets a successful business must put at the forefront.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm not some naive, anti-capitalist living under the idealistic notion that the world can run on love. Love is a great thing, but try paying your bills or feeding your family with it. So no, I am not opposed to the world of commerce. The problem comes when the worlds of Art and Commerce collide.
When Hip Hop was looked at as a "fad" that would quickly fade away, and wasn't seen as profitable, its participants were free to create and develop the art without the stigma of supporting a huge commercial empire built on its back. The more popular, and profitable, it got...the more people began to see it as the cash cow it would eventually become. This is true of any product. But that's just it, art by nature is not a "product". Art takes time, and in the business world, time is money. The Industrial Revolution brought the new concept of mass production into society. Huge profits were made by breaking down an item into components, producing them in large numbers at high speed, and selling the finished product. Art cannot be broken down as easily. It cannot, in its natural form, be mass produced at a rate sufficient to support huge multinational corporations designed to reap profit from it. True creative expression isn't as easily manufactured as a PS3 or Ikea bookshelf.
So what do you do? You standardize it. You elevate the mediocre and easily repeated. You promote a "formula", an image... one that can be easily applied to any Joe Schmoe off the street. You, in effect, remove creativity from the equation and replace it with a template. You do that long enough and it becomes the "standard" with the inevitable flood of new, young consumers that weren't old enough to remember what true individuality sounds/looks/tastes like. And along the way, you even snag some of the older people that DO know, but will play along in an attempt to remain "relevant".
That, my friends, is what we've seen happen over the last decade or so...in music, in movies, on tv...in just about any "creative" medium offered up for public consumption. Of course there are exceptions, but to summarize:
Ignorance, Ease and Greed have conspired to change the way we look at, value, and even consume "Art" in general and (mainstream) Hip Hop music specifically...in my humble opinion, of course.
Your thoughts?
