Let's compare hip hop to art. Modern art became its own thing because people started breaking all the usual rules. Instead of following the same old techniques, artists did whatever they wanted, which led to all kinds of different styles. Think of Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract art. None of those follow the traditional rules.

In fact, think of for example Rousseau, someone who was laughed at by critics cause he didn't have traditional skills, but he ended up being super f***ing famous and rich with many admirers. Despite the fact that he was just copy pasting a tiger. People preferred it over the same old style, again and again.

Hip hop used to place big emphasis on lyricism, flow, technical skills, storytelling, DJing, breakdancing, etc. Today, those old rules don’t matter anymore. People like Carti, Uzi and Yeat aren’t worried about complex lyrics. Nor do they care if people are doing graffiti, or breakdancing. They’re doing stuff in a way that wasn't seen as possible in the 90's or even the 00's.

Now the big difference of course is that art split into very distinct styles, which explored a lot of different things, whereas hip hop artists are now making very similar songs instead. But I feel like that's beyond saturated now.

In fact even that could be compared to art. When Impressionism arrived, it was considered revolutionary, but eventually Impressionism was saturated beyond belief, and that is when all those different styles emerged.

I think that very soon there will be a big breakaway from this current style, the options are there now that there is no more regulation.

what do you think?

Edit for all the smartasses:
Obviously hip hop is art but im talking about "painted art", also known as art. Hence why i use the actual term instead of overtly specifying. And you know that is what i meant too....

Surely nothing will go wrong in this thread

feels like theres always been that balance of both sides of hip hop but the rift def getting deeper

That’s a cool picture in the OP

I think the current state of hip hop is just due to capitalism fr. It's the quick buck genre and most mfs don't want smart music that's just the truth.

remember ol dude from 2019? nice clean spicey did me dirtier than laundry than laundry!

What did drake n Kendrick do now

I want to imagine that the genre will eventually refresh again and people making music will desire to make smart music that's actually about something. But each era is worse than the last. I say this as someone that also listens to a lot of new s***.

Rap and hyperconsumerism are too intertwined to see real change at this point. Shout out to Ghais Guevara.

idk this song fire tho

They’re doing stuff in a way that wasn't seen as possible in the 90's or even the 00's.

Yeah not cause they’re doing anything groundbreaking but because they’re putting in so much less effort than would’ve been allowed back then

We are where rock was in the early 2000s. When punk rock was the last hurrah in the mainstream. This is the last mainstream era of hip hop.

I've been saying that opium/rage music will split off into its own genre eventually. It's already pretty disconnected from hip-hop culturally

Its also crazy to see how biting or copying styles now is just accepted and dare I say expected lol like if somebody blows up now--thats the sound you'll hear from everybody else for the next year or 2. No regional sounds, no originality. Back in the day--biting was the worst thing a rapper could do. 2pac scrapped an entire album because he thought it sounded too similar to Ready To Die
bring back shame!

The problem with rap and this comparison is we’re used to rap being on a major stage/level. The rejection of tradition has created a lack of real stars. You got Drake Cole Kendrick and then Travis and then thats it as far as real people you could put on an award show lmao or could expect to remotely drop an actual classic. See Carti being scared to drop Music bc it will come and go as I assume its just a bunch of random songs

Also rap will never mass adopt a singular trend / new sound again it seems like which is another problem. BIG/Death Row type beats, Neptunes/Timbo-Just Blaze/Ye type s***, Trap/Drill the whole rap game pretty much adopted those at the same time. It’s been a long time since a mass sound change and its not one on the horizon.

What was the album called

Maybe way back in the day like 1800s and before visual art had “rules”. It definitely did in the Renaissance and before when there were expectations of religious themes and stuff in European artists.

But visual art doesn’t have rules to be broken. Visual Art just has different tools (such as colour, gesture, anatomy, texture, composition etc) you can use and choose not to use. It’s not like language which has rigid grammar rules fort example. There really are no set rules, at all. Modern art generally, focuses on just a small selection of these tools and expects the viewer to look at it through that perspective.

You can look at something any way you want. Only appreciate the colour, only appreciate the anatomy, only appreciate the composition. Generally modern art focuses on a small group of these perspectives and are very helpful to teaching new artists the power of specific tools.

Do I think hip hop and music is going more into that route? Yes for sure, it’s happening in all forms of art. Look at the split with ambient music and pop for example. They are meant to be appreciated from different perspectives. Or something like Mr morales compared to passion fruit. They just serve different purposes and are meant to be viewed from different lenses.

Will this split hip hop? I think people will always have their preferences and peoples interests are able to be hyper catered to. I think there will be a wider range of smaller artists that cater to more groups and thats the way it will “split”. It’s not so much 2 groups, its like breaking into thousands that still have large commonalities.

Its already too late for that (they should have done that in 2020 lmao) but you’re probably right

"Let's compare hip hop to art"

youre a decade late

a lot of the (primarily white) underground rappers and rap fans don't actually care about hip hop outside of "underground"

It's always been kinda split but I think we're getting into an era where Conscious rappers have had enough. A lot of the street rappers out now can't sell a cheeseburger.

Hip hop has always had people that had simpler rhymes and people that had more lyrically or technically challenging music since busy bee vs kool moe dee in like 1980

I think hip hop is everything. You can turn any other genre into hip hop by adapting the formatting. Rap has been moving towards more pop delivery than bars since future & thug. The next transformation of hip hop will focus on how much you can bend your voice. People don’t give af what’s being said, it’s how differently you can say the same s***. I think what Carti was doing on those singles last year is a good example of what will take over. If you wanna be a superstar you got to be an alien

there’s a lane and market for everyone the quality just has to be there