I was inspired to write this based on a discussion I had with one of my friends as well as many similar conversations I had with other friends and people on the same subject. I remember I was walking home with one of my friends and we were talking about music artists I mentioned Keith Sweat whom she had no idea who that was I sang some of the lyrics for Nobody in hopes that she might remember him and the song. She goes oh I can’t believe you know that song! I asked her does she remember Keith Sweat now but she had no idea who the hell he was instead she goes on to tell me about some other song that uses the same lyrics by lil boosie. I took a listen to it and gave it a chance but I thought overall it sucked even though it was not a complete cover of the original song.
Before you go accusing me saying that I hate rap or whatever or I’m just “hating” on him because he ‘s not rapping about something I like or jealous of the success he is. Well you obviously don’t know me that well. Realize that:

1) I do not hate rap music in fact I love rap music back in the day I was rapping the lyrics to Bone Thugs N Harmony, Master P, Wu-Tang Clan, Crucial Conflict, Snoop Dogg, KRS-One etc in fact most of my music I loved to listen from 90-about 1997 was mostly Rap music and..
2) my taste in music is most likely WAY more diverse than yours. So I do not hold any biases to any particular type of music that is playing. If you let my itunes just play on shuffle it’ll easily go from rock disco, classical, rap, pop, country, accapella, oldies, industrial, Metal, Foreign, all In the course of 30 minutes
3) This is a critique of popular music among the youth. Not just an attack on one genre.

But you know why I think that song sucks?

Simple because it’s the same…Actually there’s many words I could use to describe why I think it sucks like it being unoriginal, generic, bland but I think the word(s) the same is appropriate because

It’s the SAME beat I’ve heard used by many artists before him.
it’s the SAME lyrics I’ve heard used by other artists before him.
it’s practically the SAME song I’ve heard over and over again just disguised differently. Hell it’s even in the same BPM (beat per minute) as like 30 other songs I’ve heard over the past 4 years
And on a side note I find it lacking in clever lyrics that would make it stand out from any other kind of songs to fuck to.

I’ll capitalize on those points as I write but If this is the best that mainstream music today can offer in the rap/hip-hop department. Then sadly I have lost all hope of any real skill rap/hip hop ever appearing on the radio. I also cannot help to think that mainstream rap/hip hop is going the same way as disco did in the late 70s and 80s.

Did anyone ever wonder why did disco die? Here’s why. One was a lack of originality it came to a point where everything sounded the same. I swear I can take the bassline from one Disco song and link it to about fifty other disco songs. Secondly after the commercial success of “Saturday Night Fever” a lot of record companies just starting producing disco records milking it for what it’s worth until people just became fed up just listening music that obviously didn’t take much effort to from artists appearing out of nowhere that sounded exactly like everyone else. Disco started off as a good thing but as soon as it became commercialized to the point where record companies knew/thought that people would buy any shit with a disco bassline that’s where it became garbage. Just like what is happening today rap/hip hop is getting milked out just so record companies could make a quick buck off the dumb consumers who purchase this shit.

Also the sound again I can use disco as an example but I like to switch over from disco to the 80s music when all this synth-rock going on. That style of music did not last very long and conveniently faded away in the decade it was conceived. Everybody putting synthesizers on every track they to a point where it just sucked. In comparison with today’s music I feel like the same thing is happening with this decade almost like a rebirth of 80s synth rock combined with pop and hip hop now with Autotune, snare, bass and other electronic instruments.

I honestly think that the last 6-7 years of this decade that people just stopped caring about what the hell is on the radio only they care about is A) Who is singing B) is it a good beat?...That’s it. Like I think getting in the music industry nowadays could not have been any easier especially when you have just two requirements. What sad is not only does the Industry knows this the Artists themselves know this and so there are not going to push themselves to a creative limit once they know that they have a fan base that’s willing to put up with anything they. Here’s a practical application of what I’m talking about

I’m going to use Lil Wayne and Soulja Boy for an example.
Starting with Lil Wayne. Quite honestly I don’t think he is a good rapper. He may be a good ENTERTAINER as in people find him enjoyable to listen but not so much of a good rapper... Well at least not a great rapper as people claim he is. You cannot blame me for thinking that because of all of his mainstream shit he has put out. Maybe back in the late 90s he was spitting some raw creative lyrics but I honestly believe that that the only reason that he even got that far in his career was because he was able to contribute to the last 30 secs of Juvenille’s back that azz up and the fact that a lot of girls think he is cute, but I digress. Here’s my problem with Lil Wayne right now. He’s appearing everybody’s track and for pretty much no reason. How many songs over the last two years has lil wayne was featured on? What about 20 or so? When he is even rapping on a track he’s not even contributing something to the song that’s in my opinion that’s would be outstanding or even necessary for that song to sound good (assuming that it is a good song). But you know why artists actually want lil wayne on a track with them? Simple security. They know that people will buy/bump that track regardless of what is it simply because Lil Wayne is on the track. Lil Wayne fanbase is so big that he can just sell records with just by putting his name on it and spitting whatever shit he feels like saying on the track. Like Lets say for some reason Alan Jackson and lil Wayne teamed up to do a country-rap (Crap) song together about watching grass grow on a Sunday night. People will buy that album and it’ll hit platinum simply because lil wayne is on the track. And Lil Wayne doesn’t even have do anything in that song other than just make up nonsensical bullshit rhymes that has nothing to do with the song at hand like:

Alan Jackson: I like to see grass groooowwwww on a Sunday night
Lil Wayne:“I wear shades at night cause I think I ‘m cool lets make a rap song in a canoe I’ll be on my blackberry texting my boo I’m kinda like mr T cause I just pity the foo”

Dick riding Lil Wayne Fan: Omg this guy is a lyrical genius!
See what I mean Soulja Boy is the exact same way with the except that he is worse He cannot rap or write any clever lyrics when he has the time. Quite honestly if anybody uses the words “doo-doo head” in a song they shouldn’t be writing music they should be at home doing a coloring book or something. You know why he he’s getting millions because again

A) He has a good image as in girls jizz in their pants for him when they see him
B) He has dope beats albeit he doesn’t make em.

Now don’t get me wrong just because I am slamming the rap and hip hop scene that does not mean what I have is only exclusively applied to that genre. I could’ve made the same points using the pop and used the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus as examples. Or rock with emo bands and Nu metal. The only reason I didn’t is because pop music like them have historically been short lived and for the most part hasn’t really changed other than the singers who are singing the song and even rock music change style every once in awhile. My problem with the rap/hip hop scene it hasn’t really changed at all everybody is just recycling the same thing over and over no one is even bothering to take a step a in different direction or artists have become so well marketed by the music industry that they don’t even care to put any of their “talent” on a track any more only thing that matters to them is just selling out.

Secondly I would love to hear a commercialized song or one with some lyrically retarded song with with dope beats over it every now and then. Heck I even have those types of songs I detest in this note on my ipod. Albeit I downloaded them illegally that’s not the point though. The bottomline is that the music industry today has flooded the market with products not artists. If the Rap/Hip hop scene was a stock right now it would be plummeting because the market is flooded with commercialized MCs and music. There are too many people who are just selling out or not trying do something creative in their respective music genre. The sad thing is that today/the next generation is going to grow up on this shit music and believe that these “products” of today’s music industry are great musicians and they are totally going to look over what is really great music. I mean can you imagine about 10 year s from now some punk ass kids running around say that some rapper named “Lil Peanut Butta” is the greatest rapper alive with lyrics like

“I know these two bitches
hair shorter than stitches
one ‘s into voodoo the other smells like doo doo
I love them both so even though they both ho’s”

Sadly though there’s really not much you can do about it other than just stop listening to the shit that’s being played right now and start supporting Good (keyword: GOOD) Underground/those who aren’t signed with a major record label rap artists like Don Cerino, Tone Deff, Kiwi, Aesop Rock, Immortal Technique. If people started supporting them more the industry would have to would have to do adapt to meet the need of the consumer by finding more talented artists rather than those cookie cutter rappers that they could exploit.

gawd i can't believe i typed all of this while at work...