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Michael Kay

DeBock

English 4

6 April, 2017

Evolution of Hip Hop

Hip hop has changed drastically over the years, it has also changed the culture of the

world. Some say the changes have been good, others have claimed it has hurt the genre greatly.

Over the years, hip hop has changed its style, sound, and meaning. With the growing popularity

of hip hop in the world, it is bound to change our culture. It has and will continue to change our

culture in the time to come, given music is forever changing with time.

There recently has been a tension between the 90s and the new school artists of hip hop

in the recent years. Artists such as Vince Staples have said that the 90s period of hip hop is

overrated (King). This has upset the older artist from the period because they had not dismissed

the 80s artists and they felt disrespected by the new school artist (King). The artists from the

90s have claimed that new school hip hop is dull and tasteless due to the very basic lyrics,

rhymes, and flows. This shows a reflection of a narcissistic, entitled youth of today. (King).

According to King a lot of the problems with hip hop today is the unoriginality because of artists
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biting of flows and styles of others which has led to an increase of artists who sound the same.

King also states that it seems this generation of artists want to be given props just because a song

of theirs is played on the radio. He explains how its odd that rappers who care about the lyrics

they put in their songs such as Kendrick Lamar are seen as overrated but artists like Young Thug

who seem to put no effort in their lyrics are prospering.

Many can consider 1991 the consecration of hip hop as it was the first year that a rap

group or rapper had hit the top of the Billboard 200 (Thompson). In the 1990s rap not only

emerged as the mainstream sound but also as the defining genre on the charts (Thompson). Early

on in hip hop songs could be defined by a consistent theme of hood politics, and most of the

genre's biggest stars were convicted criminals such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z.

McNulty-Finn explains how stars today such as Macklemore and Drake prove that you dont

need a thug background as a prerequisite to be a hip hop star. A big difference seen in rap

songs is how old songs were more about an artist's rise to success and not celebrating their

success (McNulty-Finn). With the increasing popularity of hip hop more artists have been more

willing to appear on songs with hip hop artists which has allowed for today the blending of

genres (McNulty-Finn). McNulty-Finn also states that with the Internet becoming a big part of

everyone's lives it has allowed smaller artists to get their music out to the public. Programs such
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as SoundCloud and YouTube have made it much easier for artists to put out music previously

unavailable for older artists.

Hip hop has become so big it is becoming a dominant force in culture. Sebhatu states

that the song Walk This Way by Aerosmith which was remixed by Run DMC showed that white

rock stars and black rap artists could work together to make good music. Hip hop has become

such a force that it is being used in the Middle East to call about for change in their society

(Sebhatu). Artists such as Eminem have helped assimilate hip hop into white culture as well and

helping the genre become as mainstream as it is today (Sebhatu). According to Shah in an

interview he had with Tricia Rose rose said Hip hop has advanced and set back African

American culture she went on to explain that because much of what you hear about police

brutality, and targeting of black youth were basics of hip hop. She went on to explain that

because of the extremely misogynistic lyrics it has set back the culture quite a bit. Shah goes on

to explain hip hop has always acted as sort of a medium for social change. According to an

article written by Becky Blanchard rap has seemed more violent compared to other genres due to

the social, economic and political oppression that African Americans faced for years and are still

facing in todays society.

Rap has been a big part of today's world and has changed a lot since its beginning in the

1970s. The sound of the genre has evolved and with it, it has changed our culture some for the
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good and some for the bad. Will all that hip hop has gone through it does not seem like the genre

will be fading away anytime soon as it just looks to keep getting bigger and bigger.
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Works Cited

Blanchard, Becky . "The Social Significance of Rap & Hip-Hop Culture." The Social

Significance of Rap & Hip-Hop Culture . N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

King, Brandon . "The Beef Between 90s Hip Hop & Millennium Hip Hop." Hip Hop Golden

Age. N.p., 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

McNulty-Finn, Clara. "The Evolution of Rap." Harvard Political Review. N.p., 05 Nov. 2015.

Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

Sebhatu, Paulos. "The History of Hip-Hop." Rap Rehab. N.p., 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

Shah, Vikas. "The Role of Hip Hop in Culture." Thought Economics. N.p., 03 Nov. 2015. Web.

09 Apr. 2017.

Thompson, Derek. "1991: The Most Important Year in Pop-Music History." The Atlantic.

Atlantic Media Company, 08 May 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.