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2011 was a grand year for music. There was this “Dubstep” monster, suddenly unleashed from its English cage and unstoppably re-inventing neighbouring genres in the process. There was the rebirth of R&B, deriving from the “chillwave meets hipster” movement of the late 00s. The XX paved the way back to the bassline, and the excessive use of irony became an excuse to re-consider the 90s. With all these changes on the landscape of music, Hip Hop wasn’t spared a do-over with new big names. Odd Future, A$AP Rocky, Kreayshawn, Azelia Banks and other phenomenas that are loosely categorized into rap music. But most importantly, they’re all children of the internet.Where there were once certain rules in Hip Hop to abide if you wanted to be considered part of it, there is merely an atmosphere today. How about that “electronic influences mingled with RnB and gangster speech”  recipe of latest Canadian wunderkind Abel Tesfaye a.k.a The Weeknd? Or Lil’ Bs disgustingly popular deconstructive Base Rap? Those two align not only on different scales of music, by all means, they’re on entirely different planets.  How do we sort things through now that there’s a broader spectrum of names and terms? All of this is not rap music per se - but part of a lifestyle. So what is Hip Hop today, and where is it going? The Come Up Of The UndergroundYou can’t ask that question without going back to the beginnings.Hip Hop was a movement, racially inclined, youthfully motivated. Like Punk music, it was an unified act of rebellion against “the system”. Breakdancing, scratching and rapping were an answer to a culture of White America that didn’t belong to the African-American communities. Like any rebellious epidemic, Hip Hop spread around the world. From the status “sub-culture” it progressed to a craft, then to a form of art., then to a business. And it gained attention, both for political statements (ie “The Message”) as well as for the early 1990s lavish Versace Gangster Rapattitudes.From the beginning there were many different lifelines to count. They’re not exclusively parallel. In a way, their protagonists use the same tools for different projects.  To seperate from the content, there’d been two major leagues: the conscious rap and the battle rap. Then: the eventual global explosion. It’s all Hip Hop, sure, but essentially the 90s formed a subcultural movement into a lucrative business. Conscious rap stayed in the background fighting its fights while the decadence of 2Pac and Biggie became another essential part of pop music.Now, while there’d already been too many different styles to call rap music “linear”, the development of Hip Hop music had always been linear in a regional sense. New rappers rep styles and cities. When “the South” came up it got its own trademarks and it still carries them in pop moguls like Lil’ Wayne. The East and the West stay to their respective games. Today, this kind of linearity is fading, if not already vanished. See everyone who’s not from either side choosing what they think sounds the coolest. Actually, the fact that people beyond those sides can choose at all breaks the regional character of Hip Hop. That’s good, because it means conventions are being disregarded again. Press.Pause.Play.The ‘net affected the music industry and how it works. Young artists striving for success are their own little business now: the availability of software and easy distribution can substitute years of waiting for a record deal. No expensive deals, no A&R managers, no waiting in line: there’s a DIY spirit for every writer, photographer, singer or rapper in the world. You’ve got young producers like Lex Luger kicking beats for a better life within minutes, you’ve got kids like the Odd Future Wolf Gang from Los Angeles who started off tumbling and skating and becoming the next big monster (at least until someone else - say A$AP Rocky - came up and stole their mojo).On the other hand, you’ve got Jay-Z & Kanye West who’re showing their age in the business as well as their inclination to follow the mainstream. They’ve broadened their group of listeners because Hip Hop is not just for thugs anymore. It’s as pop as pop music ever was. My mom loves Kanye West. That probably drives 19 year olds like Mike G or Tyler, The Creator from OFWGKTA to rap mostly about rape and killing people. Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep don’t scare us anymore. Youth is asking for rebellion again, only this time, it’s not an exclusively racial issue. It doesn’t even have to deal with society. It’s a global adolscent issue, enabled by wireless connections everywhere. And Tumblr.In democratic spirit, the DIY movement allows everyone to participate and eliminates the elitists who used to be the only ones in the game with all the necessary resources for valuable judgement. But this democratic online participation works only on the premise of being fast and uncomplicated, asking for easy things to decide on, practically erasing the knowledge of a well-crafted magazine and substituting it by the laymans opinion on… well, basically anything. Acts like Kreashawn and Lil’ B could never survive in the “real world”, without their respective online army.  Innovation and eccentricism aside - they’re plain bad. It’s entertaining, sure, but it’s no good music. We have to ask: where does the short-lived hype around Gucci Gucci take us if not to nowhere? There’s a feel of dumbness to it. The dumbness of the masses. Record SalesNow, with an industry that has basically been destroyed, the artists are left not only with opportunities but with challenges to overcome. Instead of making money by selling music, they’re selling themselves. They release self-made cheap DSLR videos, they cover themselves in internet aesthetics. So all that money - does it come from the first album loyal fans waited for after all the heating up? If you ask J.Cole, it probably doesn’t. The Roc Boy who was hyped forever until nobody really cared when his album finally dropped had to face a shitload of criticism from the internet, but that doesn’t mean his album tanked. It just feels like it.  Too long a wait for someone who’d been so promising. As Philipp T. Annand said:  We’re all influencers and we influence the influence of others while influencing our own influence to influence our own decisions.“We” are in charge here; “We” make those 15 minutes of fame superstars and “we” break them.Make no mistake: what’s on the internet is not necessary a mirrored image of the mainstream world. As Spin dubs it, there’s a “New Underground” that will probably never reach “The Throne” (but has ultimately created a new level of measurement), and as for record sales, Madbury Club writer Hyun Kim has identified a  very own Internet Elitist Hip Hop Culture (and we come from the Internet) which is in dire need of a reality check. The Big PictureLet’s take a step away from the details and concentrate on the big picture. Hip Hop is not about time or region anymore as much as it is about timing and regional influences. Inspiration is coming from everywhere, from the past of ones own culture (cheezy R&B of the US 90s) or the present of foreign cultures (Grime, Dubstep of the UK).That’s why NYCs A$AP Rocky and his crew rap over drippy Houston beats. That’s why Tyler, The Creator is a rapping like a punk skater kid. That’s why Lupe Fiasco is rapping over Skrillex’ pseudo-dubstep wobble sounds. That’s why Rick Ross is successful: because we soak him in irony. We live half in the nostalgia of the mainstream, half in a transition to a digital craze.  What happens when the “democratic” force of a younger generation takes over our blogs, our twitter feeds and our power? What’s the next generations’ 20-30 year olds going to listen to if not an even bigger melting pot of sounds and influences?We’re on a high speed train towards even more independence from big record companies. Tour sales, merch and “branding” will be the only sales that really matter - but there are plenty of different business opportunities here waiting to be found. Odd Future were the lucky enough example, now let’s see what they do with it. There’ll be more self-made producers who work with easier to use software. There’ll be many rappers who will release their works on YouTube and make “it” after 2 mixtapes, then sign to a label for millions, then get dropped as soon as their hype has lived off..  There’ll be many genius newcomers who’ll never reach fame and fortune because being avantgarde always implies that most people won’t understand what you’re doing. And those who do probably don’t have anyone who’ll listen to them anymore, because they’re not fast enough to gain attention.Somehow though, above all the obstacle, there’s still somewhat of a balance. For every anti-lyricist like Waka Flocka, there’s someone like Kendrick Lamar. For every Rick Ross, there’s a Kendrick Lamar. For every Nicki Minaj, there’s an Azelia Banks. For every piece of mainstream media, there’s a New Underground. For every newly introduced influence or mash up there’s an audience. Now what we have to do is work on the filters that make it easier to differ the Kreayshawns from the Earl Sweatshirts, and the Hypetraks from the Madybury Clubs. By Yeah Sara

2011 was a grand year for music. 
There was this “Dubstep” monster, suddenly unleashed from its English cage and unstoppably re-inventing neighbouring genres in the process. There was the rebirth of R&B, deriving from the “chillwave meets hipster” movement of the late 00s. The XX paved the way back to the bassline, and the excessive use of irony became an excuse to re-consider the 90s. With all these changes on the landscape of music, Hip Hop wasn’t spared a do-over with new big names. Odd Future, A$AP Rocky, Kreayshawn, Azelia Banks and other phenomenas that are loosely categorized into rap music. But most importantly, they’re all children of the internet.
Where there were once certain rules in Hip Hop to abide if you wanted to be considered part of it, there is merely an atmosphere today. How about that “electronic influences mingled with RnB and gangster speech”  recipe of latest Canadian wunderkind Abel Tesfaye a.k.a The Weeknd? Or Lil’ Bs disgustingly popular deconstructive Base Rap? Those two align not only on different scales of music, by all means, they’re on entirely different planets.  How do we sort things through now that there’s a broader spectrum of names and terms? All of this is not rap music per se - but part of a lifestyle. So what is Hip Hop today, and where is it going?

image

The Come Up Of The Underground
You can’t ask that question without going back to the beginnings.
Hip Hop was a movement, racially inclined, youthfully motivated. Like Punk music, it was an unified act of rebellion against “the system”. Breakdancing, scratching and rapping were an answer to a culture of White America that didn’t belong to the African-American communities. Like any rebellious epidemic, Hip Hop spread around the world. From the status “sub-culture” it progressed to a craft, then to a form of art., then to a business. And it gained attention, both for political statements (ie “The Message”) as well as for the early 1990s lavish Versace Gangster Rapattitudes.
From the beginning there were many different lifelines to count. They’re not exclusively parallel. In a way, their protagonists use the same tools for different projects.  To seperate from the content, there’d been two major leagues: the conscious rap and the battle rap. Then: the eventual global explosion. It’s all Hip Hop, sure, but essentially the 90s formed a subcultural movement into a lucrative business. Conscious rap stayed in the background fighting its fights while the decadence of 2Pac and Biggie became another essential part of pop music.
Now, while there’d already been too many different styles to call rap music “linear”, the development of Hip Hop music had always been linear in a regional sense. New rappers rep styles and cities. When “the South” came up it got its own trademarks and it still carries them in pop moguls like Lil’ Wayne. The East and the West stay to their respective games. Today, this kind of linearity is fading, if not already vanished. See everyone who’s not from either side choosing what they think sounds the coolest. Actually, the fact that people beyond those sides can choose at all breaks the regional character of Hip Hop. That’s good, because it means conventions are being disregarded again.

image

Press.Pause.Play.
The ‘net affected the music industry and how it works. Young artists striving for success are their own little business now: the availability of software and easy distribution can substitute years of waiting for a record deal. No expensive deals, no A&R managers, no waiting in line: there’s a DIY spirit for every writer, photographer, singer or rapper in the world. You’ve got young producers like Lex Luger kicking beats for a better life within minutes, you’ve got kids like the Odd Future Wolf Gang from Los Angeles who started off tumbling and skating and becoming the next big monster (at least until someone else - say A$AP Rocky - came up and stole their mojo).
On the other hand, you’ve got Jay-Z & Kanye West who’re showing their age in the business as well as their inclination to follow the mainstream. They’ve broadened their group of listeners because Hip Hop is not just for thugs anymore. It’s as pop as pop music ever was. My mom loves Kanye West. That probably drives 19 year olds like Mike G or Tyler, The Creator from OFWGKTA to rap mostly about rape and killing people. Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep don’t scare us anymore. Youth is asking for rebellion again, only this time, it’s not an exclusively racial issue. It doesn’t even have to deal with society. It’s a global adolscent issue, enabled by wireless connections everywhere. And Tumblr.
In democratic spirit, the DIY movement allows everyone to participate and eliminates the elitists who used to be the only ones in the game with all the necessary resources for valuable judgement. But this democratic online participation works only on the premise of being fast and uncomplicated, asking for easy things to decide on, practically erasing the knowledge of a well-crafted magazine and substituting it by the laymans opinion on… well, basically anything. 
Acts like Kreashawn and Lil’ B could never survive in the “real world”, without their respective online army.  Innovation and eccentricism aside - they’re plain bad. It’s entertaining, sure, but it’s no good music. We have to ask: where does the short-lived hype around Gucci Gucci take us if not to nowhere? There’s a feel of dumbness to it. The dumbness of the masses.

image

Record Sales
Now, with an industry that has basically been destroyed, the artists are left not only with opportunities but with challenges to overcome. Instead of making money by selling music, they’re selling themselves. They release self-made cheap DSLR videos, they cover themselves in internet aesthetics. So all that money - does it come from the first album loyal fans waited for after all the heating up? If you ask J.Cole, it probably doesn’t. The Roc Boy who was hyped forever until nobody really cared when his album finally dropped had to face a shitload of criticism from the internet, but that doesn’t mean his album tanked. It just feels like it.  Too long a wait for someone who’d been so promising. As Philipp T. Annand said:  
We’re all influencers and we influence the influence of others while influencing our own influence to influence our own decisions.“We” are in charge here; “We” make those 15 minutes of fame superstars and “we” break them.
Make no mistake: what’s on the internet is not necessary a mirrored image of the mainstream world. As Spin dubs it, there’s a “New Underground” that will probably never reach “The Throne” (but has ultimately created a new level of measurement), and as for record sales, Madbury Club writer Hyun Kim has identified a  very own Internet Elitist Hip Hop Culture (and we come from the Internet) which is in dire need of a reality check.

image

The Big Picture
Let’s take a step away from the details and concentrate on the big picture. Hip Hop is not about time or region anymore as much as it is about timing and regional influences. Inspiration is coming from everywhere, from the past of ones own culture (cheezy R&B of the US 90s) or the present of foreign cultures (Grime, Dubstep of the UK).
That’s why NYCs A$AP Rocky and his crew rap over drippy Houston beats. That’s why Tyler, The Creator is a rapping like a punk skater kid. That’s why Lupe Fiasco is rapping over Skrillex’ pseudo-dubstep wobble sounds. That’s why Rick Ross is successful: because we soak him in irony. We live half in the nostalgia of the mainstream, half in a transition to a digital craze.  What happens when the “democratic” force of a younger generation takes over our blogs, our twitter feeds and our power? What’s the next generations’ 20-30 year olds going to listen to if not an even bigger melting pot of sounds and influences?
We’re on a high speed train towards even more independence from big record companies. Tour sales, merch and “branding” will be the only sales that really matter - but there are plenty of different business opportunities here waiting to be found. Odd Future were the lucky enough example, now let’s see what they do with it. There’ll be more self-made producers who work with easier to use software. There’ll be many rappers who will release their works on YouTube and make “it” after 2 mixtapes, then sign to a label for millions, then get dropped as soon as their hype has lived off..  There’ll be many genius newcomers who’ll never reach fame and fortune because being avantgarde always implies that most people won’t understand what you’re doing. And those who do probably don’t have anyone who’ll listen to them anymore, because they’re not fast enough to gain attention.
Somehow though, above all the obstacle, there’s still somewhat of a balance. For every anti-lyricist like Waka Flocka, there’s someone like Kendrick Lamar. For every Rick Ross, there’s a Kendrick Lamar. For every Nicki Minaj, there’s an Azelia Banks. For every piece of mainstream media, there’s a New Underground. For every newly introduced influence or mash up there’s an audience. Now what we have to do is work on the filters that make it easier to differ the Kreayshawns from the Earl Sweatshirts, and the Hypetraks from the Madybury Clubs.

By Yeah Sara

1.1.2012 99 notes.

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