The Wrap on Rap

Though rap in the U.S. might have stemmed from a minority urban black culture, today even the Vatican has approved of the genre.

Tupac Shakur’s song “Changes” has been included on the Vatican’s official MySpace playlist. Although the music chosen for the playlist varies, “all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people” the Vatican writes on the page.

It seems that rap has more than solidified its place in the music world.

However, the mainstream embrace of hip hop music factors in to what many people consider as the demise of the genre.

In 2007, an article in Time magazine titled “Hip-hop’s Downbeat” posed the question of whether or not rap music was dying.

Since 2000, Billboard Magazine declared that rap sales had dropped 44 percent. In the documentary “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” it became evident that the criticisms were being drawn from within the community itself, as many famed rappers commented that rap was moving from clever lyrics and beats into a repetitive promotion of sensationalism and corruption.

The problem with mainstreaming is often the idea of “selling out.” Much of modern popular hip-hop music repetitively promotes misogyny, drug use, materialistic wealth and violence. Its origins are similar to that of R&B in its urban black culture, and the mainstreaming of R&B into disco quickly saw its nearly complete demise.

It might seem that despite airplay, rap as an industry, as well as a creative art form, is on the decline.

However, I believe that there may be hope for the now-mainstream hip-hop, a feeling I didn’t have a few years ago. With the availability of music on the internet, a number of more alternative rappers have been able to gain success and garner a broader audience.  Artists like Kid Cudi and Drake managed to have chart-topping hit songs without a record label, as their songs were released for free on the internet.

As opposed to gangster rap, hip hop music is now taking more risks and incorporating a number of different styles.

Outkast incorporated genres as different as punk to country to gospel in their hugely successful album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.”

The infamous battle between Kanye West, exploring alternative sounds and styles, and 50 Cent, representing gangster rap, eventually ended with West as the victor, a symbol that gangster rap isn’t necessarily the dominant force within the community any longer, and not what want the fans want to hear. 

One of the most respected rappers, Jay-Z, also criticized the hip hop community, and said in his new album he wanted to make it experimental. He said the indie rock movement could be a heavily influential force on rap music.

Furthermore, Smith College now has the first degree in hip hop music in the country, a sign in establishing it as a complicated and varied art form worthy of study.

I think these risks are saving a genre that, for me, had become repetitive, reiterating stale messages. There are new and experimental sounds that are exploring uncharted territories in hip hop, and I think this is the bounce back the genre needs.