|
Rap
game is getting very lame
Outkast
• Rap/hip-hop superduo Outkast, composed
of Andre 3,000 (shown above) and Big Boi,
sold millions of copies of their last album,
"Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,"
and continue to amaze fans with their fresh
beats and imaginative lyrics. www.outkast.com
By
Moria Khou
Online Forty-Niner
Sports Editor
Let's
take a trek down memory lane, 10 years back
to be exact. Remember, "The ‘N-O-T-O-R-I-O-U-S'
you just, lay down slow?"
Hip-hop
was at its prime when rappers like Notorious
B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur ruled the game.
Jay-Z, an up-and-comer from Brooklyn, was
just beginning to hit the scene with his
hard-knocking style in his debut CD, "Reason
Doubt." Shaolin disciples, The Wu-Tang
Clan, featured charismatic members like
Method Man and Ol' Dirty Bastard. West Coast
gangster rappers, Tha Dogg Pound, Westside
Connection and Niggas With Attitude (N.W.A.),
all strictly laid on it wax back then.
But
fast-forward to the present and things are
not the same. Either the greats are dead,
as with Tupac, Eazy-E and Biggie, or have
retired, as with Jay-Z.
The
rap world is now ruled by sketchy characters
who would be better suited for Nickelodeon,
rather than B.E.T. Rappers who look like
a mouse (Ja Rule), a self-professed overweight
Puerto Rican trying to "lean back"
(Fat Joe) and the stuttering leader of "ja-ja"
G-Unit (50 Cent) run the game now.
With
whack sounds like these, bopping hip-hop
aficionados are tossing away their headphones
in exchange for the easy listening Canadian
soulstress, Celine Dion.
But,
"my heart will go on."
For
all that is wrong with hip-hop, there are
several saviors out there who can reclaim
the torch and put the rap game back on top.
Roc-A-Fella,
y'all. The self-proclaimed "college
dropout" and Grammy winner, Kanye West
is reclaiming rap's sanctity. West, a Chicago
native, is putting the Midwest on the map
with tracks such as, "Through the Wire"
and "All Falls Down," which detailed
real life struggles and how he overcame
a near fatal car accident.
The
"illmatic" son from Queens, N.Y.,
Nas, is still dropping hits over a decade
after his introduction. His debut album
hit the store shelves in '94 and he enlightened
fans with deep lyrics in "N.Y. State
of Mind." Nas has progressed both as
a person and an artist. His CD covers displayed
the transition from a child, to a man, to
a king and finally a prophet in his aptly
titled fourth release, "Nastradamus."
"Hey
Y'all." The A-T-L duo of Andre 3,000
and Big Boi, better known as Outkast, have
long pleasured the eardrums of hip-hop fans
with their '94 release of
"Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik."
New mainstream fans might only identify
Outkast for making them "shake it like
a Polaroid picture." However, this
Southern tandem made beat junkies "throw
their hands in the air and wave 'em like
they just don't care" long before any
blonde-haired, blue-eyed, TRL watching,
13-year-old girl ever purchased their LP
from Tower Records.
Fans
of hip-hop need not fear, for it seems like
Biggie and Tupac are still shelling out
hits even from six-feet under. How do they
do it?
It
seems unreleased tracks recorded before
their passing continues to surface on file
sharing networks on the Internet long after
they are gone.
Even
more ironic, it appears that these two rap
legends foresaw their own passing with song
and album titles like, "Life After
Death," "How Long Will They Mourn
Me?," "Only God Can Judge Me"
and "Life Goes On."
Rap
ultimately suffered great loses when Tupac
and Biggie passed. Hip-hop got soft when
Jay-Z retired. But with names like Kanye,
Nas and Outkast, rap will undoubtedly regain
prominence and stretch its appeal across
the map, from the East Coast to the West
Coast and everything in between.
|
