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It’s funny but when I look back to music in the 90’s, and listen to the hip hop music of today, I’m still lost as to where the music has changed so drastically to where lyrical music is hardly even created anymore.  Let me clarify… for hip hop / R&B, it seems like (to me) that lyrical music is hardly created anymore.  More and more songs are playing chameleon to other songs, and the entire radio airwaves are saturated with wanna be songs and wanna-wanna be songs.  What happened to the originality?  What happened to lyrical content?  I’m clueless.  I guess my mind has gone through one of those timewarps that we used to clown our parents about when we were growing up, whenever we’d hear songs they played around us.  I can sorta tolerate songs of today in the hip hop and R&B field, but it’s more on the level of instrumentals or beats if anything.  The words on some of these songs to me, especially from songs like “Stanky Leg”, or “Bed”, really throw my mind for a loop.

I could sit back and reminisce on the times I started getting involved more into music, and got into making hip hop beats and instrumentals for songs a few years ago, which were more based on some of the songs of the mid 90’s and even early 2000’s that I’ve heard that were more lyrical and original.  I guess I am getting old.  Lol.  Artists like The Roots, or Fugees really tapped into my mind, and even with some of the more thugged out rap tracks that would be put out by Mobb Deep or Big Pun really caught my interest.  It wasn’t the content so much as it was the lyrical word play put on some of these songs.  Complimented with hot beats, hot hip hop or rap beats, some of these tracks really stood out.

Of my favorite artists with lyrical word play, I would have to say Nas would be my favorite in the rap game.  With some of the songs put out like “I Gave You Power”, or “Black Girl Lost”, the word play, the lyrical content, the thoughts to the mind really impacted.  And they were also coupled with hot beats.  Tracks like these got me into more of the beat making, and productions by Havoc of Mobb Deep, or RZA of Wu-Tang, or the legendary DJ Premier really brought emotion to the songs back then.  Another hot song of Nas’s “I Am” album to me had to be the way “Undying Love” was written as well.  I know kats who listened to this song back then that really felt the impact and flashbacks when hearing Nas writing and finding out that his fiance was cheating behind his back while he was gone.  But now?  It’s as though almost every other song promoted on the airwaves is something far more explicit with no problem at all.  But still, it’s not the content that kills me as much as it is the fact that the lyrical word play is non-existent… almost way too simple.  Is the only way to listen to creative wordplay now to either listen to songs of back then or to go to a Spoken Word spot?

Moving on to the R&B section, where songs now are very explicit and completely changed of the mood setting, R.Kelly or Ginuwine type tracks of back then.  Songs back then in the R&B section spoke words of love and attraction, emotion and seduction.  Now, songs simply make references more to how graphic the sex is, or how it will be, without any other feel to them at all.  Love is non-existent in most of the songs written, and it’s more about how they’re gonna get the bootie, and then go to the next female and get the bootie, and so forth. When was the last time you heard a deep love song on the radio?  Can you even remember?  And if it’s up there, how often is it really played?

Again, even still, it’s the word play more than anything else to me that’s non-existent.  Songs like those from J. Holliday, or from The Dream seem to have less on the lyrical, versus songs like those of Blackstreet, or Jodeci, or even a bit more recent such as Jagged Edge.  And with female artists, they’re even becoming less frequent as well.  It’s tripped me out even to hear songs like Beyonce’s “Diva” album, where I didn’t think it was even her when I first heard it, because of how it was written.  I guess I’ll never really get it at all.

And with all of these songs, comes the feel of some of the instrumentals to them.  They have even changed to where some of the tracks, such as “Stanky Leg” are excruciatingly simple.  Some of the songs back then have drawn me in to make beats or instrumentals, and to enjoy the feeling of the beats of songs I’ve listened to.  It’s not as commonplace now however, where songs like “Bed” and “Ice Box” sound closely similar to me, or songs with beats like “Stanky Leg” are so simple and watered down, it might as well not have a beat. I’ve always enjoyed the different beats out there.  There would almost always be a few songs on an album, most of which had a completely different feel, and inspired the ear with something new, something strong, something great.  Where did this feel go?

Since earlier 2000’s, I’ve been drawing a good crowd of people that enjoy the hip hop beats and instrumentals I create that I’ve posted on my www.genycis.com site, but it’s also because there is a variety.  Don’t get me wrong, I do create a few beats that have this more “commercial” feel as well, but I cater to a larger variety of songs, rap beats, hip hop beats, east coast beats, west coast beats, story telling beats, R&B beats, and soon to add gospel instrumentals as well to the mix.  There has to be some kind of difference and originality to music today.  It used to have that original feel back in the late 90’s / early 2000’s, so why not now?  Why must it be similar everywhere you listen?  What do you think?  I’d like to know your input of hip hop, rap, and R&B music of today?  Or am I alone in this boat?

Genycis
www.genycis.com