The State of Hip-Hop in 2016

The biggest talk in hip-hop as of late has been the streaming wars between Apple Music and Tidal. With artists sharing their albums exclusively through these streaming platforms, the only people who suffer from having to choose are the fans. Fans of high caliber artist such as Kanye West, Rihannna, Beyonce, Drake etc. all released their albums through these platforms exclusively, and while still successful, one can only imagine the success had they released through all platforms. Subscriptions starting from $9.99/month can sound like a deal considering you can stream/download your favorite artists catalogs; but on the artists side, they aren’t receiving the same reimbursement for their bodies of work being released via iTunes or physical copies in store. Rumors emerged that Apple was in talks of buying out Tidal, but the deal never happened because of negotiation troubles. There doesn’t seem to be a solution while we are gearing toward the end of the year but artist are starting to publicly cry out about streaming wars.

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While music is being released at an alarming rate, there is a plethora of artists, sub-genres, and styles of hip-hop to cling on to and enjoy. Mainstream artists have platforms such as Apple Music and Tidal to distribute music while up-and-coming artist choose to others such as Audiomack and Soundcloud. A favorite pastime of mine, in this generation is to find new music via Soundcloud during late nights which I coined the term “Soundcloud Digging”. In this day and age of hip-hop you can find whatever type of sound you gravitate to and share with others.

We’ve watched listening parties evolve from private events held at the most popular clubs to being held at legendary stadiums (Madison Square Garden) having star studded audiences. Albums are being premiered on radio shows for subscribers to enjoy with the artist while simultaneously pushing the culture forward. Artist of a certain caliber just release surprise albums or albums with short notice, which was started by the queen herself (Beyonce). The traditional roll out of an album is history and labels are finding more creative and marketable way to release an LP.

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Hip-Hop is in such a dynamic, progressive state that it is hard to argue against. While on one hand you have A Tribe Called Quest releasing their final LP; and The Lox releasing their first LP in 16 years, Drake’s LP “Views” is quadruple platinum in a matter of eight months. With the RIAA streaming rules it is easier for an artist to receive such accolades but still cannot ignored or slighted. The opposite of spectrum shows the versatility of Hip-Hop and as a fan of both “The Golden Era” and now, it’s in as great of hands as it’s ever been.

People who disagree with such sentiments tend to bring up the popular “mumble rap” as a detriment to the game, comparing it to such timeless classics we’ve received in the past, also tend to forget the disposable music/artists released then that no longer gets played. Convenient amnesia seems to the biggest issue or the fact that; for them, it is hard to accept music isn’t being made for them. That feeling of something new when you’re a kid just isn’t the same once you experience life through different stages. Christmas is not the same at age 30 as is it at age 12, same with hip-hop. It’s always been a youth driven genre, being that artist begin at a young age and kids are the biggest consumers of it so from a business standpoint its almost impossible to ignore that. Relativity plays a huge role because of subject matter and cultural similarities, the youth will gravitate to what they know. Artist like J. Cole get flack for catering to young audiences but the numbers in his tours/album sales cater to the argument stated.

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In a genre of competitive individuals aiming to be number one, friction and tension builds throughout artist and beef has been a reoccurring throughout the year. Some were released on track — while most, were put on social networks for their audiences to see. Ever since the Drake vs. Meek beef it seems that rappers are taking the competitiveness to bigger heights. Some ironic beefs have taken place and left us all puzzled. Soulja Boy has making examples of the attention beefing brings by making videos threatening other artists and even Shia Lebouf has been a target of Soulja Boy. Meek Mill couldn’t lay low gearing up for his 4 installation of Dreamchasers mix tape. The rapper Game made a diss record after screaming “Fuck Meek Mill” in a Miami nightclub. It all stemmed from a night out in LA and Sean Kingston getting robbed for his jewelry and accusing The Game of setting him up. There was no stand out feud where the music was the focal point, just seems like rappers wanted to use it for marketing their projects.

One valid argument about the state of Hip-Hop is lack of gate keepers, monitoring or dictating what’s “hot”. There was a time when A&R’s had to go and find the hot new producers, artists, develop them and release a good project to stay on a label and release later albums. In today's climate a simple upload of a song and the internet can determine if it is the next big thing. This saturates what’s on the market because there isn’t anyone to filter through what is disposable or what will stand the test of time. There are a lot of artist who emerged to stardom from this type of notoriety, but only time will tell how they will emerge as an artist in years to come.

Year-end lists and debates are always a fun thing to partake in later in the year. This is where you learn how people consume their music and can see why certain artists or projects make it. MTV2 released to an actual debate show where influential people of the industry discussed which rappers were the hottest of 2016. Kanye topped the list and having a full year I can see why he was awarded the first spot. All in all, 2016 has been a very full year of great hip-hop on either spectrum of the genre. The diversity and uniqueness is what amazes me; where you can have a new, fresh, Tribe album on one end, then have an artist like Lil’ Yachty emerge as an artist in 2016.

Malik Taylor

I write cool shit on Tuesday's.