S. Samuel
Producer Nottz weighed in on the repeating cycles in hip-hop, specifically focusing on how artists such as Soulja Boy Tell Em posses similar rap characteristics of 1990's icons like Kid N Play and Vanilla Ice.
From Nottz’s perspective, hip-hop will always have generational stand-outs.
“Everything evolves. You gotta think about it like, you had Hammer, you had Kid N Play and all that sh*t. If you think about it now, that sh*t really sucked but back then that sh*t was the sh*t to us,” Nottz explained in an interview. “[Vanilla Ice] might be wack now but he was the shi*t to us. He came with that one joint that was the sh*t. Everybody was on ‘Ice Ice Baby’. But then I look at Soulja Boy and all that, it’s the same thing. Everything is to a whole 360 on people, but it’s gonna work out. (VIBE)
Recently Southern rapper Bubba Sparxxx talked to SOHH and credited Soulja Boy for breathing a different air into hip-hop.
“I don’t know [what’s going on in hip-hop] but I know I’m going to be original,” Bubba told SOHH when asked about his take on the state of hip-hop. “Any music people hear from me, from this point forward in my career is going to be original. It’s going to be music that only I can make and if I get frustrated with what’s going on when I listen to hip-hop, it’s with carbon copies. I like Soulja Boy because what he did was original. I’m a big Ying Yang Twins fan but I get [mad] when I hear so many carbon copies of what the last person was doing because [what they did garnered] success. That’s when I get a little frustrated [with hip-hop] because I’m like, ‘We’re all individuals here.’ Every person that’s been born into this world was born as an individual with things that separate them from others. For me, that’s what music or just art, period, is about. It’s about making that translate, whatever is unique about you, it’s about making it translate.” (SOHH)
Earlier this year, 50 Cent felt hip-hop lost the connection with its core audience.
“When I offer aggression, I offer it [as] an author, a real place,” Fif said in an interview. “It’s who I am; it’s who I had to be. Not even by choice, but to survive where I came from. So a lot of actual artists don’t have it. They don’t have that thing. Waka Flocka, ‘Hard in the Paint,’ Gucci [Mane], those guys have that…It’s just a lot of the other artists, I don’t believe them. I believe hip-hop is in a struggle of being artistic or [having] authenticity–which one matters? Because a lot of them that write music that has a street-life theme to it haven’t actually been exposed to very much of that. It’s starting to feel like it doesn’t matter. I’m watching it, and I’m like, Okay, it sounded great, but ya lyin’.” (XXL Mag)
Recently, ex-Flipmode Squad member Rah Digga talked to SOHH about artists needing to return to the core elements of hip-hop.
“I think the females and everyone out just needs to keep making their music and bring it back to the basics,” Rah explained to SOHH. “A big problem with not just females but artists in general is that they think they have to make some kind of grand stand re-entrance or they have to put on some crazy production or something to make it in the industry when the answer is real simple and plain, take it back to basics.” (SOHH)
Listen to Nottz’s “Dontcha Wanna Be (My Neighbor) down below:
