S. Samuel
Rap mogul Jay Z recently gave his take on the state of hip-hop and why artists like Kanye West, Drake, J. Cole and more are keeping the culture thriving.
In Young Hov’s opinion, the trend of quality albums dropping these days has him feeling like hip-hop is back in its prime.
“Kanye, Drake, J. Cole, and that Kendrick Lamar album was insane,” Jay said ini an interview. “It’s a good time for hip-hop. I mean, think about the year that’s happening, all the albums that’s dropping. It feels like ’96, ’92. … hip-hop has done so much for racial relations, it doesn’t get the proper credit. It’s always demonized and people point out all the bad things about it, but no one talks about how hip-hop has brought all different races of people together.” (“Big Boy’s Neighborhood”)
He also downplayed plans to rush out a follow-up to 2011’s platinum-selling Watch the Throne album.
“We don’t have any dates lined out for it, but we definitely spoke about dropping solo albums and then going back to do Watch the Throne 2, so we’ll see what happens.” (“Big Boy’s Neighborhood”)
Recently, Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav singled out a few key rap icons he felt were not necessarily representing hip-hop including Jigga.
He continued: “Rap music has lost that element right now, mainly over in America. There’s not to many great hip hop records out there, but there are some great rap records. L’il Wayne is making some great rap records, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Ludacris, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, Snoop – everybody is making great rap records, but it’s not hip hop.” (Gigwise)
Last year, West Coast rapper Lil B shared his thoughts on hip-hop not being authentic.
“I’ve [taken] rap one hundred percent seriously for so long, that I see it now, it’s a joke to me now because with a lot of the rap artists that are in it, they’re not truly authentic,” Lil B reasoned in an interview. “How I feel about authentic is that my whole past is there. Anything that I talk about, you can just check up — Do I think rap’s a joke and I’m having fun? I’m not going to lie. Right now, it is a joke because my life has been so real. Life is so real, bro. I almost lost my life numerous times, like in the streets and everything.” (107.5 WGCI)
Check out Jay Z’s interview:
