Rhymefest Says Hip-Hop Is Dead, “Emcees Don’t Exist”

Written By S. Samuel

Chicago rapper Rhymefest has shared his thoughts on the current state of rap and said the traditional form of hip-hop is dead.

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From Fest’s perspective, the essential elements of hip-hop have nearly disappeared.

“One thing I didn’t realize is that Hip-Hop doesn’t exist anymore,” he declared in an interview. “C’mon, think about the 4 elements: graffiti, breaking, deejaying, and emceeing. Emcees don’t exist. That’s somebody who gets on the stage, doesn’t have to rap, but can hype up the crowd while the DJ is playing. He has all the chants, all that sh*t. Everybody now is “listen to me, listen to my raps.” No one can hype up a crowd no more like that. Emcees are dead…So Hip-Hop as we knew is like jazz at this point. I can’t really get mad. It exists on a scale so small you might as well call it dead. But even from Disco we got techno, Bass music. From Hip-Hop we got Soulja Boy, Drake; the hybrid singing rap. We got to call it something else because it ain’t Hip-Hop. It’s not bad; it’s evolved into something else.” (All Hip Hop)

Earlier this year, Rhyme voiced his thoughts with SOHH about the stalled Chi-Town rap movement.

“Number one, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do by not working together. Why has Lupe [Fiasco] and Rhymefest never had asong together? Why has Twista and Common never had a song together? But you can get Jay-Z and T.I. to have a song together like, I feel like a part of the Chicago thing is we have to get people to believe in us by putting our talents in each other’s audiences no matter how big or small the audience is. Chicago, we used to look at ourselves as I think as an individual. Like, ‘Man, this individual made it, this individual got power.’ Like, it’s so organized, the gang culture that even the people that ain’t in gangs like even the individual people think like mob bosses. Like, ‘This is my family right here.’ And then others are like ‘Well this is my family.’ And hip-hop, it’s a slow death to everybody.” (SOHH)

He is currently preparing the release of his sophomore album, El Che.

“I think this album is a lot harder than Blue Collar, because as an artist I feel that I am deeper than the practical joker that I was made out to be on the previous label,” he said in an interview. “I felt like they were trying to stick me in a box to where I couldn’t explore and show fans my conscious and lyrical side, which is wild because that’s who I am. One thing I know about the joker is that he is never looked at as the one who is taking the company to the next level and I definitely want to show people that I am more than the funny guy; so this album is way more of me than before.” (XXL Mag)

A tracklisting for El Che has already been released online.

01 Intro: The Agent 02 Talk My Sh*t 03 Say Whassup [ft. Phonte] 04 How High [ft. Little Brother & Darien Brockington] 05 Chocolates 06 One Arm Push Up 07 Prosperity 08 Truth on You [ft. Twone Gabz] 09 Intermisson: Juan Carlos 10 Chicago 11 Agony [ft. Glenn Lewis] 12 Last Night 13 Give It To Me [ft. Saigon & Adad] 14 Intermission: No Help 15 City Is Fallen [ft. Slique] 16 Celebration (El Che)

Check out a recent SOHH Rhymefest interview below:

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Written by S. Samuel

Steven Samuel is the co-founder of SOHH.com.

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