Conclusion of Current State of Hip Hop Music

[Tash8]

This is a theory I came up with, to understand why everyone's doing the same thing. I came up with the idea of "defining artist" in Mainstream.

A defining artist is an artist who every other artist tries to learn and follow because they become successful and famous from it. In the 90's, non-other than 2pac (and maybe Notorious B.I.G) was the defining artist, he ruled rap at the time, if hip hop was mentioned, most people think 2pac. Late 90's to early 2000's the defining artist was Eminem. He brought in a new style that was successful and therefor everyone tried to emulate it or tried to build on it. These two defining artists are considered two of the top hip hop artists of the time. It brought great hip hop to mainstream, and other labels saw how successful this person was and tried to promote someone like him. Now-A-Days, who do you consider a defining artist? 50 Cent?...Kanye West? Yeah, not so much. They are the defining artists of now, but they are not the type of hip-hop we like. They key thing is they are successful, labels have now ignored all the MC's who did not follow the trend 50 and other dirty south artist has set, will most likely not be signed to a label, therefore making it really hard to change the state of hip-hop. Until these defining artists of this decade retire or are taken out of the spotlight, nothing will change. Until then we can only hope the next defining artist is an artist who's music we enjoy.

[yoshi]

i want it to be Yayo. he's deep.

Dear Suzie, I ain't have sex in a while
I'm in jail with my niggaz; beatin off to your pictures..

[<Stiiccy>]

thats why i think the mainstream is just a joke so i perfer underground

[Tornado]

All you need is just 1 new artist to have a hit to change the whole complexions

[IceAxe]

Who ever the next defining artist is needs to hurry up cuz with terrible songs like this disgrace (notice the 4 star rating), Hip Hop doesnt look like it can take the impact of another decade like this one.

We need someone like Royce, who's already got a lot of respect, and could potentialy sign to a major, to score a hit.

[Cwayon_Murder]

i want it to be Yayo. he's deep.

Dear Suzie, I ain't have sex in a while
I'm in jail with my *****; beatin off to your pictures..

Ahahahah

[DelinQuent]

you using personal opinion to say who's defining and who isn't. fact is, after eminem, 50 cent was the defining artist. just because you don't like the style that hip hop has taken on doesn't mean it hasn't had it's defining artist. i don't like where hiphop is going but today, soulja boy seems to be the defining artist. hiphop is quickly becoming a dance genre, basically redefining the entire genre. i think the next step for hiphop is to make a turn back to songs with lyrics, but who knows.

[Tash8]

you using personal opinion to say who's defining and who isn't. fact is, after eminem, 50 cent was the defining artist. just because you don't like the style that hip hop has taken on doesn't mean it hasn't had it's defining artist. i don't like where hiphop is going but today, soulja boy seems to be the defining artist. hiphop is quickly becoming a dance genre, basically redefining the entire genre. i think the next step for hiphop is to make a turn back to songs with lyrics, but who knows.

did you even read my theory.. i specifically said "50 cent was the defining artist" i said it's why things our so out of place. maybe you need to reread it.

[DelinQuent]

you said "50 Cent? Kanye"... yeah not so much" which would lead one to believe that you think they are not the defining artists. no need to be a dick.

[BaZZ]

Good point Tash, totally agree. I think the new defining artist has to has something very special and new to the music business. He has to have his own touch that is different from anything anyone is making. I hope he would be a lyricist...

[shady6]

shady6 approves of tash's well-made point

[Epidemik]

Who ever the next defining artist is needs to hurry up cuz with terrible songs like this disgrace (notice the 4 star rating), Hip Hop doesnt look like it can take the impact of another decade like this one.

We need someone like Royce, who's already got a lot of respect, and could potentialy sign to a major, to score a hit.

that would be nice

[,-,'-{Bar}-',-,]

lol thats bullshit.

so your telling me, jay-z isnt a defining artist ? Nas isnt a defining artist ? those 2 guys have been more defining for a longer time.

2 pac wasnt that defining untill he died, after that you got alot of rappers tryna be like pac but none of them actually got signed and made it mainstream, if you think pacs thug image defined loads of artists think again because there were loads of artists doin it before and after pac, he brought it to the mainstream slowly but at the same time so was jay-z, nas, biggie and other artists, infact you could say the core westcoast and eastcoast beefs is what defined that style and brought it out into the mainstream, Snoop, Dre, biggie, outlawz, jay-z, nas, all these artists (and more) were embroiled in fueds witch took that style of hip hop your talking about to the mainstream it wasnt just one artist it was a whole gang of artists, and if you want to "point the finger" at one man, its suge knight coz he masterminded death row and it was that label that got it mainstream. but even before that there was N.W.A that paved the way for the 2 pac's maybe even more so it wasnt N.W.A but it was Ice Cube. that style of hip hop was already goin strong at the time of tupac, the beef's and shootings involved in pacs time in hip hop is what make people think he defined it or was a defining artist, but really he didnt change hip hop nor did he influence it too much, he did leave a great selection of music and he did try and change it and he did try and show that the streets wasnt the only option but it never worked. also i aint taking away from pac he ifnluenced alot of people and his fans are dedicated and im one of them, but hip hop wise on a wider scale he didnt do much to the actual music, he did more on a personel level with his fans (imo)

your theory is full of holes that you havent thought out properly, your acting as if everyone is in the same group, one artist is succesful and one group wanne copy then a completely different artist is succesful and a different group wanne copy and you got loads of guys being succesful and loads wanting to copy.

like someone sayed you'll have the guys with one hit wonders or a couple of years of succes then they die away, there always has been them and there always will be them, the true defining artist are still around 15 years after there debut, Ice Cube, Dre, Rakim, Nas, Wu Tang Clan, KRS-One ect.

those artists are the defining guys who make permenant changes to hip hop, people still bumping gangsta rap ? thanks to ice cube, people still using multis, wordplay and metaphors ? thanks to rakim

and even if they dont know it when there listening to there watered down 50 cent or there lil wayne, they are just filtered copies of the originals, with alot less skill and alot bigger ego's. 50 cent fell off and is still falling, lil wayne will pass and he'll be forgotten about, but i can bet once thats happened wu-tang and ice cube will still have an album coming out.


so anywae ive went of track a bit, but what you classing as defining moments that changed the face of hip hop, isnt that, its just fads/gimmicks/phases that will pass, and once they have passed the truly defining artist are still there.


oh and for the record the last truly defining artist who's back selection of songs will be played throught time was eminem for me and i hope he gets back on his game and makes more albums to cement his place and complete the test of time, and the newest one that i think will reach that level is lupe fiasco, on a mainstream level ofcourse i could go into all the un-signed or underground artists i feel have more defining music but i cant be arsed lol.

[SajN]

Yeah Bar. It was a great read

I don't have anything so say... other than I agree with Bar.. You changed my opinion a bit

[Tash8]

you know fuck this, u guys either don't read this shit or your too arogant to try to understand...

no nas was never a mainstream defining artist.. I was speculating whether to add jay-z but you guys would all bitch at me if i did, so i didn't add him..

oh and i never once said soulja boy was a defining artist.....