So a few weeks ago I was scrolling through Face book and came across an old interview hip hop legend KRS-1. Now the video wasn’t that long and the interviewer didn’t even ask many questions. But one question he asked him stuck out me. He gave KRS-1 a scenario saying if he had met someone who never listened to rap music, what three classic hip albums would you let them listen too? Now at first I thought it was an easy question since I’m such a diehard hip hop fan, but as I sat there the question that then came across my mind was “Damn, I don’t know”.
I mean don’t get me wrong I could go on for day of different hip hop/rap albums I loved that would refer to that person. I could tell that person to go listen to Kanye West’s Late Registration. Or I could tell them they should listen to Biggie Smalls “Life After Death”. But there’s a few problems with that. 1.) this is only my own personal opinion and 2.) it all depends on why that person listens to music. What a lot of people don’t realize is we all listen to music for different reasons. Some of us want to listen to music to hear a message. Others listen to music because it relaxes them. Then it’s those who listen because they want to have a good ass time. That’s always been the beauty of hip hop to me. It can make you do either or. If I want to hear a song with a message then I’ll put on some 2pac’s “Keeping Ya Head Up”. But if I want to turn up at a party you best believe I’m gonna listen to some Future “Mask Off”. It depends on how I’m feeling.
But I guess the downside of it can be that people get so comfortable in one style of hip hop hat they forget about everything else. For instance if you’re use to listening to hip hop songs they tell a story then you might not be a fan of trap music. Even in 2018 I hear people talking about “Man this ain’t real hip hop. It has no real meaning to it. No story.” Like seriously? You do know when hip hop was originated it started off as being party music right? That’s how I look at this new generation of rap. Look I love listening to conscious rap too but if Nelly’s “Hot in Here”came on at the club you think I’m just going to be standing there? HELL NAH!
We all got our own reasons for why we love hip hop or any kind of music. But the point I’m trying to make is that just because someone doesn’t listen to that music for the same reasons as you doesn’t mean they don’t know good music when they hear it. So for all you “bitter hip hop snobs”…chill out. Now if you excuse me. I’m going to go listen to some 2 Chainz. Peace
