I recently found myself in a conversation with an old friend of mine from college. As is always the case with these "catch up" sessions, at some point we had to reminisce on the good old days. The clothing, movies, politics and (of course) the music. I think anyone over 22 feels like music has completely fallen apart in recent years, particularly the once revolutionary hip hop genre.

The days when lyricism, originality and showmanship were requirements have dissolved into an era where an artist's worth is determined by how many ringtones he can sell or how fresh his wardrobe is. Hip hop has degraded from the voice of a culture to simply a reincarnation of pop music. The sexually ambiguous pop stars of the 80's have been replaced by metro sexual "trap stars." As I type this, I know that some will take offense to that characterization. But, the simple fact is that social issues and storytelling have been replaced by songs about white bricks, Gucci scarfs and man bags.

The young hip hop artists out now don't concern themselves with making classics. There is no pressure to push the envelope... or even be original. There was a time (not too long ago) when if you sounded anything like another artist, fans called you on it. Hell, I remember that Fabolous and Shine's careers were overshadowed for years by their vocal similarities to Ma$e and Biggie (respectively). Nowadays, these new guys sound like they are doing impressions of Lil Wayne, Plies, Jay-Z or whoever the top guy is on the radio that month.

This will be a short post. But, before I wrap it up, I want to discuss one more concerning aspect of this whole thing: the lowered expectations of young rappers. Both from a talent and maturity level. The number 1 defense that I hear for Soulja Boy, Bow Wow, Yung Berg or any of these other guys is "They are still young. Give them a break." How did we get to that point as a culture? Do we really look at 20 something year old men as too young and immature to put together intelligent music? What about Michael Jackson? Tupac Shakur?  LL Cool J? Haven't there been plenty of urban artists turning out great music at this age.

It's easy to forget that the guy that made THIS ..

...is older than the one that made this...

Cheers,

-JM