West Coast makes some noise, will Hot 97 and Power pick up the sound

[Brooklyndon]

With hip hop seemingly mired in that repulsive, decade-old, south sound and east coast artists choosing to create beefs to sell records, rather than creating good music, will hip-hops saving grace be the Westside??? Big King Boss Dogg, the doggfather, Snoop Dogg and the dogg pound put out a classic g-funk album Dogg Chit, and Dre is putting out Detox later this year.

Will Snoop and Dre once again save hip hop from becoming an irrelivant dance genre like they did 15 years ago? Of course they will, the only question is will WQHT and that other station puit Snoop on a banned list again?

 

[LinoNYC]

Will Snoop and Dre once again save hip hop from becoming an irrelivant dance genre like they did 15 years ago?

When a youth oriented genre requires 36 and 42 year olds to "save" it, it becomes time to consider that the genre may simply have worn out it's welcome.

One can hope.

Lino

 

[Brooklyndon]

Will Snoop and Dre once again save hip hop from becoming an irrelivant dance genre like they did 15 years ago?

When a youth oriented genre requires 36 and 42 year olds to "save" it, it becomes time to consider that the genre may simply have worn out it's welcome.

One can hope.

Lino

Great point you make. But todays rappers aren't that good. Until someone comes along with a Rakim flow, its on Snoop's shoulders. Face it, the guy has been surfing the wave of pop music just as it starts to break since 92. He helped invent g-funk, da game is to be sold not to be told is a classic dirty south album, and Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ took full advantage of the Neptunes sound (albeit a year or two late to be cutting edge). Now Snoop is making appearances on Dogg Chit a 100% authentic West Coast album, and the Blue Corpet Treatment was like 50% a west coast album. He seems to be a bellwaether.

But getting back to your point, with a 'gen-y" format being saved by aging gen x-ers. Its a good point. I think its analogous to like the early 80s when Bowie, the Who, and the Rolling Stones were still putting out good music, and Ratt and Quiet Riot were supposed be cutting edge., even though they sucked. Its 1981 again. If there is an upside, its that a classic sound, possibly greatest, most popular and accessible sound, is creaping its way back into rap. And its Hot 97s duty to popularize it, so that Rap may once again take over the suburbs.

 

[MarcR]

For hip hop to redeem itself and reverse the erosion in album sales, rappers need to evolve away from the nihilism in their lyrics (like the misogyny, casual violence and crass materialism everybody by now indentifies the genre with) and think of something to say that people can rally around. The punk movement had a similiar situation by 1978 but managed to evolve into a "post-punk" phase that saw the creation of some of the best recordings that genre ever produced. Could a "post-gangsta" era happen as well? I guess time will tell.

 

[LinoNYC]

If there is an upside, its that a classic sound, possibly greatest, most popular and accessible sound, is creaping its way back into rap. And its Hot 97s duty to popularize it, so that Rap may once again take over the suburbs.

Don, i suggest a few points that I have observed, The black and some hispanic kids took to hip-hop as an (unfortunate) lifestyle, the white kids took it as a fad.

People out in the 'burbs have allways been facinated with fads of the "big, bad city" there isn't much going on in a bedroom comunity. In the 50s they came in as weekend "bohemians" then Hippies, punks etc

It maybe interesting to note that as someone who operates jukeboxes in NY, Queens and Bergen Co NJ, even at it's height of popularity hip-hop sold poorly in locations that had a mostly white clientele.

Like most fads that have their day, hip-hop is now retreating to a core of (mostly black) fans and it's revival in the mainstream will depend on overcoming a bad reputation and the passage of time.

Regards, Lino