by Apu
So I was on Twitter a little while ago, and I saw Tech N9ne tweet out one of those “instead of a picture, I’ll post a screenshot of words” Instagram posts, because I guess fuck the ability to use something like TwitLonger or something. The basic gist of the post was “The people who are upset with you changing are comfortable with remaining stagnant” which is something that Tech has been sort of saying ever since basically The Gates Mixed Plate. Ever since that album, Tech has sort of had elements to his music that, to certain fans, may seem like he’s catering to the mainstream. He gets backlash from his fans based off of the people who he chooses works with and the sound of a few of his songs. I had retweeted the message with something along the lines of “I wish more people thought this way instead of being too afraid of their idiot fans to change at all,” and earlier today I felt as though 140 characters was not enough to thoroughly explain my thoughts.
Now, make no mistake. There’s a lot of artistic decisions that Tech makes that I can’t bring myself to behind. Tech does make a lot of music that he likes to defend by saying “I’m a partying dude, so I’m gonna make party music!” The only problem is, most of this “party” music, at least the songs that came out after The Gates Mixed Plate, tends to be dry and forced. Before and on Gates, the party songs he made had a much more carefree sound to them. They were simpler and catchier. Songs like “Caribou Lou,” (obviously) “Yeah Ya Can,” and “Let Me In” had a more natural, loose feeling to them than nearly every party song since hasn’t had. “No K” is the only one I can think of that feels more like those songs. Also, “Dwamn” is quite possibly one of the worst songs I’ve ever listened to. That shit doesn’t make me want to move or party or anything. It’ll probably be what I play when I get the balls to kill myself. He seems like he’s trying way too hard to make music to party to, and honestly, I don’t know of anyone who really parties to songs like “Dwamn”. Plus, he and Travis O’Guin signed that guy who sounds like a poor man’s The Weeknd (and is a culprit of a portion of what I talked about in my last rant, You’re All Boring, Stop Putting Out Music Please. Just read that so I don’t have to go too deep into detail about why I dislike him). I like essentially all of the music I’ve heard by The Weeknd. To be fair, that adds up to about 4 or 5 songs, but still, it’s not like I’m biased against that style of music. He just can’t pull it off because he sounds like he’s Justin Timberlake on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse after inhaling helium. I’m not entirely sure if that turns women on but I’m sure that if I were to ever fuck to one of his songs I’d probably have the erectile issues of a man 30 years my senior. Or an internet porn addict, since apparently watching too much internet porn may lead to erectile dysfunction…not that I would know from firsthand experience or anything… But yeah, in recent years Tech has definitely been making decisions that are sort of questionable to me. Wow, I ended that almost like a high school paper with the concluding sentence and everything to sum up what the body paragraph was about. I should write an email to my old English teachers and tell them that they actually did teach me something and end the paragraphs in that email with concluding sentences to drive the point home.
I’m fairly certain I know what some of you may be thinking, but I’m not criticizing those songs and Diet Weeknd for being indicative of Tech N9ne selling out. My issues lie with Tech and Strange trying to almost guilt their listeners into liking them or blaming us for not being suited for the music, when I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear that I enjoy party music and it’s just the music being bad. Tech wanting to branch out is a totally fine thing. I actually encourage that. I want to see artists be more ambitious. I want to see them succeed. Tech has been rapping for way too long to not see success, and I’m very glad it’s finally coming to him. I’m happy that he has the opportunity to work with artists who he’s always wanted to work with. That’s all great to me. In order to get to where he’s gotten and stay there, though, he’s had to make some compromises in his music. He’s made music that sounds like it was made to fit into the current landscape of mainstream hip hop. However,just because a rapper has decided to make music that sounds like they’re trying to get a bit of radio play doesn’t mean that they’ve gone soft or they’re selling out or anything. If that’s selling out, then what the fuck was Biggie doing with songs like “Hypnotize” or “Another” on his second album? He followed up a rough, rugged debut album with a double album where there was at least 3 songs on each disc that sounded like it was an attempt for radio play. And even his debut had “Big Poppa” on it!
Sidenote, “Big Poppa” has to be one of my favorite songs ever. I forget the specifics because I was anorexic at the time so there’s not much that I remember from late 2012 – mid 2013 (too much info?), but me and one of my best friends at the time had a ton of fun just randomly quoting the song at the most inappropriate times. We ruined a fair amount of actual deep discussions by doing that. Unfortunately, he found himself a girlfriend and broke off his friendships with everyone who wasn’t his girlfriend’s friend, because he’s beyond whipped to the point where he’s lost his own self and essentially become a second vessel for her incredibly controlling, spoiled, entitled, and whiny personality… and that’s not just me being jealously girlfriendless or misogynistic. I’d hang myself with a cheese wire before I let myself be that fucking pathetic. Even the girls who we hang out with feel the exact same way as I do about them. But still, we had some good times being idiots.
So yeah. Just because something is radio-oriented doesn’t make it a bad thing. What’s the point of making music if nobody is going to hear it? For the love of the music? How are you supposed to do something for the love of it if you can’t eat and support yourself so you’re in a position to afford the luxury of loving it in the first place? I swear, it’s like hip hop fans don’t take into account anything at all if their favorite rappers don’t do exactly what they want them to do. If a rapper DARES to try something new, then fuck them! The rapper’s selling out! He’s not the same! I want to hear the exact same album being made again and again because that’s the only way I know that he’s staying pure! Underground only! No pop singles, no radio play, I want to keep the music all to myself! No exposure, only sellouts get exposure! Selling out isn’t hip hop! Jesus Christ, it’s just music. Maybe it’s because there is an overabundance of bullshit and fans don’t want their favorite rappers to get involved, but honestly, it’s not like you’re going to lose your job just because a rapper you listen to made a radio single or two. Open your fucking mind up a little bit.
Now, it’s a different story when a rapper decides to just become some bubblegum act like it seemed like Ludacris was doing for a few years before he put out Ludaversal (which ended up being his best album out of the last few he had released). Don’t do what Redman did on Reggie (although I guess he had a decent excuse; he didn’t want to give Def Jam the sequel to his biggest album so he just gave them that and left the label). I’m also not saying you should compromise your actual ability on the song. But if it’s just a song or two on your album with a sound that’ll get the public at large listening it shouldn’t matter, especially if the rest of the album is nothing like the singles, but is instead some sick, raw shit. That way you can even trick listeners who think they’re going to get more of what they heard on the singles, and introduce them to some really good music that they wouldn’t have heard otherwise. And if you really put the effort into doing so, you can make a poppier single still sound really good. You can also format your album it in a way where it’ll still make sense for it to be on your album. You can have it be surrounded by songs that help the transition a bit…there’s plenty that can be done if the proper thought goes into it. Like I said before, just look at what Biggie did and you should probably be fine, since the singles on Life After Death were pretty fucking poppy compared to the rest of the album, but the album overall is still considered a classic.
And then we have these bitter old rappers talking about how much hip hop sucks nowadays. Of course, not everyone is like that; DJ Premier once said something along the lines of “I’m into boom bap. That trap shit, that’s cool, the kids can do that and I respect that, but I’m not doing that”. That’s the right way to think about it if you ask me…not that anybody did…nobody asks me anything…Anyways, the way Premier is going about it is how everyone should go about it, in my opinion. The OGs expect the newer rappers to respect their way of doing hip hop, while they bash the newer rappers’ way of doing hip hop. Why would a kid ever respect an old man ranting about why they suck? It makes absolutely no sense. It’s even worse because the OGs aren’t doing anything to help the kids. Old rappers: stop talking about what’s so wrong with kids doing hip hop these days. You’re going to do nothing except make the kids disillusioned with what you did. No kid is going to want to be like a grumpy old man. They’re going to do shit their way and put less stock into what you did because they don’t like you as people. Guys, if you’re so concerned about the state of hip hop, why don’t you take an up and coming rapper under your wing and mold them into something that could be really special? They could take the best of what’s going on now and under your tutelage they could implement some of what made old school hip hop so amazing and create a fucking classic. Case in point: Kendrick. untitled unmastered. had the whole “I mixed jazz with trap” thing going on. He blended the old and the new and made what will probably end up being the best project of 2016. Only difference is that Kendrick never really had an OG take him under his wing before he started doing the shit. But still, he’s a pretty good example of what could happen if the new and old collaborated instead of stayed at odds with each other. Come together. Push forward. Help make current mainstream rap better, cover more ground. Don’t just stay stuck on “yeah the underground is all that’s worth listening to” when a lot of underground artists (not all! Lots of rappers from the underground are fucking incredible) are just retreading the roads that you paved, staying stagnant and not innovating the way that you did.
I’ll end it on that sickeningly, disgustingly positive note, because I don’t want to ruin the moment. Bye bye!
Extraordinary Nobodies 