Today’s Rap Lyrics Are A Watered Down Version Of What The Genre Once Was

Imagine this scenario.

You hop into your best friend’s car, and after a quick salutation, you tell them your destination. 

Since you have to get on the freeway, you know that it’ll be a while before you reach your desired location, so you ask your friend if he wants to listen to anything. They oblige and turn to a random music channel. 

You start jamming and sing along to the next few songs until a commercial break hits. You continue to laugh and chat with your friend until the advertisement ends and you guys brace for the next song, hoping to start singing again. 

You open your mouth wide, but before you can let out a note, confusion takes over. You don’t recognize the melody, so you stop and try to feel the music.

Except, you can’t. 

You try to listen closer, but the lyrics are garbled, and it sounds like the singer is rapping with a water bottle in their mouth. You lean in closer, but you can’t make out what the rapper is saying. 

If the voice of the rapper wasn’t bad enough, the loud 808’s and crashing hi-hats make it way too difficult for you to understand. To your dismay, you realize that the task is impossible without searching for the lyrics, so you slump back into your seat, and wait for the next song to play.

​To be blunt, the “new-age” of rap is filled with garbage. Rap has become a genre of music that is so over-saturated, that it makes it incredibly easy for anybody to toss something together with no meaning. 

In the 1990s, when Tupac started rapping, people found it incredibly intriguing because of the perspective of the world he spoke about through music. 

Some of his classics include Changes, Dear Mama, Me Against the World and Brenda’s Got a Baby. These songs have a lot of depth and are real gems if you take the time to listen to the message.

​However, this isn’t to say that the rap from the 90s was all good either. I wouldn’t be speaking truthfully if I were to try to completely glorify all rap from back then.

One of the lyrics from Biggie Smalls is: “I admit, when I met you, my first thought was to trick. You look so good, I’ll suck on your dad’s d***.” 

This isn’t something that has value but was just said probably because it rhymed.

​The issue is that most of today’s up-and-coming rappers do this throughout their entire career. It seems like they don’t put any thought into their lyrics, but instead jump on RhymeZone and type in the first dozen rhymes they find. 

But not all of today’s rappers are bad. Some like NF, Joyner Lucas and Polo G have thoughtful lyrics. 

At the end of the day, if people derive pleasure from what they are listening to that is all that matters. I just wish today’s rappers would sprinkle in some thought provoking lyrics and actual rapping.