North Texas Daily

I’m pretty new to Texas, so it is fair to say that I meet a decent amount of individuals who are different from me on a daily basis.

Always the third or fourth question I get asked at every new encounter is: “So what kind of music do you like?” right behind, “What’s your name? Where are you from?” and “How long have you been here?”

It’s always the same questions in the same order with the same reaction.

“You don’t like rap music?!”

Well, I am super complicated and am inclined to aggravate people so my answer is always something along the lines of: “I do not pick favorites. All music is different so it cannot be compared. Categories are a social construct meant to further separate similar cultures…”

*Cue the dramatic eye roll.*

I say whatever I can to get out of answering this question, because the truth is, all music is beautiful to me — all music.

Hip-hop is a style of music that has been debated since its conception in the backyard of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue Bronx, New York, during a back-to-school party on Aug. 11, 1973.

On that day, DJ Kool Herc — aka the father of hip-hop — debuted a mixing process which is now known as looping. By 1979, his creativity had reached many local artists. The Fatback Band soon released the first officially recorded rap song, and the rest is history.

Today, rap/hip-hop is one of the most popular music genres.

Now the problem I find is that with this kind of popularity in music comes a lot of opportunity for misuse.

Rap in its fundamental form is poetry with a sick beat in the background.

There are many talented poets out there with great stories worth sharing. However, I fear with the increased demand on being the best and just getting a name out there, the quality has suffered greatly.

Rappers like Young Thug, Desiigner and Fetty Wap are prime examples of just focusing on a great beat and high energy instead of overall quality.

I am not trying to take away from the likability of their songs. I have found myself listening to “Timmy Turner” and “Trap Queen” on a loop on multiple drunken occasions.

This does not mean I find myself understanding them on any occasion.

Music does not require lyrics, but if there are words present, they should be meaningful.

I believe that while all songs do not need a purpose, they should make sense.

Repeating “Gucci gang” 50 times in a two-minute time span is absolutely ridiculous to me. It is catchy, but far from art and definitely not something I would classify as good music.

Sadly, this is the trend of many present-day artists.

The artist is pressured to pump out so many songs within a short period of time I think they run out of logical content, they decide to loop themselves a catchy title sporting an indecipherable accent, insert the occasional line that differs from the never ending chorus and call it a “Top 100.”

I’m sorry, but I personally would love to see more artists take their time coming up with songs that people can really connect with on a spiritual level.

I don’t know about you, but I like songs that I can understand and rap along with without having to Google it first.

“Changes” by Tupac Shakur sums up my feelings exactly.

“We gotta make a change

It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes

Let’s change the way we eat

Let’s change the way we live

And let’s change the way we treat each other

You see the old way wasn’t workin’

So it’s on us to do what we gotta do to survive”

Featured Image: Illustration by Austin Banzon