The fact is that back in the days when rap was good, it was basically just a form of spoken poetry. The music might have still been reasonably poor in the background, but that didn't matter. The main focus was the lyrics and that was all that truly mattered.
The thing is, rap is now completely different and it seems the lyrics don't mean shit any more. It used to be that every (good) rap song had some sort of message, be it political, comedic or just telling a story through a song. Now the poetry has gone, the meanings have gone, and the only thing that really made rap good has gone. Rap ISN'T music in the conventional sense. Usually it's not the tune that you're listening to. It's not meant to be. The lyrics are what matter and it's the lryics that have died and taken rap with them.
I despise Kanye West for Stronger alone. I don't give a crap about anything else he has done, the fact that such a song was ever made by him and saw the light of day as a commercial record and was
successful is a travesty to the entire genre of rap.
Take a
look at the lyrics. They make no sense. There's no overall point to the song aside from generally being about sex. The lyrics are not clever. They're not well-written. If he can't write a proper set of lyrics without making up words like "wronger" then he shouldn't be in the industry. He's taken a superb song by Daft Punk and destroyed it.
Rap artists like The Lost Poets, Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five were all excellent because their songs had a political message. Even modern artists like Eminem have a lot of good songs which do have some sort of point to them.
But the fact is that most modern rap doesn't have a point. The songs are about sex and money and that's about it. And even when you ignore the fact that they have no point, the lyrics still don't hold any value. And the tune doesn't hold any value because it's either hardly there, is just bass, or is ripped from some other song. No superb vocals or instrumental prowess. There's absolutely nothing possibly there to admire. It's basically trash that anyone off the street could produce. There's no art in it.
