Op-Ed: Can New York Rap Reclaim Its Top Spot In Hip-Hop?
by Staff Editor
The year was 1996, and New York City could not have been placed in a higher regard as far as the hip hop community. Sure, this was a time when music streaming was a figment of imagination, forcing record sales to sky rocket in today’s comparison, and the Godfathers of rap were still rolling out albums. However, the spirit of the big, bad New York sound was ruling the charts, and it was easy to see, and hear, why that was. With numerous spitters like Nas, Jay Z, The Notorious B.I.G., Method Man, and even DMX all dominating the game, the East Coast was in a magnificent, and almost untouchable, place.
Fast forward 20 years later, and a new golden era in hip hop seems to be slowly transforming, but unfortunately, New York has slid out of those “top lyricist” spots a bit. This past year, almost every rapper imaginable released an album or project, including a fair amount of veterans of the game. From Joey Bada$$ and A$AP Rocky, to Jadakiss and Raekwon, there were a select number of authentic rap projects to go around coming out of New York City. So why were the charts showing the South and the West Coast coming out on top?
It’s no secret that the East Coast has fallen off in recent years. With the demand from consumers rising rapidly for trap beats and addicting hooks, it’s been a struggle for New York to climb back up the mountain of hip hop’s admiration list. Of course, artists such as Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole were able to defeat the trend of club bangers and catchy dance tunes with their conscious content matter and lyrical whit, but New York still fell short of many Best Albums of 2015 lists, despite including innovative and deep artistic concepts.
While other coasts and areas of the country may be rolling their eyes at New York fans who are continuously rooting for their city, 2016 may be the year they put their foot in their mouths. No, we may not have to rely on our veterans like Nas and Hov to boost the city’s rep, because we are slowly but surely forming a population of raw spitters, and building a bigger, unbeatable buzz along the way.
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Good article,the City is definitely making a comeback & there are artists not on the radar yet that will help to solidify that along with the likes of Dave East. (I only like Manolo Rose on hooks though,he can’t rhyme to save his life!)
New York lost it’s title because rappers began to sound like they were from anywhere other than NY. (50 Cent would be my example) The radio stations also stopped allowing DJ’s to be just that. Listen to any supposed top DJ’s mix hour and they literally only mix the top 25 Hip-Pop songs. (Not a typo). No writer wants to insult listeners much the way politicians don’t want to insult voters but clearly, millions of listeners of hip hop born after the 1990’s have no desire to hear anything outside of club music. Future is supposedly one of the top rappers out now and as hard as I try, I can’t understand much of what he says. We still have some dudes in NY who can hold it down but don’t expect NY to return to the status it held for much of the early years.
There is no NY version of Kendrick or J.Cole or Drake. That’s simply rare talent. NY stopped dominating because it refused to focus on the music, instead stubbornly sticking to lyrics. Music and vocal ability matters. Some of the greatest NY rappers weren’t hardcore lyricists but master vocalists who hopped on perfectly supporting beats. DMX and 50 Cent for example.
NY had two of the most popular rappers of all time and didn’t even know what made them so great. Cut the “bars” crap out and you will get somewhere. Music is music. Lyrics come last and always will in music.