Jay Z's Brand Is Suffering Because People Don't

eanaj5 wrote: afrokock wrote: lol he is a classic case of rap's main gripe with age and its unhealthy fixation with youth. I kind of feel like thats not a rap thing, but a rich ppl thing... Most rappers know when to hang it up, even Snoop found a new niche.

What niche did snoop find? please tell me its something other than his disastrous foray into reg.gae.

When I read this article I thought of rt and afro mhmm.



Edited by Diane (35) - Dec 29 2013 at 1:15pm

maybe niche wasnt the right word
a "hobby" not especially reflective of youth culture

eanaj5 wrote: maybe niche wasnt the right word a "hobby" not especially reflective of youth culture

So the youth dem naah meds no reg.gae? Here we do. But I kno what you're saying.

Snoop has an entire nation and the rastafari movement gunning for his disrespectful pretentious and whack ass. Make that focker ever win that Grammy

Raps distant cousin or forebear (depending on who you ask) dancehall the elder deejays just said eff the older crowds snd cater almost exclusively to the youth highschool aged. Its depressing. Dudes same age bracket as jay dressing acting and deejaying like theyre twenty two. Smoke weed buss guns eff girls the occasional ghetto youths are the greatest rinse and rass repeat. I blame the incarcerated one and others too. He dumbed it down so badly and did do well the other copycats did the same. His current work gets more "forward" cause the youth never knew when he was great.

Yall lucky jay tries somewhat cause if I hear one more girls wine up skin out tune im gonna scream

Eta the slackness is at an all time high or low lol. Honestly! Just saying the worst thing imaginable just for the shock value another kartel schtick. And its not cause im older cause shabba and them were slack but these cats just lame and unimaginative.
Please free Buju Banton

Rant over.

Edited by Diane (35) - Dec 29 2013 at 1:53pm

I was just about to write about rap and age but my computer froze. Don't feel like re-writing that titangraph but what I was going to say was nearly all other genres support their aging artist. You see rockers, jazz musicians, country singers, etc, releasing critically and commercially acclaimed music in their 50s, 60s, 70s. Johnny Cash was releasing popular music right up to  his death at age 71.

Rap is like a teenager compared to most genres, so the sample size of older rap stars is small. But I think it's safe to say that the first golden age rappers faded into obscurity as the genre all but abandoned them, even as they released music...cats like Kool G Rap, Rakim, De La Soul, KRS.

Now we're getting to the second golden age rappers, like Nas, Common, Jay, Eminem. It'll be interesting to see how they are received as they get into their 50s, 60's. They might quit rapping altogether, because rappers aren't encouraged to keep rapping into late age...it's perceived that rap is a young mans game. So rappers might get ridiculed by fans who are annoyed that they are still rapping. It isn't like that with other genres.

Since rap is so lyic-focused, and thoughts get expressed in much more detail than other genres of music, I think rappers like Jay also run the risk of running out of things to say. He's like 12 albums deep, and even in 2003 he was saying 'what more can I say?'...

I think that may be one of the things Afro was getting at. Jay, and Nas, and Common, and the aging rappers are in a position to change the perception of older rap stars. They have a chance to create a lane for hip hop over the next decades that celebrates older age, maturity, growth, and the separation from the young cats. And since Jay is the oldest and most popular, his platform is greater than all. He isn't doing much with that platform though...except reinforcing that rap is a young mans game. That's disappointing, especially since he is always comparing himself to the Beatles...a comparison that falls flat when you consider the growth of those members vs the arguable regression/stagnation of Jay.



Edited by Random Thoughts - Dec 29 2013 at 1:59pm

Ah very good explanation  RT