RHH: Do you think it's possible that hip hop is killing other genres of music?

Uhhh... I think Robert Glasper (who's worked with Kanye West), Tal Wilkenfield (Macy Gray), Divinty Roxx (Beyonce), Matthew Shipp (who's known for his collaboration and influence in the hip-hop world) would disprove the idea that rap/hip-hop and Jazz can't coexist. There are actually no two genres working as closely right now. Almost every great session musician works in both Jazz and hip-hop as their primary musical genres.

If anything great hip-hop producers like El-P (hey! he made a Jazz album), Mablib, Primo and a bevy of others are showing Jazz musicians new avenues to explore with newer electronic and digital modes of expression.

Mainstream rock is the genre that kills creativity. It's a formula there. One band enters the scene, changes it and every single band follows them for a decade or more until the new band comes in. It's despicable to me that mainstream bands are still trying to ape Nirvana and Pearl Jam with all the new technology staring them in their idiotic faces.

Plus, we have to be cognizant that most Jazz heroes weren't pop stars. Someone like Wes Montgomery only made money once he sold his sound out to make pop tunes. Charlie Parker, Miles Davis (before Bitches Brew), Charles Mingus, Bill Evans and especially the Free Jazz masters weren't tearing up charts in the 40's, 50's or 60's. Parker had to make money playing background in big bands and Mingus was homeless for a time while he was recording and touring all over.

Hell, Nas' dad was an avant-garde trumpeter of some level of acclaim and Nas spent his entire youth living in the "ghetto" in Queensbridge.

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I don't know. Maybe a little bit but I took guitar lessons a few years back and there were tons of young kids in there taking lessons. I think with the use in popularity of catchy pop punk bands that play implement riffs it gives kids more want to try ad play instruments and also metal has an extreme following still. There's new metal bands popping up all over the place. The thing with those genres is you really need to learn music in order to play it. While in RHH you can look at a ton of artists who have zero talent but are still very famous and it probably comes off looking like its easy to do. But rock bands for the most part probably make more money than most rappers because of touring. Hip hop has become so glamorous and the lifestyle looks so awesome it's hard or kids not to want to at least try it. As for jazz and stuff I mean there's not ok much career opportunity in those genres right now. But music goes through phases

Bq- I think he average blue ollar person can relate to hip hop more. Young person that is for the most part. But other genres that deal with subjects such as love and heartbreak like r n b and rock. Everyone can identify with that as well. So it really comes down to what ou like. We can relate to some things in hip hop but there's a ton we can't. How many people shoot and sell drugs and drive nice cars. Not many. So some subject matter we can but some we can't relate to. I think there's something you can find in very genre you can relate to

Although it's hard to admit, but your argument makes sense. However, I don't think hip hop is necessarily killing it. It's how music works, people want to imitate whatever's popular. Remember disco? That was really popular for a good minute and then it died out when new rock subcultures began to rise and along with more people getting into hip hop. Music has worked that way for years, but it's not like those elements are gone forever. Artists will still use jazz and R&B sounds in there music, so the genre is not completely dead it's just becoming more unpopular among the newer generation. It's disappointing and sad, but true.

BQ: Of course I believe hip hop is more relatable to me than any other genre. It gave the black community a voice, an open mic to voice all their frustrations. Something as innovative as hip hop was destined to rise.

Pancakes.. YEP! mega lol

I think some are becoming deluded by what it means to be a good hip hop artist. Sessional musicians have usually played for years and years and know the weight of their instruments on touch. Anyone can be a hip hop artist, just wear the same clothes and attitude and you dont have to have f*k-all musicianship. mainstream hip hop has become a brand to sell things, not an art form anymore. And thats whats killing music. Because kids with 2 dollars to buy a track from itunes are gobbling it up.

Theres a reason why old school hip hop is still strong.

And my nephew calls lil wayne the blinged out leprechaun hahaha

To put it short...no. Hip Hop is the most popular music genre right now among mainstream media outlets (MTV, Billboard, Radio...) but while these outlets may be the most visible reflector of popular culture, it is by no means represents an oversized majority. This is why indie post punk pop bands can sell out concerts better than whatever new rapper is on BET. This is also why "classic" rock bands who haven't had a new album out in 20 years and who you haven't heard of in 20 years can still sell out concerts. Youtube is also a good example of how popular things can be that you might never even hear about.

Furthermore, Hip Hop itself is built out of so many different genres. You can trace Hip Hop back to Ragga and Beat Speaker Griot and watch how genres such as disco, dancehall, R&B and most recently electronica infiltrate the genre...mainly because that's what people outside of Hip hop happen to enjoy at the time. You can listen to a lot of "Hip hop" instrumentals and not even realize they're "Hip Hop" until someone starts rapping. You can also listen to the latest Taylor Swift (or whatever) instrumental and think there should be someone rapping on it. What I'm getting at is that popular music is by nature eclectic (as is music itself), so a genre completely taking over doesn't really even make sense. Hip Hop is no more popular now than other popular crossover genres were in the past (Just look back when everyone was making disco music!)

BQ: I think Hip Hop is more relatable to kids these days, but it may just because they've grown up with Hip Hop. A large part of "relatability" has to do with one's culture and nostalgia, as well as their own interpretation of the lyrics and/or music itself.

Yeah I agree with this. Actually I been thinking the same thing. Back in the day, like in the 70s-90s and such, everybody wanted to be in a band, everybody wanted to be a rockstar. But nowadays EVERYBODY wants to be a rapper. Hip-hop is EVERYWHERE. Like just listen to the radio, a good chunk of the pop songs you hear have a hip-hop feature. Hip-hop seems to have taken over as the dominate genre. I guess in a sense it's killing other genres, but hip-hop is derived from sooooo any different genres so it's kinda like just taking all the genres and meshing them into one? Lol if you get what i'm saying.

only read the first few sentences so

tl;dr

nah but forreal, everybody wants to be a rapper because it's cool af...who wouldn't want to live the life the big ones depict? it's basically a modern day Scarface. if you're not very familiar with it and you only listen to the most popular albums of the year and shyt on the radio, they probably think they can do the same shyt. a lot of it doesn't seem to difficult

then a lot of people rap because they love the art form. hip hop culture is the coolest fuggin shyt in the world. i spend all day thinking about it, listening to it, watching interviews, battles etc, it's just something i dig as a middle class white kid from alabama lol.

got off topic but all the elements of other music are blended into hip hop musically and lyrically. tons of producers love jazz and it's been prominent in production since hip hop's inception...rock is incorporated into hip hop and vice versa.

but anyway, im sure there's plenty of kids who want to be rock stars, but rapper is kinda the lead guitarist of the 80s now i guess (since glam rock ran shyt back then)

It depends on where you're at. Maybe that's true for the US but not for other countries. You mentioned reggae music and that youths don't aspire to be raggae artists, they only want to be rappers. That's inaccurate for where I come from. I'm from the Caribbean and here, while rap is immensely popular, it doesn't overshadow raggae or dancehall.

Lots of young people aspire to be dancehall artists or reggae artists in the Caribbean. Jamaica for example, there are dozens of up and coming artists and most of them aren't rappers. They're into reggae. Trinidad has a lot of aspiring soca (sub-genre of caribbean music) artists. There are even some who try to do gospel and R&B.

It depends on where you're at and how big a part rap music plays in its culture.

BQ: Yes I think it is. Rap is universal. People from all over the world with different backgrounds and cultures can relate to rap in one way or another.

While reggae is influential in my part of the world, it isn't global like rap. It doesnt have as big an impact worldwide like rap does.

I don't agree that there aren't young people trying to make jazz or R'nB. For one, R'n'B is just as popular as ever, unless you mean sou and funk and the like. Even in that case, it's more that many newer funk, jazz, and soul artists don't get exposure, and less that noone is making that type of music. One of my favorite blogs, rappamelo, features alot of newer jazz and soul artists that are criminally overlooked.

And I wouldn't place all of that blame on hip hop, as pop, dubstep, and rock also would be "killing" the genres you mention, due to thier popularity.