I gave my mom a CD for mother’s day a while back. It was ‘50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin”.
All I can say is that it was a gift from the heart.
I’m no expert, and hip hop definitely isn’t my favorite genre, but it just seems like the state of hip hop is sort of degenerating into this primordial ooze of cliche beats and stupid lyrics. With the exception of people like Kanye, it seems like people don’t even put thought into the newest songs; they just pump out something that has the “latest” effects. Twista’s “Hit the Floor” is a Frankenstein-ish song that starts out with the intro of Ying Yang’s “Badd”, kicks in with the ridiculously overplayed reggaeton beat, and continues through the entire song with a hyperactive version of David Banner’s “Play”s synth sound. It’s probably the next horrible thing to “Hollaback Girl” just because it sounds like something a kid could put together in a basement home studio. Twista has some crazy skills though, so I guess that makes up for it.
Through all this mainstream sludge there’re a few dedicated artists who could still pump out a damn good song. The latest soundtrack to NBA2k6 has some of the best in alternative/underground hip hop from some of the coolest artists — Aesop Rock, Common, Aceyalone, The Roots, Blackalicious. Good stuff..
