How the Mighty Have Fallen

Okay, so let me get this straight, AllMusic. In the past year, we've gotten new albums from The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Aesop Rock, Gift of Gab, Dilated Peoples, Brand Nubian, MF Doom, RJD2, and the Beastie Boys. That should be downright amazing. But what's that you say? All of these albums are mediocre?! None of them deserve more than three-and-a-half stars? Yeah, I can understand that three-and-a-half stars still means above average. But "above average" is absolutely damning with faint praise for what should have been perfect joints. We're talking about successors to albums that had rated four-and-a-half or a perfect five stars!

Some of the past year's top-rated releases in hip hop came out of the Stones Throw camp, who are a bunch of creative cats musically but can't make a decent rhyme that'd pull much weight with either pen-and-pad backpackers or freestyle battle crowds. Records like Champion Sound and Madvillainy are real dope on a production level but the rhymes could definitely use work. Stones Throw has never been an underground label to remove themselves too far from the mainstream positure, and while I'm not necessarily against that in principle, I'm just not high on their lyrics... (I'm sorry, that was a bad pun.) Is Stones Throw then indicative of the future of hip hop; a place where the mainstream and underground seemingly coexist in harmony? While that might seem like a good thing on paper, like some unreal, feel-good "everyone can live happily together!" concept, I don't think I'd want to see that happen across the board because it's far too easy to fall into a diluted amalgamation that no one will really want to listen to. It is and will always be a niche that only the keen acrobats of Stones Throw can exemplify, and even then I cannot enjoy or recommend their music without reservation.

Anyway, getting back to those (contextually) low scores. I'm not saying I disagree with them. In fact, I wholeheartedly agree with some. What I'm questioning here is not AllMusic's decision to give those damning scores. What I'm questioning is why these artists are all at once releasing albums that are clearly inferior to their previous work. What's happened to all our best and brightest in the past few years? Were we simply spoiled in the closing years of the '90s when we saw a wave of fresh, innovative, brilliant, timeless, irrepressible achievements rush in before the new millennium, each shining like a monumental landmark in the annals of music history?

I know that every year rock critics want to throw out the statement "rock and roll is dead" as though it were a maxim. Sound the bells, it's all over. "Every generation wants to be the last," wrote Chuck Palahniuk. Isn't that somehow morbidly true? So when underground rappers protest the state of hip hop and say that everything's gone to ruin, I can relate to that at first. In a year of mediocre releases by critically-acclaimed artists, it's easier than ever to feel that way. We've always known that the mainstream sucks, but if the underground sucks, too, what's left? It's just so easy to say, "Well, it's all over, the good days are behind us." ...So I can relate to what those guys are saying.

But you realize that many of these protesting artists who were hailed as visionaries just because they wrote a vague "message" rap are really producing music that's not much good; their failings have become just as detectable and distinct as the mainstream artists they rail against. When these protests become a constant mind-set, when all talk is about how bad things are without anyone bringing or enabling change, what's the point? They can spotlight problems all they want in their songs, but if they don't truly inspire people to move something (in ways other than on the dance floor) -- and let's be real here and say that you don't inspire others without leading by example -- then they need to shut up. They've become part of the problem, part of the strife and stagnation that apparently engulfs the hip hop nation. These so-called positive raps have become diatribes of negativity. They're not high-minded, spiritually-conscious, or sociopolitically active; they're just poseurs trying to ride a wave of dissent toward their own selfish goals. I'm starting to feel duped: that what seemed like genuine activism years back has now been revealed to be mere grandstanding, marketed in an effort to attract restless consumers who were willing to buy into the promise of better days to come.

Hip hop in its current form was founded upon a spirit of youthful rebellion, but isn't there a point at which it matures? The expression of dissension and anger should not be the ultimate goal; these things are only supposed to act as agents that cause change. Sure, I'd rather these underground rappers recognize and discuss these problems than not -- especially since most mainstream rappers choose to ignore all but the mighty dollar -- but isn't that just the first step toward a greater end? Now when even the best among us in hip hop have fallen prey to creative stagnation and/or the trappings of the music industry, isn't it time for underground rappers who truly love hip hop to raise the banner and start marching foward? It's like we've become self-satisfied and no longer feel the need to push ourselves and our boundaries artistically, musically, and communally. We need to recapture that idealism and have it reflect in our music once more.

Well, in the end here, I don't want to take music too seriously. If you really want to learn, go read a book; go live life. Sometimes even the best of sociopolitical music is not much more than the equivalent of college 101 courses. Just have fun with your music. And let's hope that the super-duo of Dan the Automator and Prince Paul, under the guise of the Handsome Boy Modeling School, can save us from a total waste of a year when they release their second album White People on November 9th. That may be the last major hip hop release on the calendar for 2004. I can't believe that I'm looking for musical salvation in a tongue-in-cheek side project...



These guys are all we've got left...