Stray Shots: 7 Ways Hip Hop Has Changed For The Better Since 1995

Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, HipHopDX used to host blogs. Through Meka, Brillyance, Aliya Ewing and others, readers got unfiltered opinions on the most current topics in and beyond Hip Hop. After a few years, a couple redesigns and the collective vision of three different Editors-In-Chief, blogs are back. Well, sort of. Since our blog section went the way of two-way pagers and physical mixtapes, Twitter, Instagram and Ustream have further accelerated the pace of current events in Hip Hop. Rappers beef with each other 140 characters at a time, entire mixtapes (and their associated artwork) can be released via Instagram, and sometimes these events require a rapid reaction.

As such, we’re reserving this space for a weekly reaction to Hip Hop’s current events. Or whatever else we deem worthy. And the “we” in question is myself, Andre Grant and Ural Garrett. Collectively we serve as HipHopDX’s Features Staff. Aside from tackling stray topics, we may invite artists and other personalities in Hip Hop to join the conversation. Without further delay, here’s this week’s “Stray Shots.

The Internet’s Rise & Broadband Eventually Broke Open The Music Industry

Andre: The web didn’t really get cracking until after the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Signed into law by a cherub, buttery Bill Clinton, the law completely overhauled the communications industry in the United States, allowing players shut out of the 1934 Act to get in on the Internet. So while the first cable modem screamed out of the womb in 1988, you couldn’t get at the wiring to actually capitalize on bringing the tech into homes until after ‘96. Coincidentally, Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt also came out in ‘96, so I’m not quite going to say Jay Z is always on time, but I’ll just leave that there as tepid, shaky justification of his greatness.

Things were still touch-and-go for the average consumer, though, until the end of the decade when true T1 broadband started popping up in the middle class. And just as all true booms are sprung off the backs of whiny children, the idea of quickly surfing the web was born as parents tried desperately to get their children to be fucking quiet. What better way than the Internet? How better than Napster? And at that moment the age of piracy that had been teetering under the surface was born. Suddenly, labels lost control of distribution (just ask the Mob how profitable controlling how people get their products can be) and the field blew wide open. All of this is for the better. Labels got fat on the backs of laborer artists while controlling — in every way — the keys to the kingdom. And while the money present in the field is many times less prevalent, there are more ways to circumvent the major label system than ever before. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Ural: The Internet was around in 1995. However, technology was extremely limited. Anyone with a 56K modem understood the then first world struggle fully. America Online, Netscape, Prodigy and CompuServe meant exploring the unfamiliar World Wide Web were limited to browser experiences that make term papers written on Google Docs look a lot more appealing. Like every other industry, Hip Hop barely had an online presence. As technology and download/upload speeds evolved, so did Hip Hop for better or worse. Peer-2-peer networks, iTunes and music streaming gave way to new forms of music distribution. Social media (more on that later) even changed how artists interacted with fans. Blogs democratized coverage within the culture. If artists twenty years ago had to meticulously plan a roll out for an album, all that needs to be done now is drop a Soundcloud link and a quick Tweet.

The .MP3 & Software That Allows You To Cheaply Make Music

Ural: There was probably a time in your favorite millennial rappers’ life where they had bootleg versions of Fruity Loops and an extremely shitty Myspace page. The motto: Quantity over quality. MP3s made music file sizes small enough to be sent to anyone or streamed anywhere when needed. One of the best examples was the slow rise of Lil B who had nearly thousand-plus songs. For every fifty clunkers, a few would be audible enough to enjoy. Of course, as time went by Apple’s Garageband software even allowed artists like The Roots to create full albums (Game Theory) through various plug-ins. Music software coupled with MP3’s gave a DYI freedom to artists hoping to make music on a tighter budget. The issues with artist’s rights over sampling also gave way to more reliance on software, which could be a reason why traditional New York boom-bap died off in mainstream while Southern Hip Hop rose to prominence. Beats are sent over quicker, which makes recording time faster and artists don’t need to be physically in the same room or wait for recordings to be mailed for collaborations.

Andre: The .MP3 changed everything, but have you heard of Karlheinz Brandenburg? He was one of the key members on the team at a prestigious German laboratory that cracked the code on digital audio layering, bringing the ability to turn large sound files into little compressible bits. When combined with beat making software like Fruity Loops, Reason, Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools, Acid, Cubase and others, the ability for the layman to jump into what once was an expensive, skill driven affair became amazingly easy.

Combine that with the Interwebs itself and things like email and it meant you didn’t have to be in the studio with anyone popping bottles or getting beautiful women to actually go down on you so you could record a timeless interlude. You could just send the damn sounds. This has created a great many excellent and not-so-excellent things. But overall I think it’s a plus. The free movement of information is tantamount to leaps in understanding, and while nothing will replace true, in-person chemistry, artists’ being able to collaborate from thousands of miles away is always a beautiful thing.

More Varied Concepts Of Masculinity

Andre: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five dressed like escapees of a conference on midriffs, glitter and leather pants, and they were the most masculine guys around. But after gangster-rap took hold a hyper-masculine view of Hip Hop became the norm. Schooly D was probably the originator of this kind of music, which featured rampant cursing, talk of sexual conquering and pretty much everything we love about rap right now. But now things are panoptic expressions of everything-ness. Meaning one thing and one thing only just doesn’t hold the same kind of appeal it once did. Reality is simply one window through which to see the world. And so the concept of masculinity has been stretched and some say withered from this static thing to a kind of dynamo. Now the question should become what it even means to be “soft.” This is not necessarily a bad thing. Hip Hop’s gotten this reputation as being wildly misogynistic and patriarchal, and re-imagining masculinity (whether it be 3 Stacks style or through Drake, Young Thug and others) is the beginning of transcending that.

Ural: Twenty years ago, the top rap albums of that year featured rappers who were tough-as-fuck. They sold more drugs than Frank Lucus, had sex with more women than most men have physically seen, would fight or kill anyone that looked at them the wrong way and were generally angry all the time. For most, the hyper-masculine image was something to be attained. Remember when LL Cool J was called “soft” for making “I Need Love” or when Ice Cube dissed A Tribe Called Quest? Now, most of Hip Hop’s biggest emcees from Kanye West to Drake are normally seen as soft due to lyrics that explore feelings or even fashion. Who would have thought in 1995 that some artists would find themselves wearing dresses let alone some who are openly gay?

Women Are Respected More Than Ever

Ural: The progress women have made within the last two decades shows how progressive society has become. Nothing could be truer for Hip Hop. There was a time where a famous producer could deliver a beating on a female journalist and ride high into the sunset as if nothing was wrong. Now, there’s zero tolerance in regards to violence against women. On a creative front, most music released by artists today is geared toward women. Matter of fact, one of the biggest rappers in Hip Hop is a woman. Sure, Hip Hop still has ways to go but it’s totally a lot better.

Andre: We’re finally reaching escape velocity from the idea that you only needed one female emcee in the spotlight at any one time. And with the fracturing of Hip Hop as a whole into these tiny sub-genre’s we’ve got women leading the way in a few important one’s. Nicki Minaj is the best emcee in NY right now, hands down. Azaelia Banks, for all her antics, is simply murdering that alt-Hop lane with reckless abandon. But there’s more. Rapsody is pure boom-bap Hip Hop, and Big Freedia is all New Orleans bounce and all of these people co-exist and thrive in the same rap ecosystem with more ferocity than ever before.

Hip Hop Is Far Less Violent

Andre: When Biggie and Tupac died for our rap sins my heart broke into a million pieces and it has yet to be healed. That we don’t kill each other like that anymore over paranoia, Hip Hop police, COINTELPRO, general beef or whatever the hell else is really important and should never be taken for granted.

Ural: Between the deaths of Biggie and Tupac, those Source Awards stories and journalists getting stomped out by rappers, rappers are a lot more civil. Of course, gun violence and fighting still exist but, the Wild West mentality has cooled down significantly. When Jay Z and Nas were beefing, they both ended up creating some of the best work of their careers by keeping things on wax. Before things between 50 Cent and Game got too heated, Louis Farrakhan stepped in. It’s quite interesting how Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly delivers hard commentary on black-on-black violence in regards to gangs when his mentor Dr. Dre once relished in gangster rap tropes.

Social Media

Ural: There was a time when the only way artists got to fans were through the television, publications and radio. Now, some artists are building fan bases, announcing music, taking food photos and giving insight into their innermost thoughts exclusively through social media. Wanted to know Diddy’s favorite snack twenty years past? One would have to read enough feature stories and hope that small tidbit of information was caught. One check of Instagram could solve that problem with ease. Everything from Facebook to Twitter has become a negative as well if Cee-Lo, Joe Budden or even Azealia Banks. Artists don’t have to go to news sources they are the news source.

Andre: Even though these folks give you the run around sometimes by hitting you on DM telling you to check your email, which then tells you to check their Instagram where the link to their fire mixtape is in the bio, it’s still easier to get your music out there than ever. Or, of course, there is the penultimate promotional look: selling your music on CNN during a riot in a major American city. But those sorts of life-changing events only happen every so often so stick to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the father of all of those Myspace if you want to get the attention of any one in the world at the push of a button.

Variety In Types Of Rap & Types Of People Making Rap

Andre: Each scene is it’s own little microstructure. It’s a tributary feeding into the larger ocean of Hip Hop as a whole. It was not always this way. There used to be a sea of middlemen and gatekeepers between you and your rap dreams. But, no longer! Now you can go directly to your consumer and give them the fix they need. Or they might hate you. But what’s hate if not love in disguise?

Ural: Call it an accumulation of everything that’s been discussed already but, everyone has the possibility to rap now-a-days. The demo tape that once became the audio resume for a few executives at record labels has evolved into the modern mixtape that anyone with a Datpiff or Livemixtapes account can consume. Changes in technology have also given way to specific lines drawn between mainstream and indie music. Therefore, a variety of self contained music scenes have come into play. Twenty years ago, there wouldn’t have been a snowball’s chance in hell that Chief Keef would have gone from making music in his grandmother’s apartment with beats made on a laptop to getting into Twitter beefs with Katy Perry. Music videos, radio and paper publications held the future of aspiring emcees two decades back. Societal changes have democratized Hip Hop in ways that’s been equally beautiful and terrifying.

Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.

Ural Garrett is an Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.