Masta Ace has penned an open letter asking “Has Hip Hop Lost It’s Soul???” The Brooklyn, New York rapper appeared on Street Soldiers and Hot 97 programs this weekend and was asked to write about whether or not Hip Hop has lost its soul.
But the Juice Crew rapper says that the interviews didn’t enable him to make some of the points he felt noteworthy, so he shared his comments on Instagram yesterday (February 1).
“When I think about the state of today’s hip hop I am reminded of Sister Souljah’s iconic phrase “We Are At War”!” Masta Ace writes. “We are at war with ourselves. We realize the importance of hip hop having a place at the table of today’s music genres. We feel the need to celebrate today’s successful hip hop artists because they are representing our music and culture. At the same time we are torn because when we dissect the prevailing images and messages dominating the forefront, it disturbs us. We know all too well the influence OUR music has on the next generation of young people.”
Masta Ace, who emerged in the 1980s under Marley Marl’s tutelage, delivered two genre-shifting albums with Masta Ace Incorporated in the 1990s, the Gangster Rap treatise SlaughtaHouse in 1993 and the East and West Coast-blending Sittin’ On Chrome in 1995. In the 2000s, he emerged as one of rap’s most insightful independent acts thanks to 2001’s Disposable Arts. He says that the type of Rap music that gets played on the radio today lacks a certain component that the music had in the 1980s.
“We notice the lack of balance in the music and messages being broadcasted to the masses of young influential fans,” Masta Ace writes. “The SOUL of hip hop has never left. The broadcasting of that SOUL has disappeared from radio and television. The Golden age of hip hop was a truly balanced representation of hip hop. We balanced 2 Live Crew with Public Enemy. NWA was balanced by Heavy D and the Boyz. Ice T balance by Big Daddy Kane and Rakim! Many of these groups even toured together in those days. There is an unannounced agenda to the playlists that exist at today’s commercial radio stations. Hip Hop’s SOUL is intact…we just need MORE of it played for our children.”
To see the Instagram post from Masta Ace, who penned a Has Hip Hop Lost Its Soul open letter, see below:
He not lying, A mainstream artist like KRIT and even Boosie is barely on the Radio.
Krit should definitely get play, I don’t know about boosie though
But at the same time, Hip-Hop wasn’t mainstream in the Golden Era. None of those guys sold millions. It’s a different paradigm now. Even though I personally prefer the Golden Era, I don’t know how the “soul” of Hip-Hop can (or should) be represented in mainstream culture today.
WAYTA?? Nobody is selling millions or records now. “Soul” represents a unified balance of different types of hip hop sounds, which as we know is obsolete these days.
Hip-Hop artists have been going platinum for the last 25 years.
It only shows Masta Ace doesn’t know today’s hiphop at all.
U don’t jack bubble head
fuck soul nigga we gettin money, hip hop jus got rid of old wack sloppy niggas like this fool writing letters and shit
Shut up you ignorant slob
Shout out to the Pioneers of Hiphop. I feel what Masta Ace is saying though i believe the balance is there its just not on the radio which is run by corporations who dont care about the culture. That real soulful Hip hop is on the Internet. My playlists is full of young Fire MCs. The shift started in 2010 an 2015 to me was a new Golden Era. The essence of Hiphop is Health Love Awareness an Wealth. KRS-1
What he saying is the radio stations only play the same 20 artist everyday all day. The only play garbage pop Rap w no hip hop is what he saying. They pushed real hip hop off the radio and stuck fools with Fetty Wap and Slim Jesus, dudes that have no MC skills but sale tons of records because you sheep believe that its good music. If you played both hip hop and pop Rap at least you have a choice and know that their is some other music out there.
yes it has lost its soul and the reason is your wack ass!!!!!!! dropping punchline and keeping bog eye strick was even wacker than you losing to Apocalypse ha! imagine going from rhyming with kool g rap , bdk to stricklin haaaa! just retire old man and sell tyres
COZ ITS DEAD, NIGGA
FUCK WIGGERS PERIOD
What hip hop? It doesn’t even exist anymore. No culture, nada. The game has changed and it’s an embarrassment now. Fruitcake skinny jean wearing homos took over. It’s a joke. Fucking game is embarrassing now, I’m telling you. It ain’t cool anymore like it once was.
word…dudes like Kanye West(finger in the ass), Drake(baby lotion type of softness) or Khalifa(crackhead) are dictating the direction of rap music nowadays…embarrassing
Fuck wannabe whites. Your african “brothers” laugh at you.
I feel u Masta Ase… But social media is a good and bad place for discussion…. Many people on social media have not soul… Just dead flesh pushing letters… Hip hop died a long while back… America’s agenda to end hip hop took awhile to happen… But it’s done… By far the worst genre of music…a few good left… Ross, meek, Pusha T, j cole tries… And a few others… But it’s done… These artist are single fame now… No good albums, no soul…. But I appreciate your catalog Ase.. As well as nas, jay, pac, big, Kane, slick rick… And many others … But hip hop dead… I survive off the few that’s spitting and the legends mentioned as well as brand Nubian, krs… Nice and smooth, ghetto boys/ scarface… And so on