One of the ongoing conversation topics in Hip Hop is the differences between the old and new generations of the culture. They frequently hate on each other, but there are instances where both sides do embrace such as J. Cole interviewing Lil Pump in 2018. In the case of comedian Aries Spears, he’s not even going to try to understand the current generation.
Avid Hip Hop fan and comedian Aries Spears is known for his spot-on impressions of legendary rappers such as LL Cool J, JAY-Z, DMX and more, but he’s also known for his blunt, honest takes on contemporary Hip Hop. On Sunday (February 28), the former MadTV cast member took to his Instagram to rant about the new generation and how bad he thinks Hip Hop’s state currently is.
“Whaddup it’s your boy Aries Spears, aka Old Head,” said the comedian. “Listen, I wanna ask the young generation a question, seriously. How is it that y’all don’t get bored with the current state of Hip Hop and what y’all are doing to rap? When everything sounds the same. The melodies, the same. The beats, the same. The cadence, the same. The flow, the same. Everything AutoTune.”
After mocking the AutoTune sound many rappers use today, Spears called out a few prominent artists for lacking originality saying, “From NBA YoungBoy to Lil Baby to Rondo Quando, none of you n-ggas sound different. There’s no individuality or originality.”
Spears didn’t stop ridiculing the new generation in the clip. The criticism continued in the post’s caption where Spears asked which new rappers could carry the legacies left by Black Thought, Nas, Biggie and more.
“NOT TO MENTION U CANT UNDERSTAND THE LYRICS AT ALL!!!!,” he wrote. “WHAT U DO MAKE OUT IS THE SAME SHIT, MY MONEY, MY CAR, MY GUN, MY HOE! (REPEAT). WHERE IS THIS YOUNG GENERATIONS VERSION OF BLACK THOUGHT (INSANELY LYRICAL) NAS (RAPPING BACKWARDS) BIGGIE (INSANE STORY TELLING) ALA “N-GGAS BLEED” BIG PUN (COMPLEX WORDPLAY) WTF!!”
As if the post wasn’t enough, Spears wanted to drive his point home with more Instagram posts that supported his claim. One of the posts had Black Thought’s scorching 10-minute freestyle over Mobb Deep’s classic “Burn” instrumental on Funk Flex’s radio show. In the other post, Spears explained why the new generation needs to make timeless music if they ever want to get the proper respect.
“You can secure the bag AND MAKE QUALITY MUSIC AT THE SAME TIME!!,” Spears wrote in part of the caption. “It’s called being ambidextrous! We criticize ya’ll cause your lazy!”
This isn’t the first time Spears has made some blunt remarks regarding the culture. In 2016, the veteran comedian dissed Keegan Michael Key and Peele during an interview with VladTV for their lack of blackness and authenticity. Three years later, Spears issued somewhat of an apology after seeing Peele’s success in Hollywood.
“The stuff I said about Key and Peel on Vlad, again, if I didn’t believe it, I wouldn’t have said it, but if we are being honest, trying to advance your career to a certain place, what you say, once it’s out there it’s out there,” Spears said in an interview with Comedy Hype.
Aries Spears Says He Auditioned For Jordan Peele After Dissing Him
He continued, “And people, you know, even if you assume or you would like for them to take what you said the right way, they to take it how they take it — or if someone gets in their ear, you fucked yourself. Like Dave Chappelle, when keeping it real goes wrong.”
He aint wrong tho
If aries spears himoersinated new rappers he’d have to wear a dress and dye his hair pink and only talk about opiates
Wow! I mean, I can be considered an old head” too. Because what Aries spoke, is the same kind of conversations I have with my peers, especially when the kids play their music. It’s not a hating stance in my opinion. But an argument would be that young lyrical wordplay/story artists/punch line affeciado’s do exist, they’re not in the lime light and usually have a core fan base, are underground and that most people aren’t aware of their existence. Regardless, a lot of “old head” emcees did make it through, and were all about the message. Also, look out for female artists. There are many that hold it down just as much (if not harder) than their human counterparts.
Yeah ok stupid ass old head, but let’s see you say that to any of those dudes face lmao, pussy ass mf
I’m not afraid say what I think you can accept it or not it an opinion your an ass only when you assume shit > what I said is my truth, so if other agree with my statement that’s there truth also, I know that there a whole lot of young rapper that can really really spit that real rap – I in no way is trying to disrespect the young generation, a lot of the rap sound the same on radio and tv, – Them old head listen to they favorite rapper and buy they albums too so they still gonna eat even if they try to cancel them, if a concert with old head come to town people gonna show up to support them. Shit I fuck with Jay Jones, Chris Ward, Kevin Gates, Starlito, Corner boy P, but still fuck with Z-ro, Slim Thug and any thing that’s old school
“You can secure the bag AND MAKE QUALITY MUSIC AT THE SAME TIME!!,” “It’s called being ambidextrous! We criticize ya’ll cause your lazy!” – Nuff said and comment of the year. Yall older rappers too scared of being canceled over speaking the truth #rappersmanup
if new hip-hop is so garbage, why tf u talking abt it? the 90s was yalls era, the 2010’s is our era. if u aint have anything nice to say, then dont say anything
These old head rants make my head hurt every time they say all these new guys sound the same as if in the 90s that generation didn’t sound same with the same type of beats and flow with an overload of conscious raps. Let the new kids live ..they’re actually transcending the sound of hip hop with the amount of experimental sound that goes on. Hip-hop has evolved..we taking rock and roll back too..look what carti just dropped that’s an official rap punk rock sound without doing what machine gun Kelly did or trippin red which was actually going full rock and roll and losing the rap sound… Old heads to need to relax and let them have their moment
He is talking the truth
LOL…Oh so true. Thank you Mr. Spears.
I struggle with this topic because I’m an old head but respect these young artists are doing their thing. And it just may not be for me.
I don’t want to be that “get off my lawn” old head – I remember being young too.
Generally though, I’m with Aries on this one – he’s not hating he’s criticizing. Hip Hop may be the only genre that openly criticizes its artists. It’s part of the culture. That’s where “wack rapper/MC” came from back in the day. Aries is only doing this. But it may sound different to the young heads because “your dad” is saying it.
He makes a great point about classic music. But if this new music is not for him, he can’t be the judge of what’s classic. My parents generation told us Marvin Gaye was classic.
He’s also complaining about the Migos flow and how so many are doing it so it “all sounds the same”. But the thing here is that triplet flow is legit a different flow; goes all the way back to PE (Bring Tha Noise), but I’d say 36 Mafia made it the main flow they used. Migos just blew up with it, and then MANY copied it. The triplet flow is the dominant/popular flow of this era. Then add in trap beats – which are also legit a different structure than boom bap.
So you add the triplet flow and trap beats together and it’s a very different sound than 90s hip hop. Our old ears are not gonna feel this too much. We have to make an effort.
I’ll finish with this, Griselda/BSF/38 Spesh & TCF buck this current sound and have been killing it the last 4 years+. So that’s the answer to his question. BENNY and Conway are those dudes. However, they are repping that 90s era. So Griselda is not that original, but they are authentic and QUALITY.
“There’s great hip-hop songs where they talk about life and they spit that real shit, but right now, there’s not a lot of people talking about real shit,” This new generation rappers sits back because they think it’s not cool to talk about doing something right. These kids now get more attention if they talk about their Xanax problem and how much lean and codeine they take. Or they smoked more weed than God could possibly grow on this green earth. Or I drank more liquor then the earth could produce, but old heads never put those images and concepts on record. Why? Because if Run-D.M.C. could make a record about these [Adidas] and the whole world to this day are on it, what’s going to happen if I rhyme about codeine and smoking angel dust? It’s a lack of responsibility.” But due to the lack of creativity and inspiration, rap has taken a turn for the worse and has been producing some of the worst songs the listening public has ever heard. Unless there is some musical enlightenment or a rap super-nova revealed in the next year, we will be stuck with low-quality mumble rap for a long, long time.
“Whenever I want to cry, whenever I want to sit down and have a nice cry, I’ll listen to Kodak Black.”
Say what you will a boogie wit da hoody is dope as fuck
ima steady do my shii