I been seeing conversations about “what is being devalued in rap music” right now and I got some thoughts on that. I want to try to take this a step further and get to what I think the issue is. Let’s breakdown what lead up to this conversation.

Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy performance set the hip-hop community on fire! It was dope and a great moment for hip-hop.

French Montana was asked about music today and he spoke to their being a push for Kendrick and his sound and “Street Music” is having to take a backseat right now, which I can’t honestly say is 100% fact, simply because Future is prospering at an alarming rate during what many may deem as Kendrick’s pinnacle.

Now, there is this debate about what sells, what has value and what is being pushed. I think before you do that, you have to know exactly who runs what in rap right now.

Lets be honest and look at the game where it is right now

In 2016 The Hottest Rapper is Drake with Future holding down spot 1A
In 2016 The Rappers that sell the most are Drake and J.Cole
In 2016 The Nicest Rapper is a toss up between Kendrick, Cole, Drake, Wale and Big Sean
In 2016 The Rappers pushing the culture forward are Drake, Cole, Kendrick, Future and Migos

You may not like it, but that is the reality of the game today.

The real problem is the bandwagon rapper. The rappers who were moving weight when Jeezy ran things, then were stoners that like to party and B.S when Wiz ran things, then wanted to sing, rap and do it for the ladies when Drake started heating up and now want to be conscious political prisoners that want to challenge the system now that Kendrick and Cole got plaques. That’s all got nothing to do with street musics devalue and everything to do with rappers wanting to blow by any means necessary.

AUTHENTIC HIP-HOP SELLS! If you all of a sudden changing up your flow and trying to kick knowledge or if you’re over-saturating the game with dirty sprite and the Migos flow, slang and dances, we don’t want to hear from you, cause you’re not authentic. Hip-Hop is all about respecting the foundation and authenticity. I get music from artist every week. You know how many “Future and Kendrick babies” are in my inbox now? I can sum it up by saying too many that are not worth mentioning.

And what is this goofiness about “Street Music” being out? I NEVER got that memo. If it wasn’t for “Street Emcees” most of us wouldn’t even have a top 10. Don’t belive me?

Jay-Z – Roc-A-Fella/State Property
Nas
Biggie
DMX – Ruff Ryders
50 Cent and G Unit
Snoop Dogg – Dogg Pound
Wu Tang Clan
Mobb Deep
The L.O.X
Fat Joe and Big Pun – Terror Squad
Scarface – Geto Boys
T.I
Jeezy
UGK
Master P – No Limit
Eighball and MJG
Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat
Twista
Ice Cube – N.W.A Westside Connection
Cam’ron – Dipset
2 Pac [Thug Life meant exactly that]

Tell me where hip-hop is without these 20 plus names? Let’s never forget, hip-hop is from the streets and that list isn’t even half of the street rappers over time. The Furious 5 was rapping about junkies, high school dropouts and undercover f**s on The Message. That’s things happening in the streets.

The first artist to breakthrough for TDE was a Blood named Jay Rock. The same team with a Crip named ScHoolboy Q in it. Let’s not act like Kendrick is on a mission to get rid of street music, cause he’s not. He getting rid of WHACK music. It’s a big difference.

“Conscious Rap” sells just like “Street Rap” sells. It’s only room for the great ones to prosper though. A lot of people shouldn’t be rapping. I don’t support artist just because “you’re grinding hard” or cause “you been at it for years”. I support because I like what I hear. It’s somebody that’s worked a job for decades and never been employee of the month. He don’t get the picture on the wall and the hand claps. He get lunch at noon.

Street Music hasn’t been devalued the emcee has. The streets are just waiting for the streets to be represented right. Lot of these dudes got popping off the Green Ribbon Effect. If rap was more competitive and it got back to rhyming instead of using drugs and banging IG models perhaps we’d get a higher quality of music. Rappers can’t even rap for 32 Bars anymore without falling off the beat or getting their phone. Shoot, rappers are refusing to rap! That’s where the loss of value comes from.

How many artist can you say actually love this rap ish? The actually art and creativity of it? 3 to 5 per city? out of how many hundreds per state? Exactly.