Why is hip hop so popular?
June 6, 2018
These days everybody listens to hip hop. It plays all over the hit music radio stations. Kids blare it in the hallways. Tons of wannabe rappers create accounts on Soundcloud, some rising to mainstream. But why do so many people like hip hop?
Sophomore Amir Myers is a rapper and producer. He loves hip hop, and he loves to talk about it. Myers believes it’s the most popular genre in the US because the youth love it.
“I think it’s cringy, but there’s a type of rebellious nature that comes with hip hop. Rock was considered rebellious and that’s what the youth listened to, and now we have hip hop and rap.” Myers said.
Myers considers the biggest hip hop artist right now to be Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Pump.
“Drake makes music that appeals to everybody, he makes good music that everyone can enjoy, Kendrick has lyrics that a lot of people can get behind, he also uses his voice in interesting ways that can get the listener’s attention, and Lil Pump has music that is very entertaining.” Myers said.
While those are the artists he considers to be the biggest, those are not the artists he considers the best of all time. Myers claims the best of all time would probably be Salese, Drake, and Eminem. He notes that those are not who he think should be the best, but he considers the to be the most loved. Myers said that he considered the best hip hop artist of all time to be Outkast and Kendrick Lamar. He says that his favorite artists right now are Kendrick Lamar and Earl Sweatshirt.
“[I like] Kendrick because I love the meaning in his music, and the way he constructs an album is great. [I would say] Earl because he connects emotionally with me alot.”
Amir has a lot of friends who enjoy hip hop as well, although he notes that it’s probably more for the rebelliousness that comes with the music as well as it being easy to listen to.
Sophomore Isaac Sawin is a vinyl collector, with an expansive collection of hip hop. He believes that the young are attracted to the quality of a lot of hip hop.
“[Hip hop] is extraordinary song writing. I feel like these days that [because] the rock scene has died down it’s hard to find good writers in rock music.” Sawin said. “It’s the most artistic form of pop music right now.’
Sawin claims that hip hop has a lot of politics in it, something that gives it a boost in quality. He says that Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino are amongst the more political artists.
“[Take] Childish Gambino’s This is America, as an example. This song exploded, and the reason for that is because of the big gun debate going on right now, and this song addresses that while being extremely catchy and picking up a lot of airplay. It’s like politics you can dance to, almost.” Sawin said.
When it comes to popularity, Sawin believes that Drake and Kendrick Lamar are the most popular. Sawin changes his stance when it comes to greatest of all time to focus more on the lives of the artists themselves. He claims Tupac and Kanye West are probably the most famous of all time.
“Tupac was famously murdered and Kanye West married a Kardashian and that got him into the [public eye].” Sawin said.
A lot of his friends listen to hip hop of all kinds, but currently Sawin is listening to Wu-Tang clan. He enjoys the effects the band puts in their songs.
Sophomore Tyrus McDaniel is a rapper along with Amir Myers. McDaniel thinks that hip hop is very easy to dance to and that’s why it’s so popular. He also thinks that it’s popular just a rock was popular. When it comes to the style of hip hop, he likes how it’s sung.
“The rappers don’t really have to sing, so it’s almost spoken word music, which I think is interesting. That’s kind of an overgeneralization because there’s singing in rap too.” McDaniel said.
Currently McDaniel enjoys Kid Cudi and Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino.
“I like Kid Cudi because his music is different and not really mainstream. It’s really good. [I like] Childish Gambino because he’s really talented at everything he does, including singing and rapping.” McDaniel said.
When it come to the greats, McDaniel stands by the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, and Kanye West.
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The watcher • Aug 14, 2021 at 8:44 pm
Isn’t hip hop out of (this) time? When they compare it to rock and roll it comes this question to my mind, because I think that rock and roll didn’t need 30 years to become popular, far less to return from almost oblivion as hip hop did. Rock and roll made it’s boom as soon as it came out, but hip hop is the adoption of a music style of the past generation by this generation, just think if it was disco or grunge instead how out phase would we regard it
I think that this surge of hip hop would be comparable as if the teenagers from the sixties embraced calypso, mazurka or polka instead of creating rock and roll.
It could be that we spent the last 4 decades creating either soft pop and hash music that few people like, and also hip hop. And then music industry finally killed innovation, hence being no new music style to stick too and thrash metal resulted too harsh by many they opted for hip hop.
Sal Silva • May 5, 2021 at 11:10 pm
First of all vadim up above here has a problem with hip hop in general. He has a problem with either the way they dress, their attitude, where they come from and maybe the fact that most come from the bad parts of town and make something for themselves becoming wealthy.
I am offended by the remarks because I am a producer of R&B, Rock, Jazz, Pop and of course Hip Hop/Rap.
To say the genre has no melody whatsoever is complete ignorance. Rap is not noise and whether you believe it or not Rap is the truth of what’s going on out in the streets of this country. It’s the real news that should matter more than the shit and garbage they waste in ink and paper to serve the public bs. You can say it degrades women, promotes violence or whatever. The obvious point here is that this person is very wrong and he could never understand hip hop because he constantly is living in fantasy land. Next time before putting in your sense, read up on what you plan to criticize because you make yourself look like an ass. The genre is worth billions and that’s why the white man has to have a grip on it and at the same time living off of it and in the process stealing it, making it his own to forever support his family even after he is dead and gone.
I am also ashamed of the people who allow that garbage to be posted. If you don’t have anything nice to say, shut your mouth and move on. But this obviously promoted negativity…. One last thing for my buddy up above. It may have no melody to you, because you can’t even catch a tune and if you can’t catch a tune you got no rhythm…. Which ultimately you can’t dance. So you don’t matter. ?
Vadim • Jul 3, 2020 at 2:39 am
Yeah… I think the situation is a bit different. There are three basic themes in all hip hop compositions: bragging, violence and drugs. And the clue to why that is popular lies in the fact this music originally came from poor neighborhoods.
Basically, young people see little future for themselves in current economic environment. Yet they also see role models – young people like themselves – who succeded as hip hop performers. Consciuosly or unconsciously they identify themselves with that success and thus add to hip hop popularity.
When in reality hip hop lyrics are so-so, no singing skils required, no melody whatsoever.
nick mitchell • Sep 27, 2018 at 2:02 am
Very neat story, just came across it on the internet. As a high school student formerly in publications, I like the way this article particularly captured the rebellious spirit of hip hop in my generation. Good job, Mr. Matter.