So, Rap is on life support?

[Mister_Rik]

@Little_Nemo

Even country rap has been around over a decade by now.

27 years, to be exact. The first “country rap” hit was performed by the already-well-established at the time Bellamy Brothers. In 1987, they released … “Country Rap”:

Done as something of a joke, but I think they actually had a good flow, and didn't make the mistake of trying to "sound black". In a way, that song was something of a "spiritual ancestor" to today's "nerdcore" rap. Nerdcore is primarily done by white boys who, instead of trying to pretend to be "gangsta", rap about their real lives and what they know, which is sort of what the "original" rap was supposed to be about.

And a lot of good nerdcore is coming out of Canada these days:

Jesse Dangerously - “Bring Your Girlfriend to Rap Day”. Heavyset rapper doing a duet with his heavyset girlfriend, and it’s awesome. One of the best depictions of two people totally in love with each other I think I’ve ever seen.

Word Burglar - “Drawings With Words”. WB raps about his love of comic books…

… and G.I. Joe - “Rap Viper” …

… and all sorts of nerd references: “Rhyme O’Clock”, collaborating with More or Les.

More Or Les & Fresh Kils - Pop & Chips

As a professional chef, I rather enjoy More or Les rapping about brunch.

Here’s Timbuktu, with a more serious rap: “Lead by Example”

But a lot those guys got their first major exposure after making guest appearances on MC Frontalot’s tracks. Front is considered the “Godfather of Nerdcore Hip-hop” (and he’s the guy that coined the term “nerdcore”).

Dopers should enjoy his take on the “Origin of Species”

Or old-school text-adventure games like ZORK: “It Is Pitch Dark”

But Young MC made a great comment on the current state of rap … 11 years ago:

“Stress Test”

[Magiver]

@Marley23

Middle aged white guy bashes rap. Film at 11. (Somewhat unrelated: Roger Friedman appears to be a total moron.)

I think there are two general counterpoints to the story: one is that hip hop and some of its basic elements have been incorporated into a lot of other types of music, so you might find less ‘undiluted’ hip hop than previously but you might also find less music without any of those elements. The other factor is that fewer people are buying music than ever. People who are still buying music rather than streaming it probably skew older, and I’m going to guess that helps explain why the remastered Led Zeppelin albums did fairly well - and even then, 10 or 15 years ago nobody would said ‘three albums combined to sell 60,000 copies’ as if it were a big deal, nor would all three of those albums have landed in the top 40. It’s not like Zep took the country by storm here.

3 albums sold 100,000 in the first week at a cost of $115 each. Yes, fewer people are buying music but it can be broken down demographically. Which explains the current desire for musicians to cross over into other genres.

[Nava]

@Namkcalb

So, to put it in other words, rap isn’t dead, it’s just looking a little pale at the moment.

What was that line about the best rapper being white and the best golf player being black? It’s been a while…

[Justin_Bailey]

@Smapti

So far this year, out of the six songs to reach #1 on the Hot 100, three of them have been rap songs; Eminem’s “Monster”, Pitbull’s “Timber”, and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”. And one of the other three (Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse”) has a rap guest verse.

I’ve heard “Dark Horse” on the radio and it doesn’t have a guest rap verse.

@EllisDee

Several people have dismissed the claim by comparing it to similar claims of rock being dead. The only problem there is that rock kind of is dead.

Rock isn’t dead. It just splintered into a billion different micro-genres that will never be able to gain the widespread acceptance the grunge and post-grunge acts received.

[dropzone]

@Bridget_Burke

…-but most of the conjunto guys play polkas, too.

Indeed. Polka may be bigger than it has been since 1850. It’s just in Spanish.

[bleach]

@Justin_Bailey

I’ve heard “Dark Horse” on the radio and it doesn’t have a guest rap verse.

Here is the music video. The rap verse by Juicy J starts around 2:22.

[Justin_Bailey]

@bleach

Here is the music video. The rap verse by Juicy J starts around 2:22.

That’s not in the radio version.

[Smapti]

@Justin_Bailey

That’s not in the radio version.

Depends on what station you listen to. In my area, some of the Top 40 stations play it with the rap verse and some leave it out; ditto with “Payphone” by Maroon 5 or “Brokenhearted” by Karmin (in which case I didn’t even know there was a rap verse until I looked it up on Youtube, and which is particularly odd because the rap part is by the same singer doing the rest of the song.) It’s become pretty common these days for songs with guest verses to have edits without the rap for play on stations that are targeting a less rap-friendly audience.

[pullin]

@stpauler

One thing the author of the article is being-let’s just be nice and call it-negligent about is that record sales don’t determine hits like they used to. I stream a lot of new music via Rhapsody and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Then there’s Youtube which doesn’t give album sales either. It’s myopic to look solely at album sales and said which art form is dead or not. Except polka. Polka is dead.

[bolding mine] I came in to ask this. With streaming/downloads/sharing/etc, how do you even know which songs *are *hits? The last time there was mathematical proof of popularity, Casey Kasem was announcing it.

[Smapti]

@pullin

[bolding mine] I came in to ask this. With streaming/downloads/sharing/etc, how do you even know which songs *are *hits? The last time there was mathematical proof of popularity, Casey Kasem was announcing it.

Last year, Billboard started including satellite radio airplay and Youtube views in their formula for calculating the Hot 100, which presumably is now producing a more accurate picture of what people are listening to than the previous formula of physical sales + terrestrial airplay + digital song purchases.

On the other hand, the first week that they put that metric into place, “Harlem Shake” became the #1 song on the chart and stayed there for four weeks, so one assumes there are some kinks to iron out yet.

[Zakalwe]

@pullin

[bolding mine] I came in to ask this. With streaming/downloads/sharing/etc, how do you even know which songs *are *hits? The last time there was mathematical proof of popularity, Casey Kasem was announcing it.

Billboard charts

Billboard is trying. For all-genre charts they have charts that track the following:
sales + airplay + streaming (combo Hot 100), airplay (radio), physical sales, digital sales, streaming, and Twitter real-time

They also have combo and breakdown charts for many of the specific genres.

Dammit smapti! Ninja’d. But at least I provided a link…