Where are the Billy Joels, Bonnie Raitts, Eric Claptons of the rap-based future? We have this thread that talks about the commercialization of rap. Do rap ‘artists’ exist or is it simply a ‘make the money and run’ 
sort of ‘music’?
The only rap I hear is what my 16 year old daughter, of questionable artistic taste, listens to on the radio, so my perspective is, at best, skewed.
IIRC, rappers like LL Cool J and Dr. Dre have been making albums since the 1980s. Also, I’m sure someone more knowledgeable will probably come along soon and either cite an earlier date for these guys and/or add more names to the list.
Rap hasn’t been around as long as Billie Joel, Bonnie Raitt, and Eric Clapton have, so any such comparison would have to be future-based and speculative.
In the late 80s, a little rap group formed known as N.W.A. The most well known members consisting of Dr Dre, Ice Cube and the late Easy E. Both continue to make albums and Ice Cube has been in a number of feature films, most notably the popular Friday franchise. Dre came into his own in the early nineties with The Chronic and took on a young protige by the name of Snoop Dogg. After leaving Death Row Records, he created his own label Aftermath and continues to produce artists like Eminem. While they don’t have the longevity of a Springstein or a Billy Joel, they continue to epitomize the Gansta’ Rap genre.
The question is, how old can a rap artist become and still be relevent? The music does focus on a relative young and hedonistic lifestyle. It doesn’t seem likely that fans would want to see a fifty year old rapper rhyming bout his bitches or that they would produce a musical called “Movin’ Outta Compton!”
That and rappers have a tendency to get shot.
Whoa! Massive overgeneralizations! I have several dozen albums by almost as many rappers, and only a handful would fit such generalizations. There’s WAAAAAY more stuff out there than stereotype gangsta rap.
Public Enemy has been around for twenty two years, and their fifteen year old It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is still a highwater mark in rap music. Outkast has been around for over ten years, and are still making high quality, big selling albums.
They’re not strictly rap, but Biohazard have been around since the very late 80s.
Let me be a bit more specific. The artists I named (someone also mentioned Springsteen–excellent choice) are all very talented with a broad appeal. They have had their ups and downs, but overall they have been producing worthwhile music for 40 years or so. They are all greatly respected by musicians and non-musicans. I’m looking for the same sort of talent+appeal+respect in some current rappers that might give them the staying power to still be making quality material in another 20 or 30 years.
Dr. Dre could be one. Snoop has apparently faded to a mockery of himself (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong–I don’t follow rap hardly at all). Ice T is doing some good acting, but I don’t know if that counts (unless you’re trying to parallel Babs) as a continuation of your music career.
Are there others who meet my criteria? I want to believe that rap is not just cranked-out pop music, but so far I can’t see it.
All the rap you hear is cranked-out pop music. Anything worth listening to is hard to find.