Essay No. 2 - Hip Hop Franchised Itself

I would like to continue upon my first essay regarding the state of hip hop and people "wanting 94 back" as I put it. I hope to continue to write these essays at least once a week to discuss some thoughts on hip hop, past present and future.

This week's essay deals with a concept I feel might be able to explain why the hip hop market is flooded with sub-par music while the classics are few and far between these days.

I believe hip hop has franchised itself.

In explaining this concept I would like to go back to the 80s when hip hop was still young and fresh (I know it didn't start in the 80s but the MC became large in the 80s and that is mostly what this discussion revolves around). During the 80s hip hop had still not reached a mainstream audience and had not yet become a marketing tool for record labels to exploit. Major labels were not yet putting out the "next rap superstar". Basically the people who released hip hop were the artists themselves, or labels run by people who were in the hip hop community. Every rapper seemed to have a friend that was somewhat business minded. Your labels came about by people who loved the music and wanted the world to hear it. Best example of that is Russell Simmons. Not only the brother of Run, he was someone who truly loved what hip hop stood for. He was at the shows soaking up the environment of hip hop. He started a record label to promote the music and the scene that he loved.

I will divert from this for a second and come back to it after making another point. During this time originality was the biggest quality that made an MC great. You had to have an original style and flow to make it. Never did you hear someone say "dude sounds like KRS-One" as a positive statement. If you sounded like someone else you were a biter and your career was over. I'm sure there were plenty of artists who followed the formula of someone else but we don't know them because they never made it.

So originality is key. But there were other ways to get put on. Affiliates were being brought up by more well known artists. You had Q-Tip on Jungle Brothers and De La records. O.C. was heard on Fudge Pudge. Most famously, Nas debuted on a Main Source track. Knowing someone in the music who felt your shit was a great way to get into the industry because they would give you a guest verse on a track in the hopes that you would shine (uh, yeah i'd say Nas did aight on Live at the BBQ) and in turn get a deal and become big.

Now what does all this have to do with "franchising" hip hop?

Go back to the idea that the people who ran the labels, promoted the albums, "scouted" the artists and put them all. These people were all hip hop fans before they were business men. They grew up experiencing the creation and growth of early hip hop. They were there when Kool Herc was rocking parties. They went to the Kurtis Blow shows. They saw first hand what hip hop was doing to the people, mostly uniting them and giving them a place to express their opinion in a crowd who appreciated what the MC was saying. These were the people who decided if you were good enough for a record or not, and it's safe to say their opinions held some water based on their personal experiences of the scene.

I know a lot of people say that back in the 80s/early 90s that hip hop was all good and that every MC that dropped was nice, there was no bullshit, no "filler". I believe the reason for this was that because hip hop was so new and it was hard to convince anyone, especially white america, that it was worth listening to, so if you sucked you weren't getting put on. New York and L.A. ran hip hop. 99% of hip hop was coming out of these 2 areas in the early days. If you sucked, no one was gonna sign you and put out your record. You simply sucked. If you sounded like the next dude, no one was gonna sign you and put out your record. The labels were looking for someone original. Biz Markie, Native Tongues, Rakim, EPMD, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Whodini, Kool Moe Dee, Poor Righteous Teachers, Digable Planets...all these artists/groups were original and therefore made it because it was all hip hop but it was all different so everyone could relate to at least one.

Now of course you have shitty artists sounding just like the next dude. I could listen to Rich Boy, MIMS, and Baby Boy Da Prince all in a row and other than already knowing based on the singles, i could never tell the difference. The problem is that record labels instead of saying "what can you bring to hip hop that is new and original?" they are saying "who do you sound like so we can market you right?". I won't even get into lyricism, just sound itself. The more you sound like the next dude the better your chances are of making it today.

Also rap labels are no longer run by people in hip hop. They are run by business men in suits, some of whom have never even heard a Rakim record i'm sure. They know what sells and they know how to sell it and that is the bottom line. They don't necessarily want the audience to hear something GOOD, they just want them to hear something catchy and easily marketable.

This brings me to the franchise argument. When a company franchises itself it allows other people to purcahse factions of it's original label and market it on their own. Many rules are in tact, however the owner of the franchise is allowed to make their own decisons, hire their own employees, and follow some of their own practices. This is what hip hop has done. Back in the 80s you couldn't get a record out unless someone in hip hop said you could. You weren't on the radio unless a DJ played your shit, a DJ being someone who was close to hip hop and its artists and most importantly its CULTURE. Nowadays the label will "sell" your shit to the radio stations and arrange a deal for how many times it gets played an hour/day/week. By the way, the guy "selling" your song to the radio stations is probably a dude in a $1000 suit, sitting behind a huge desk, bumping Nickelback in his iPod. Back then it was Russell Simmons up in the studio saying "play my artist's shit, it's fucking hot". Rap has grown and branched out in so many ways that the originators are no longer in control of what makes it and what doesn't. Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. It's good because obviously a few people can't hear everything and different sounds make different people feel good. However it is bad for some reasons.

You have an artist like Nelly. Now i'm biased and will say he sucks. I'm only using him as an example however so feel free to put in your own artist to this equation. Now back in the days i would like to think that Nelly would not have made it. Maybe he would, maybe not, like I said put in your own artist here to make this work. So Nelly makes it, perhaps the "old school" way by being original but I'm sure there were plenty of original artists who never made it because they sucked and therefore didn't get put on or make their own label since it was an expensive venture. Anyways, Nelly makes it. Big rap artist, label finds a good single they can market and he explodes. Little kids who have no real rap knowledge love it, intelligent people think he's wack. But big business suit label guy wants to put out Nelly. Nelly now has money and wants to put his dudes on, the St. Lunatics. They release a single that creates a buzz (Here We Come). That leads to an album. Now we have 2 medicore hip hop releases. Next Nelly decides that all his friends are good enough for solo albums (Murphy Lee, Ali, probably the other dude). Now we got 5 rap albums which are better served as weed plates. All this based on 1 artist who came to be because some business suit thought it would sell. This business suit had a franchise in hip hop, his own part of hip hop that he could sell and market and he hired his own employees (Nelly and St. Lunatics) and set up shop with his business. Many patronized it and some came back for more.

Everyone has their own label now, most under major labels. But still they sign their own artists and put out all this crap material. This wouldn't happen if hip hop was where it was in 87 when the people who ran it made all the decisions and kept the crap in the dumpster. Now anyone can put out a rap album and therefore the market is flooded with garbage.

So to those who think that hip hop should be back where it was, or miss the old times, it is because of the growth and worldwide exposure and popularity that hip hop has become what it is. When a culture or an idea manifests, the beginning is always the best because it is the people who believe in the cause that are promoting it and the amount of material is limited to those originators. Once it becomes popular it becomes infected with people who have the wrong motivation, or simply just don't get it. Now usually this is a result of growth. Growth is good but it can also be bad. Hip Hop got too big for itself and therefore started franchising itself out because it couldn't handle finding the best southern artists and putting them on, or the best midwest artists and putting them on. Shit hip hop can't even weed out all the shitty New York artists and just keep the good ones. Too many people have a hand in hip hop now because it franchised itself out to too many people. It's like having five 7-11's on one block, it's too much to support all the patrons, you only need two stores that have everything instead of five stores that have varied products.

I understand that it is a good thing to see people succeed in hip hop and I'm not saying that nothing new should be released. I'm saying people need to be original and the labels need someone who knows hip hop to say "look this sucks, don't poison the young minds with this garbage, give them someone good".

I can't offer a solution because what is done is done. I'm just reflecting on why these things have happened and trying to offer an explanation for those upset with what hip hop is going through.

Thank you for reading, I don't have a topic yet for next week as these things usually come to me the night before I write them but if anyone is interested in discussing this more I greatly accept all comments on this theory.

Again thank you very much,

C-Dub