Yes these rappers who are manufactured or suck are killing Hip Hop. They are selling them selves not Music.

Do you watch sports?
If you do your then your telling me that a player deserves to be drafted even though he doesnt play that well. Your answer would be no. Anyone can play sports but do they play well. So why do we tolerate okay rappers that just get by. Making quality music is not subjective.

Mercedes benz decides hey lets make a crap car but everyone will defend it cause its Mercedes.

If Jay-z sounded like lil b back in the day he wouldnt have made it to where he is at now.

Drake uses the same flow over everything he raps on. And constantly says “Uhh!” Even Timbaland said he had to find the right track for Drake cause he has only sounds good on certain stuff. WOW..

Lastly dont hate, but dont give credit to rappers because they have push from a label, do your research on “Motown” and you will understand the concept of making quality music. It either sounds good or it doesnt.

There is no question that the internet has become a mass tool to dilute hip-hop, simply because things are now fast and accessible. Over-saturation has become the norm, the only problems are noone has time to listen to everything if you work, go to school have a family etc, and because the net is so easy, artists flood the market with music ( some of it good, some complete trash) and more and more artists are flooding the market trying to come up, ( again with varying results…

Like Don said its like sales or a game of numbers, throw it against the wall and see what sticks, the more tracks you put out the better your odds at success are.

But this means we can afford to be choosy. I don’t fuck with Lil B. To me dude is wack. But I’m also a member of the cop it at the store generation, and I will continue to be there to support the shit I like. I happen to be a big Drake supporter , I think homey is talented no matter if he was astroturfed or not.

Dilution is bad for the game tpar you are right, but the net has made it a fact of life. The thing that gets me is older cats that aren’t up on the net that are like Hip hop ain’t good anymore, theres nobody good out” I always answer, there is plenty of hot shit out, you just need to know where to hear it.

One last thing before I quit this thread cause its all over the place and is hurting my head lol…Lil Cease on that freestyle outraps anything I’ve heard Lil B on.

100

^ “not a big deal”=that’s how I get paid…thus me saying I’ll stop revealing…

thousands of songs a month being released=dilution…even XXL has cut back on the new music posting…like I don’t believe someone sat down and listen to 100 mixtapes to rank them properly…please tell me with a job, school, relationship, perhaps kids, paying bills, dealing with family, shopping, traveling, smoking & drinking, going out on the town, playing video games, “buying” albums, going to shows, sleeping, one actually LISTENED to EVERY SONG on 100 mixtapes in the meanwhile…

and tell me there will be support for all of those artists in a form of purchases of music…I’ll listen to the debate…

And none of you refute Don/Q’s claims of manufactured rap stars, you simply state it’s “not a big deal”…

And none of you have have responded to my claim that dilution is bad. That there has been a devolution in in hip hop and that, in other genres, that has led to the subcultures demise.

chucky…you’re all over the place with that comment fam…

“The reason you didn’t see this 20 years ago”

^ because people would put out their BEST effort, take it to the radio station/club and see the demand…if no good, THEN go back to the lab and try again…you don’t think Rae or Rakim have 100′s of throwaways for all the hours they’ve been in the studio?

that throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks formula is wack, but I’ma let y’all tell that story…

As far as people arguing that these guys who do a ridiculous amount of shitty songs, and just pump them out one after the other are diluting hip hop or whatever, I would disagree with you. The reason you didn’t see this 20 years ago when apparently hip hop was pure, was there was no youtube, no myspace. There was no way to get people from anywhere other than your neighborhood to hear you, and if you had no talent, you couldn’t reach the entire world. Unfortunately now you can, and theres really nothing we can do, we can’t censor youtube, we shouldn’t want to censor youtube. If your not a fan, don’t buy, don’t go to shows, just don’t listen.

There have been shitty rappers forever, there will be shitty rappers forever. Some have said that these rappers are morphing rap into a genre that will go the way of disco, but if you look at acts like souljah boy, and other ringtone, or stupid ass trap rappers, who’s selling? I mean look at SB’s last album, a fucking brick. If anything they are going to fade away like disco, and the core will remain intact.

Look at all the good hip hop at least in my opinion thats come out this year: Eminem, T.I., Kanye, Drake, Wu, Nas/Damien Marley, Cube, Curren$y, Bun B, Tech N9ne, Fat Joe, Redman. Theres more, this is off the top of my head. Admittedly some of these guys didn’t sell much more than SB, but most did enough that they can make a living doing shows and off the records, which is all they can ask for, they don’t need to have a mil in the bank, they get to paid to rap, if you make 100K you should be thankful.

A couple more things: TPAR’s thing about the biggie freestyle, thats seriously irrelevant. Could they say the same about Lil B? Fuck no, but its fucking BIGGIE, one of the most accepted GOAT candidates. Basically your saying that for a rapper to be successful, they should be able to freestyle on the level of B.I.G.? I mean you could basically put an there, and it would remain true. I mean, Lil B fucking sucks, but come on, theres not many who could do what BIG does, doesn’t mean they don’t have a place in Rap.

And the Drake manager thing, he was a child actor right? I’m Canadian, so i have been unfortunately exposed to several generations of Degrassi. So since he was a child actor, on a reasonably big show up here, doesn’t it make sense that he would have an agent? Fuck where someones from, fuck their old job, their hood, their realness, how about their fucking music? For example, Drakes verse on T.I.’s Poppin Bottles, not bad if you ask me.

The music industry isn’t fair. Thats too bad, but the execs are there to make money, they are not in the business, and will never be in the business of doing what is right, or fair. They will not promote a amazing lyricist if he’s only going to sell 25K at best because he has consumer appeal. But thats the flip side of youtube. Theres lots of shit being put out there, but theres lots of gems that this new outlet is allowing us to find, and maybe if we support them, we can skip the majors and they will be able to do it independent, which i think is going to be the future of hip hop.

And fuck all you self proclaimed hip hop heads who think you decide what is acceptable, what is good, and what hip hop is.

^^^

Why? Clearly you don’t find Lil B or Drake appealing so what does it matter to you if there music is consider good by others. Just ignore it and listen to other artist. Why act all butt hurt over manufactured artist.

And don’t give me the “their destroying the culture” crap. There making money off the culture, the culture is continuing to thrive and evolve.

^
Sounds like baggage from a previous experience in your life. If you find Drake’s music to be unappealing make any comment you want about it. Just make sure you type “This in my opinion and I can only guarantee that I and a few others feel the same” in front of it. Because when you critique someone’s music as if you are making a statement of fact under the assumption that most people should agree with you, you are hating.

Critical Thought? Where, I didn’t think I was reading Pitchfork!

I haven’t read a shred of critical thought on this entire thread.

Well since you know so much about how the music industry works do us all a favor and explain it. For all I know you could just be some random kid reading XXL that thinks he knows everything there is about the music industry.

Your last paragraphs is full of way to many assumptions and gaps for me to actually write a thoughtful response too. But I will say this; what you are referring to as observations are actually opinions. Observations are statements of fact or reality….

Brand of Hip Hop? Hip hop is not a brand but a culture and how others choose to participate in the culture is up to them. Quality is subjective and there is no one perfect way of making a project(s).

So you are advocating for rapper to sell out? The incentive is to get attention not make good music? Ok ok…wow….

Ok if Hip Hop were to end it wouldn’t be because of Lil B…Just closed minded people…..

you all can talk conspiracy theories as much as you want, but when I look at the rise of Drake and Lil B, i see one consistency: HARD WORK.

Lil B, in particular is known for making and dropping like 6 songs a day, plus videos. whether YOU (or your type) personally enjoy those songs or not is MOOT. the man has cultivated an image that extends beyond hot 16′s. whether interscope or whoever has been lurking in the background is irrelevant to his grind, which is WELL-DOCUMENTED.