The Biggest Problem In Rap Music Right Now Are The Rappers Themselves

I mix with a lot of different crowds and have a wide variety of friends- executives, producers, journalists, web designers, publicists, engineers, etc- and the one thing I gather from almost all people is this: They HATE rappers. They HATE doing just about anything with rappers, period. They hate talking to them, hate working with them in the studio, hate interviewing them, hate promoting their records, hate publicizing them as clients, hate just about everything having to do with the artists themselves.

You might even wanna add me to that list. I gotta confess, there are times where I gotta go work with an artist or I gotta interview someone, and I literally want to kill myself. Like, if I had a gun, I would put it to my head and pull the trigger, because that's how painful it is dealing with these dudes. Not that they're not good peeps, and that they don't appreciate talking, it's just that their whole mentality is some fucking DJ Khaled shit, where they're ramming rhetoric down your fuckin throat (pause) until it's overkill.

Journalists have it the worst. I can't count on two hands how many times some of the senior-level media folks in the game have used this line- "It beats interviewing rappers"- to describe their current line of work, whatever it may be. Shit it could be sitting at a desk doing nothing, but it beats interviewing rappers. Anything to get them away from dealing with the artists.

And I think that's one of the main reasons why you've seen a lot of producers go on to do R&B and pop music over the past few years. Aside from the fact that there's more money in it, it's also because there is no creative impulse to making rap records anymore. Producers HATE dealing with these dudes. "Yo, can you give me something like 'Flashing Lights?' Or can you give me something like 'Lollipop?'" Shit is ridiculous. Sometimes you don't even wanna be in the studio for the recording of the track unless you absolutely know 100% that a check is getting cut. It's better if the artist just 2tracks the shit and if they use the beat, cool, pay up.

It's just so cookie cutter, the way these rappers are built. From what they say, to how they dress, to the music they try to make. It's canned and boring. And most people in this business, underneath their breath, away from their boss, when a paycheck is not on the line, are whispering the same thing- "Yo, this shit sucks. I hate it."

Perhaps they've been saying that since the mid-90s. Maybe since the 80s. I don't know.

I do know that years ago I never felt or heard so much negative shit about rappers from within the industry. There are moments where people's eyes are rolling literally right behind an artist's back while they're talking, it's that blatant and out in the open the corniness of this whole game right now.

This isn't a salty person talking either. I'm just putting it out there that on some level, the gatekeepers of hip-hop know this shit is in the toilet for real. Don't be fooled.

****EDIT- SEE RON MEXICO's WEIGH IN ON TYGA EATING MONEY FOR AN EXAMPLE OF THE PROBLEM*****