With the emergence of Griselda, is real rap back? Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, and Conway, perhaps better known by their rap group name, Griselda, is a rap collective form Buffalo, New York. Founded in 2014, releasing their first studio project in 2016 titled, “FLYGOD,” and being signed to Shady Records in 2017, Griselda is spearheading the hip-hop revolution back into the rap genre.
It has been widely debated in recent years if “real rap” has become a lost art form in the state of music today. With younger artists, not sure if they if they fall into the category of rap or hip-hop, leaning towards a more computerized sound, reliant on effects and melodies, “real rap” can be described as a lost art form in mainstream music. Yes, MCs are still very much active, but don’t always get the main stream recognition as they once did.
Hip-Hop started back in the 1970s. Flourishing in the boroughs of New York City, the 1980s and 1990s saw a spike of phenomenal lyricists, birthing the genre of music now referred to as, “rap.” If you ask historians of Hip-Hop, they will tell you, “Hip-Hop is not a genre of music, but rather a culture.” So for the sake of this article, Hip-Hop will be referred to as the culture and, “rap” will be referred to as the genre.
In the last decade, rap music has changed drastically from its New York City roots. Changing from a more lyrical and story-telling centered genre, to a more melodic, effects driven genre. For better or worse is a matter of taste. If we were to take a poll of people who listen to the genre of rap, I would venture to say that listeners in the age range of 13-21, for the sake of this article this age range will be used because they would’ve been born no earlier than 2000, would say they prefer this style of music as opposed to what the “older” generation would listen to and consider rap. However, taking the same poll of rap listeners, but this time starting the age group at 25, we would probably get the exact opposite answer. Granted, there would be outliers, and people who like both, but again I would venture to say this is close to accurate. The younger generation may even steer away from conscious rap stars like Kendrick Lamar, TDE, J.Cole, Dreamville, Slaughterhouse, Shady Records and now Griselda. Why do they steer away from this type of rap? Why do they prefer the new generation of rap stars that include, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Pump, Lil Baby, and the rest of the artists who fall into this category, and for whatever reason have “lil” in their name?
I will make this caveat statement before proceeding further with this article, as a 25 year old born in 1994, I am very much preferential to what is now considered, “old-school hip-hop,” the rap genre that is reliant on lyrics and story-telling, to the point where other than a simple once over listen to this new generation of rap, I don’t listen to these artists.
From 2010-2019, the last decade, these artists and their type of rap music, has taken over the genre of rap as a whole. Leaning heavily on auto-tune, and an effects driven sound, these artists have captivated the younger audience generation, for better or worse. Maybe it is the overall sound that the audience is gravitating towards. Maybe it is the way these artists look that attracts their audience. Maybe it is the fact these artist now make music are now gearing their music towards a crowd that is taking drugs instead of selling them. Maybe it is because the music has taken a turn towards a more depressive approach to lyrics that most of todays kids can relate too. Whatever the reason these artists are huge artists with stadiums full of fans at every show.
Beginning my music career as an audio engineer, recording up and coming artists that were attempting to emulate this type of sound, I attribute this musical change to one simple fact. Making this kind of music, the artists don’t have to write two to three full 16 bar verses and a hook that is not only catchy, but that is lyrically driven in an attempt to stand out as a lyricist and story-teller to separate themselves from the other artists doing the same. In this generation of rap, the artists can hide behind the engineer’s ability to effect their vocals in a way that what they say may not even be audible. As long as the melody the artist is humming is somewhat singalongable, and the hook consists of one line they can make a caption of the artist feels as they have a great song. If that doesn’t work, the artist will rely on the producer to create a beat the audience can’t help but feel and possibly create a dance to go viral. See DLow, or the Shomney dance for a reference.
To make this clear, some of these artist that are making these types of songs have stated they are doing this because the audience is gravitating towards it. Some artists have said they are doing this because they want to go viral. Some artists are doing this because it works, and because it works, “older” artists need to stop complaining because this is the way things are now. I disagree with most of this. I believe this new generation of artists are doing this type of music not because they aren’t good artists, if you listen to a good portion of these, “auto-tune rappers” when they go on radio and freestyle, they can actually rap. Some of these artists put out their first, “major release” with this type of sound, but then once they have captivated this fanbase, they transition to, what I think, they wanted to do all along, and begin to start rapping or creating songs more in the vein of where rap as a genre started back in the 1970s and 1980s. This leads me to believe, these artists, the ones coming out with in the last few years, not the ones that came out in the early 2010s and before, are simply doing this type of sound because it works and can captivate a large fanbase that they can then give their actual music to.
With all that being said, how does that relate to the question I asked in the beginning of this article. With the emergence of Griselda, is “real rap” back? Over the last few years, and even dating back to the mid to early 2000s, what would be considered, “real rappers” have been confined to the underground scene with a few exceptions that have been able to break the mold. These artists would include, Kendrick, Cole (their respective camps of TDE and Dreamville included), Eminem (and Shady records, including Slaughterhouse and now Griselda), MMG (Rick Ross, Wale, Meek Mill), and many others I am sure I am missing at the moment. These types of artists rely more on the original art form of rapping, where you had to be the best lyricist in order to stand out. Where your raps had to tell a story in order to captivate your audience.
As rap was emerging and becoming more popular in the late 1900s and early 2000s, rap was a looked at as a way to “fight against oppression” and shine a light on the situations that most of these rappers were living in a subjected to growing up. It was looked at as a way to tell their story, see the songs, “the message,” by Grandmaster Flash, “6 In The Morning,” by Ice-T and a vast amount of other songs in this vein, in this era that have these types of messages in them. Note these are not songs that you can just simply sit down and, “vibe” too, you actually have to listen to the lyrics and story being told to understand. As technology improved it became easier and easier to record music, and the days of having to purchase studio time in large studios to create a song went away, and in its place now is a laptop with all types of effects and recording capabilities. This is not a bad thing in an overall sense, as it has birthed a generation of artists that we may not have seen otherwise. At the same time it has made recording easy so anyone can do, whether that is better or worse is up for debate and interpretation.
I do feel as though, “real rap” is making a come back. Just like anything else, if it has been doormat for long enough, when newer generations stumble upon things of old they see it as new and exciting, thus creating a new appreciation for what was once loved and is still loved by their parents and the generation before them. I feel the next step for this type of rap to come back is for more rappers of this elk to get radio play. Acts such as Kendrick and Cole have major radio play, but only for certain songs, some of which may not always be the songs that fit in this category of rap, even though their story-telling and lyricism is top notch. A perfect example is Eminem. Anyone that is any kind of rap fan knows how good of a story-telling and lyricist Eminem is. However, if you were to listen to his widely known radio singles, mostly the ones from his first few albums, you would hear songs that are more in the pop lane than rap, and to some would only be considered rap or hip-hop because of the artist, and not necessarily the song itself. If as a genre, conscious or lyrical rap gets to a point where mainstream audience wants to hear it on the radio with regularity, then this category of rap will burst back on the scene the way it once did.
For the moment, Griselda has to carry that torch, and they are doing so with flying colors. Go to youtube and search their latest radio freestyle as just one example. Following this with an album by Royce da 5’9”, and in the span of a few weeks some of the top lyricists in rap right now are showing skills on radio that may not have been seen in quite some time. The most important this is for these type of rappers to have a backing that is able to catapult them to the mainstream audience. For Griselda, that is Shady Records powered by Eminem and Interscope, Dreamville is powered by J. Cole and his backing, and finally Kendrick Lamar has the backing of TDE. These three major powers in music have the rosters and ability to change the landscape of the rap genre today if they so choose. If they do choose to do so, on a wider scale than they already have and are currently continuing to do so, the genre of rap as we know it, and dare I say take it back to the Golden Ear.
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