Introduction
Nowadays hip hop songs are mostly about money, fame and relations. But in the old days hip hop songs were created to spread a message, usually for politicians who where ignoring poverty in many areas of the USA.
History
Even though hip hop songs are now being created all over the world, in the late 70’s and early 80’s hip hop songs were made only in the US. At first hip hop songs were all about telling a story or sending a message, a message that could change some obvious things which the people who had the power in those days were ignoring. But in the 90’s a new type of hip hop arrived. It was gangsta rap. The entertainers were singing about guns, drugs and things like that, and about how they manage to avoid the police while they were living in poverty. Gangsta rap through hip hop songs quickly became known all over the world and many foreign hip hop troops began composing gangsta hip hop songs. But this kind of hip hop was not widely appreciated because many parents thought it was a bad influence for their children, making them believe that if they will get a gun they will also get respect in the neighborhood. But the gangsta rap era ended with the deaths of 2pac and The Notorious BIG, when the world finally realized that it isn’t worth dying for a couple of verses. After that, a softer version of hip hop appeared, meaning that rappers began making hip hop songs that addressed women, or wealth. Hip hop songs began to be made without including so much violence.
Features
Now hip hop became so known that it has started to fusion with other genres of music such as soul music or pop music. But today’s artists are not as sincere as the ones who were singing in the 80’s. To get the attention of the world which to them translates in selling records, they manufacture certain aspects of their lives such as being part of a gang or having been to prison. So it is very hard to identify an original artist nowadays. Most of them don't actually know how to make hip hop and think that if they can thyme it will be enough to put out a record. The creativity of those rappers is very questionable, most likely their songs are produced by someone else.
Tips and comments
If you want to listen to good hip hop, try to go back in time, 20 years ago, when hip hop was sincere and the rappers actually went through what they were singing about. And don't get fooled by the so called wealth that the rappers show on Tv with every chance they get, mostly it is for publicity, many of them don't actually owning those things. But even so, from it’s birth hip hop was and remains a powerful music with roots going back to the 70’s and a message that continues to amaze us, a message that must be passed on from generation to generation.
