The Winds of Change

When I have conversations with my mom about upcoming potential cultural shifts in the collective, I always refer to shifts as the ‘dial.’ I’ve spoken to her about this for years. The dial resets at :00 and there is time for a new wave of imagination, ingenuity, and impact. We define these very shifts in eras. Rock of the ‘70s. Hip Hop of the ‘90s. So on and so forth. There are always moments that denote the shifts but these are the breaking point of what would have already been building for years. The need for expression coming off of the heels of slavery gave way to a boom in Blues Music. The tempo shifted, attitudes changed, and Rock and Roll was born. Soul Music was the soundtrack to the Civil Rights era. More socially conscious and aware(read the true definition of ‘woke’) of young black youth birthed Hip Hop as we know it today.

For 50 years, Hip Hop has had an immense impact on the world. The beauty of the genre, and why it grabbed me so intensely as a kid, is that you didn’t need take a traditional music path in order to be proficient. And this shapes up my entire journey as an artist. My entire path has been non-traditional. Hip Hop has seen many iterations in it’s maturation over time but the genre is more powerful than ever before. What Hip Hop managed to do, unintentionally, was show the world that the voice has power and you don’t need to be able to be as vocally gifted as the incredibly beautiful and talented Beyoncé to be as powerful, vocally. If you can speak earnestly and authentically about your experience, wish skill and identity, there is a place for you in Hip Hop. As with all other forms of black expression since this country’s inception, mainstream America has done with they can to denigrate Hip Hop’s impact but has also simultaneously sought to profit off of it.

In the past 10-15 years, Hip Hop has grown immensely and has become the most popular genre in the world. There are Pros and Cons to this but the impact is the point. En route, it has become passive listening party music where trap drums has over-saturated sound and the image of Hip Hop has become overtly shiny displays of wealth. To be an artist with a message in these times, you are most certainly drowned out because if your song can’t perform well in a strip club, it’s not taken seriously as a form of art. This perfectly lays out the battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Drake represents the shiny suits. He represents overt displays of wealth. In a genre of music where your experience and your ability to articulate your unique human experience with proficiency is the foundation of the art form, Drake represented ghostwriters. Conversely, Kendrick stood for and represented integrity. He represents doing the work. Not taking short cuts. Culture. Being a real fan of Hip Hop and doing right by the artists that built the culture up to where it is today. For a lot of people, Kendrick winning the battle isn’t just about two artists and their respective fanbases. It’s a culture war. One that can be seen playing out, societally, in the political arena as well. Now that Kendrick has won and the winds of change are becoming hurricane-like, what does that mean for Hip Hop?

I mentioned earlier that I always spoke to my mom about the dial reset. I believe that we’ve seen the dial, reset. There are numerous artists with big sounds that were punished for not succumbing to the party music anthems of the past 10 years that are beating down the doors for their chances to be heard and seen. I am one of them. Society is changing and things are becoming very serious and there will be very serious moments in the near future. It’s an artist’s job to be the soundtrack for that. In fact, Nina Simone once said in an interview “it’s an artist’s duty to speak to the times.” This next era of Hip Hop(and other forms of black expression which always guides the country) big talents will get their opportunities to show that they did all of the work. That they never stopped. That they kept integrity, artistically and spiritually. Albums will go away from incoherent glorified playlists to cinematic bodies of work with vision and authenticity. The leaders of tomorrow will get their chances to speak, lead, and deliver. May the winds of change blow on.