By Tyler Kacalek
Hip hop/rap music has been around for decades, erupting in the late 20th century until present day, and has constantly changed its style, adding new elements to its identity throughout the years. According to a study conducted by Anna Fleck at statista.com, 38% of all US citizens who listen to music find their favorite genre of music to be hip hop/rap, which shows how much of an impact this genre has had on the world.
The early genre of rap music comes from a background of African American culture, with many popular albums and songs revolving around issues regarding racism, social issues, or poverty. A small fraction of rap music focused on the opposite however, and usually involved ideas around money, rich lifestyles, and success.
As rap music evolved however, many artists, such as Drake and Kanye West for example, decided to add different elements to their music, focusing on the depth of their lyrics, focusing on different topics in their lyrics, or even isolating the piece of their production, changing the typical, well known sound of rap music.
This pivot in the rap genre can be represented by projects such as “The College Dropout” by Kanye West, “Rodeo” by Travis Scott, and many more. As they each brought different styles to the genre of rap, expanding the identity of the rap genre forever. These ideas and elements then branched out and expanded throughout the years, influencing many new artists in their music, and how they decided to create it.
As rap music has evolved, many of these new artists have branched off of the ideas of old superstars. This can be shown by the idea of Travis Scott adopting Kanye West’s production talents, or artists such as Westside Gunn or Benny the Butcher adopting rapping and production styles from earlier artists like Tupac, Biggie, or Nas.
According to local students on campus, “In the early days of rap, everything was uniform and everything was the same. Now, rap music can be anything it wants to be,” Brady Gibbons. The idea of this evolution of rap music clearly shows how rap will continue to grow through the future, and will grow in numbers of creators and consumers rapidly.
Rap music is the most creative, influential and versatile genre of music as of today, as it displays a plethora of styles of production, lyricism, and performances, and influences many teens and young adults as they grow up, through ideas about success, relationships, and society in their lyrics. As the genre of rap continues to evolve, many new artists continue to add new elements to it as well.
As of today, thousands of different categories of rap exist, ranging from boom-bap, to classical rap, to jazz rap, and even to futuristic, ear-bleeding trap music that still somehow speaks to the audience of rap in many different ways. After all, music is a form of art, and the artistic identity of it is best expressed through rap.
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