Over the years, I have discovered that rap music listeners have started using a certain phrase a lot- they say stuff like, that music is not 'real hip hop.' So my question right now is- what is real hip hop? What qualities does a rapper need to have in his music for it to be classified real hip hop? 9 out of 10 times when I ask people about that, they don't have straight answers for me.







You have the 'stuck in the 90s' rap music listeners who believe anything that sounds like how hip hop sounded in the 90s is real hip hop, and anything contrary is fake. I have to confess, I was in this category of people for a while. Well, maybe I was justified, cos at the time, down south snap music had taken over the music scene(mid 2000s), and it was a far cry from what I was used to, so I labeled it fake hip hop. But I should have asked myself, what is hip hop anyway?






In very simple terms, Hip Hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture. Put in another way, Hip Hop was a way that people in the black and hispanic community expressed themselves in a musical form. Back then, young black and hispanic males who dominated the scene had less opportunities to make it in the American society, and that is what they rapped about. They had to find alternative means like selling drugs or some other illegal ways, and that was why Gangster rap music was the biggest subgenre of hip hop back in the 90s. It was just a mirror to the ghetto. But, because that was the main thing then, does it mean it should remain thus?





Things have changed, people in the ghettos have more opportunities now through rapping, or playing ball, or movies, or comedy and stuff. I am not saying everything is all rosy in the black and hispanic community, but things are definitely not how they were back in the 80s and 90s, so why should people keep rhyming about the same thing, or using the same rhyme pattern rappers back then used just so they can be considered real, when things have changed.






Going deeper, the elements of Hip Hop include, Rapping, Djing, Beatboxing, graffiti writing, and break dancing. If you look at all these elements closely, you would see that most of them are ways that people in the ghettos made the best of what the little resources they had. Everything has changed, and since Hip Hop is strongly attached and reflects the black/hispanic community, it means Hip Hop has definitely evolved. Hip Hop was never dead, it just evolved. Nothing stays the same.





So, what is real hip hop? Well, I don't like to use that phrase...'real hip hop.' I just like to say, if any rapper raps and expresses his personal life and tells stories of his community, I would consider it real hip hop, because Hip Hop is really about you artistically telling your story and in an creative way with words. I don't care if you rap about politics, or about parties, or paint pictures about the streets with your rap, they are all considered real hip hop in my dictionary.





People want the so called real hip hop artists to keep rapping about the streets, even when he now lives in a mansion on the hill. People want the politically conscious rapper to keep rapping about hate and racism in the community, and I go on YouTube and see a video of Game performing in Norway with over 20,000 white people. I think rap music has done more to eradicate racism than any black friendly Hollywood movie or a campaign/rally against racism has done in the last 20 years. Its okay to speak on the ills of the society once in a while, but don't make it all you shine your camera on...a lot of good has happened since Hip Hop went mainstream.


http://www.kaysrapzone.com/2013/09/what-is-real-hip-hop.html

trap music is very far from real hip hop. Drake's music are far from hiphop/real hiphop

Vicotex:
trap music is very far from real hip hop.
Drake's music are far from hiphop/real hiphop

Why? Please explain.