YOUNG MANS GAME

Young Mans Game

  Rap has always been a Young Mans Game.  When I was growing up the popular hip hop artists were Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Biggie, 2pac, Jay-Z.  Another era after had DMX, 50 cent, eminem, Kanye, T.I.  Now the top artists of today are Drake, Migos, Rae Shrummard, Gucci Mane is still holding it down, Travis Scott and 21 Savage.  There are a few others, but you get my drift. 

 Gone are the days of raw lyrics over soul samples, or hard piano stabs and funky baselines.  Now we have minor keys with 808s and hi hats.  This is officially the era of the digital home producer.  Access to fruity loops and logic and other programs has making music easy as 1,2,3.  The hooks sound like nursery rhymes again as easy as 1,2,3.  And I second the sentiment of a popular up and coming rapper who said the audience likes melody more than lyrics.  

All that being said, i'm not complaining because rap has always been a young mans game.  The popular rappers of my day were ranging anywhere from 15-28 years old.  The perspective of a man or woman in that age bracket will be different from a 35-40 year old.  I pick up what I like and hold on to it tight and discard the rest.  As a hip hop fan I've always been like that.  It was never about who was buzzing at the time with me, it was about who I connected with.  And having a stint as being in the thick of it, I know it's a business and I know certain songs are made, moves are made with a purpose of a bigger goal.  Entertainment of any kind is about taking advantage of your window of opportunity.  I didn't fully take advantage of mine for whatever reason, I know how hard it is to do, so I'm usually commending the artists that do, no matter what kind of music they do, what kind of gimmick they use, the end game is taking advantage of opportunity.