FEATURE:
Guilty Conscience
A Lack of Bite and Innovation from Male Artists in Hip-Hop at a Crucial Time
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ONCE was the time when…
PHOTO CREDIT: Maurício Mascaro/Pexels
Rap and Hip-Hop was at the absolute forefront of music. The most important and potent words being spoken by anyone. I would say that, from the 1980s through to the early-2000s, there was no denying how essential and important Hip-Hop was. At times of political division, warfare, social upheaval and racism, Hip-Hop’s best stood up and poured out their poetry. Lines, sounds, samples and vocals that hit hard and cut deep. Timeless songs that still hold weight and reliability to the day. I am thinking about artists such as Public Enemy, N.W.A., Queen Latifah, Lauryn Hill and Jay-Z. Even more modern artists like Little Simz and Kendrick Lamar have managed to carry on that legacy. That said, Lamar’s reputation and standings has been tarnished what with his continued beef with Drake. Not to say that Hip-Hop has lost its potency and quality, though you can say that there is a big problem. Apart from queens of the genre and a few of the male artists making it captivating and cutting, there is very little beyond that. Such a pale version of what it used to be. I guess popular tastes shifting to Pop means that Hip-Hop is more in the shadows. Not this wave of groups like you used to have right throguhout the 1980s and 1990s. I think there are some incredible women in Hip-Hop adding something very special. Think about a lot of the male artists and how truly ineffective they are. I am thinking about Eminem’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). He is still a rapper whose flow, lyrics and delivery is better than anyone around. Undeniably brilliant when it comes to wordplay, this is someone whose genius cannot be dented. Back in 2000, when his third studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP, was released, he was being heralded as one of the finest rappers of his generation. A work of brilliance. There was controversy when it came to his subject matter. Constant homophobia, misogyny and threats of violence against women (and gay men), you had to wonder whether he was squandering his gifts by hiding behind this vulgar and offensive alter ego.
His new album is out. I am glad that we do not have to encounter quite the same kind of horrible, homophobic and misogynistic lyrics he spewed back in the late-1990s and early-2000s - though there is still some of that in various songs on his new album. What you could rely on is the sort of bite and anger that he delivered. There is anger in Hip-Hop at the moment, though so much of it is through obnoxious beefs. Think about the great Hip-Hop albums of the past decade, and there are few comparison to the classics of the golden age of Hip-Hop. That period from the 1980s right through the 1990s when there was this wave of cutting and essential Hip-Hop. Artists can make an impact and reign as powerfully and prominently as their peers. I think artists like Eminem rely on being offensive. At a time when there is more consciousness and care when it comes to what we say and how we interact with various groups of people, many have lost their edge and purpose. Relying on that shock value, rather than doing anything purposeful with their skill, anger and passion. As The Guardian writes, this seems to be the case with Eminem:
“It’s so single-minded in its recreation of the Eminem of the early 00s that it occasionally seems weirdly anachronistic. There is the occasional barb thrown the way of “woke” culture, but far more lines that use the long-superseded term “political correctness”. There are references to Eminem’s addictions, despite the fact that he’s been clean and sober for 16 years. There’s an entire song devoted to mocking Christopher Reeve, who died 20 years ago: it turns out the track was actually written for 2004’s Encore, but pulled after the actor’s passing. There are tapes of Eminem’s daughter Hailie, now a 28-year-old married woman, but in the context of the recordings here, still a small child, as she was on 2002’s My Dad’s Gone Crazy. There is an interlude that suggests the album will be greeted with protests so furious they spill over into riots, which it’s hard to listen to without thinking: yeah, he wishes.
The days when Eminem could provoke that kind of angry response feel long gone, as evidenced by the reaction to Houdini. Some people online made a half-hearted attempt to summon up outrage over its line mocking the incident in which Tory Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion, but nobody really bit, perhaps because there were more diverting things happening in hip-hop. Where does a sick gag about Megan’s shooting sit next to Kendrick Lamar claiming US No 1 with a track that claims Drake is a paedophile? Complaining about Eminem making sick gags feels a bit like complaining that the toilet paper aisle of the supermarket contains too much bog roll.
Clearly that fact hasn’t escaped Eminem, who nevertheless goes all-out to cause offence. There are jokes about people with disabilities, about rape, about the sexual misconduct allegations made against rapper/mogul Diddy, about overweight people and finding trans women unattractive. Eminem indulges in a certain degree of having his cake and eating it, following a lot of these lines up with a lyric that disputes or apologises for them, locked as he supposedly is in a battle with his alter ego. Occasionally, the grim stuff lands a queasy punch. More often, it feels so desperate that it ends up committing the cardinal sin of being boring and repetitious: put it this way, if Caitlyn Jenner got a royalty for every time her name was used as a punchline, she’d be an even richer woman.
That said, there are things to enjoy about The Death of Slim Shady. Eminem’s technical abilities are as striking as ever: striking enough that when he claims rappers go after Lamar because they’re too scared to come after him, it doesn’t feel like an entirely hollow boast. The guest appearances by underrated Atlanta rapper JID and Shady Records affiliate Ez Mil are strong. As well as Lucifer, a handful of tracks work in purely musical terms. The brooding menace of Road Rage shifts thrillingly into acid-fuelled electro. Guilty Conscience 2 gradually and effectively ratchets up a sense of tension. The staccato strings and soul vocal of Bad One are put to eerie good use.
But for all its attempts at time travel, The Death of Slim Shady feels like just another late-period Eminem album. It has successes and misfires in equal measure. It’s not bad enough to count as terrible, not good enough to count as great. It’s bolstered by technical ability but afflicted by a creeping sense of purposelessness. It’s doubtless another huge hit, but there isn’t enough to counter the incisive line about Eminem recently posited by Questlove: that he’s a man “maybe with nothing to say any more, but with quite a talent for saying it”.
Hip Hop’s male artists at least should have a guilty conscience. Not to say they are bad artists or making music that is not cutting the mustard. I feel that we are in a time when they need to stand up. Rap and Hip-Hop being afflicted still with misogyny and aggression. Artists like Kendrick Lamar showing the very worst sides of Hip-Hop. Think about what Hip-Hop used to be and what it is now. We are in this crucial time. Where are these huge albums that tackles the political corruption and horror in the U.S.?! How about genocide in Gaza?! The rise in male violence, continued police corruption and the way so many people struggle to keep their heads about water?! Fertile soil and plenty of ammunition for artists to launch from. Springboards that are not being approached. Again, if we want to see this sort of passion come out in important lyrics that tackle big themes, we look to women. It is a pretty tepid and directionless scene right now. That is not to say there is no great Hip-Hop coming from male artists. There is. I think that there is more division and violence in the world than there was during years when Hip-Hop legends dedicated entire albums calling out this injustice and evil. Why not now?! Is it the case that, like Eminem, artists want to rely on being offensive and misogynistic?! It seems pretty desperate that there are so few albums from men in Hip-Hop lately that capture your attention. I am trying to think. Maybe stuff from Run the Jewels a few years back. There is so much to address. The climate emergency and the terror the U.S. finds itself in regarding its leader. So much uncertainty and evil. You have to ask where the outrage and that same sort of anger is that defined Hip-Hop in the late-1980s. Even the more comical and peaceful blends of Beastie Boys and De La Soul.
It seems a shame that many artists feel muzzled and restricted because of ‘wokeness’. That feeling they cannot say anything and have no freedom. That essentially means they can’t write music without offending people and being bigoted. If we have come to that point then we are in trouble! I know many men in Hip-Hop are becoming more personal and revealing. This is great to see. We need that in Hip-Hop. What we are seeing less and less is what Hip-Hop should have at its core: voices that are saying what politicians are not. The sort of righteousness and common sense that is lacking from our leaders. It is a deafening silence in Hip-Hop. As I say, it seems to be a case of male artists lacking. I can’t think what is holding them back. At the moment, the toxicity of Rap beefs threatened to derail any noble and pure attempts at political and socially aware Hip-Hop. There is this black mark that needs to be erased. I think we are in a really frightening and unsettling time. So few artists having any sort of teeth and attack. If they do, their energies are going towards the wrong subjects. We don’t hear the same sort of sample and sonic innovation as years past. It has been years since a genuine Hip-Hop classic has come out. You get the odd masterpiece here and there. It is such an opportune moment when artists should be stepping up. I guess we don’t really have Rap groups anymore. More solo artists and fewer collectives. Even so, there is the firepower, talent and potential out there. It is being squandered. Old masters releasing tepid and toothless music. New artists perhaps overlooked or perhaps wary of being too political through fears of divisiveness and backlash. Where are artists standing up for women and showing solidarity rather than attacking them and debasing them?! What about the men of Hip-Hop igniting some of that intensity and fire that defined the best Hip-Hop albums of the decades past?! Where we are now is troubling. Aside from a few wonderful and important artists coming through, most of the rest are…
A disappointment.