Crossroads

Artists old and new aim to take hip-hop in new direction

Some said it was destined to be the punk rock of the '80s, but it seems hip-hop has become the total opposite -- it's the pop of the '90s.

There was a time when hip-hop was a dark, foreboding figure in the corner of the music world, and rappers were the performers parents were scared of.

While '80s rock bands ranged from hairspray glam-rock to watered-down soft pop, hip-hop artists such as Public Enemy, Eric B. and Rakim, N.W.A. and Run-D.M.C. kept rock on the straight-and-narrow path of rebellion, anger and passion. The punk comparisons, then, should not have been unexpected.

Hard rock suffered in the last decade, but rap stepped to the fore. N.W.A. produced spacey beats and strings of vulgarities to describe the grinding lifestyle of ghetto life. Rakim's intricate raps made it clear that hip-hop could be used for intelligent social commentary. And Chuck D. labeled Elvis a racist in "Fight the Power" -- a hip-hop call-to-arms that arguably stands as one of the greatest rebel songs in rock history.

A case can be made that the in-your-face mentality of what are now termed "old-school" rap acts kept lyrical realism alive in popular music. There is a reason why today's best rock acts fail to cite those insubstantial '80s bands as influences, just as there is a reason Oasis recently sampled N.W.A. on "D'You Know What I Mean?" -- old-school hip-hop was powerful stuff.

The influence of old-school rap on today's music scene can't be doubted, both in the genre and beyond. Hip-hop, however, has changed radically from the glory days of "Fight the Power." Some believe that the change has been for the worse.

"I think rap is getting more predictable," said Michael Norman, a music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "It's more or less pandering to the lowest common denominator. You have the standard raps about ghetto life and everything that goes with it, including the misogyny and stereotypical depictions of women."

With the recent deaths of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, the rap world has been left with a shortage of truly passionate artists. Introspectiveness is on the wane and the genre may be sinking into a state of pop blandness. Norman suggested that some of the old-school rappers, especially Chuck D., had something most of today's MCs don't.

"A guy like Chuck D. is really important," Norman said. "I think he's like the Mick Jagger of rap. His voice and style is amazing. It crosses all boundaries. He's got it all down. I think someone like L.L. Cool J has a great rap style, but he's not as serious as Chuck."

Norman cited the late rivals, Biggie and Tupac, as DJs who were able to merge all of the ingredients of quality hip-hop -- strong beats, entrancing hooks and, most importantly, relevant lyrics.

Several critics have pointed to Biggie's Life After Death as a rap masterpiece, an album to which Puffy contributed greatly. The quality of other Puffy contributions to rap, however, is questionable. His "Bad Boy Family" continues to dominate the airwaves, with artists such as Mase, The Lox and Lil' Kim cashing in on the Puffy trend. Although obviously commercially popular, many of the family's post-Biggie work has received a cool critical response.

Unlike some critics, Norman doesn't have a problem with Puffy's tendency to sample, a tendency which has become infamous in the rap world. In a recent reader's poll in The Source, Puffy was praised for his work as a producer, but also singled out as one of the genre's biggest "biters" -- that is, one who makes due with the work of others.

Norman said as long as sampling is done in a creative way, there is artistic merit in it, but said some of Puffy's recent hits couldn't exactly be labeled "creative."

"Puffy is kind of a weird thing," he said. "I've never been a purist when it comes to sampling, because I think it can be done in a creative way. But songs like 'I'll Be Missing You' -- I just don't get that. All he did was copy a song and throw a lame rap over it."

Jocelyn Woods, who helps produce the "Jam 91" hip-hop show on WKPS (90.7-FM), said Puffy should be considered an artist in his own right, if for no other reason than his ability to continue to pump out hits. She did, however, say his reputation for sampling is well-known.

"I don't think he's a biter," Woods said about the poll. "Yeah, he takes other things, and there's no reason in music to take other people's things when there's so many possibilities. But like he says, he takes a song from way back when and turns it into something new."

Monique Cohen, who also works for "Jam 91," said there are artists outside of Puffy's family doing interesting work. She noted that old-school artists such as EPMD and Rakim are returning to the scene, hoping to remind the rap world of their influence, skill and artistry. Falling in line with this trend, a new album is on the way from a reformed Public Enemy, while N.W.A. is reportedly trying to line up a reunion of its own.

"They just felt it was time to come back to the scene," Cohen said. "They just want to bring back a little bit of what it used to be."

Meanwhile, Norman said rap is in a bit of a downswing, adding that the popularity of artists such as Puffy, Mase, Usher and other radio-friendly acts will most likely fade within time.

Some of today's popular hip-hop, Norman says, is derivative, unoriginal and of lesser quality than hip-hop produced in past years. Like all music, though, hip-hop is merely going through a phase. This phase, Norman says, will end eventually, bringing in a whole new generation of Chuck D.s, Biggies and Rakims.

"I think rap has to get a to low-enough point," Norman said, "until a whole new generation is pissed off enough to do something new."