The Return Of Lyricism

  Jointz   2019/08/19

Hip Hop, much like any other culture, grows and evolves with time. Each generation that comes changes the landscape in one way or another. As is often the case with cultures, they tend to be cyclical, given enough time. 

In its infancy, Hip Hop wasn't that much lyrical. It provided a form of expression and presented a platform for rebellion. But it wasn't that lyrical. It wasn't until it had been in existence for a while that lyricism took form and brought along with it cats that became known as wordsmiths. There has been a few of these throughout history and they became the pride and symbolism of what Hop Hop is for purists. 

Lyricism by definition refers to creative expression of emotions through words. The operative word being creative. Lyricism in Hip Hop means more than just rhyming and sounding good while doing it. It has additional layers of depth, artistic expression, wordplay. 

In South Africa we've had good lyricists that were recognised and revered with mainstream recognition for their skill. We've had Pro (formerly Prokid), Proverb, Kwesta and Tumi (now Stogie T), to name a few that were seen as undeniably good lyricists. They were at the height of Hip Hop before Hip Hop was the mainstream sound. Looking at where Hip Hop has been in the recent past, one can pick up that there is less poetry and art in the lyrics and a more direct, less layered style of content has been favoured.

Hip Hop got to be the mainstream popular sound when rappers got musical and started singing. It killed off RnB in the process because in the past rappers used to feature RnB artists to handle choruses. When rappers started singing for themselves and did it well, that took the spotlight from RnB which in turn led to taking fans of what used to be RnB. These fans for the most part are teenagers and women.

There are a few things to note about female fans; They give a lot of support, it can't be understated how valuable they are as a fanbase; They get invested. But they get invested more in the person than the music they put out. So to sustain this newfound fanbase, rappers also changed appearance to be more appealing and keep their new fans interested. This became the golden market to cater to.

Another thing that had to be done to keep this fanbase hooked was to reduce the content in rap songs. Traditional RnB songs were written in a format that didn't require a lot of lyrics. You had a chorus, which dominated the song. And then you had about four bars of a verse followed by a bridge that let into the chorus again. The content was light and not demanding, it also didn't have any bars that had to be deciphered, lest you wanted the listener to miss what the whole thing was about. So rappers conformed. Lyricism took the backseat. Purists had a terrible time.

True lyricists have always been there, it just hasn't been cool to be into the craft of lyricism for a while. What created a problem is what was considered as good Hip Hop or good rapping, most of which had no artistry behind it.

Back to things being cyclical. Appreciation of lyricism is starting to show again. We can see this in how mumble raps have died down or aren't as prevalent as they used to be. Even front runners don't dumb down as much. Is this the return of lyricism? Not yet. The cycle hasn't gone back to having true lyricism at the helm just yet, just more content-rich raps. Maybe for things to get to that point, it would require that Hip Hop take a step back and not be the popular sound of the moment.