People used to say, "In rock, artists can go forever. Just look at the Rolling Stones." But the Rolling Stones had a clear prime in the sixties and early seventies. Rolling Stone may have called Steel Wheels one of the best albums of the eighties, but does anyone still play that shit? I can only think of a tiny, tiny number of rock artists who were able to put out albums comparable to their classics ten years into the game. Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan VERY rarely, Lou Reed also RARELY. I hate U2 but there they are, you can't really argue against them. But who else?

Hip hop is younger than rock but already there are more rappers successfully surviving ten years than ever made it in rock. Masta Ace, MF DOOM, The Roots, Jay-Z as long as you count American Gangster (I would,) Madlib, Dr. Dre... Nas's output has been spotty but I'm pretty excited about Life Is Good. People still love Ghostface and De La Soul.

Maybe you think a lot of these guys are dinosaurs, but I'm still excited about what most of them are coming up with. Does the beefing in hip hop keep rappers more competitive and more hungry? Is this just not happening and it's still a young man's game, with Kendrick, K.R.I.T., Exquire et. al. the rappers real heads are looking out for?

My theory: part of it has to do with the fact that rap guys get producers who KNOW the studio, or the rapper himself knows the studio. They know how to get the sound they want even as times change. I love The Velvet Underground, and whether he was trying or not Lou Reed never got the sound he had in the sixties again. There was always something sanitized about it. On Bob Dylan's pretty good 2000's albums that he self-produced, the albums still SOUNDED terrible. Super polite when the songs were supposed to be raw. Meanwhile Mad Lib and The Roots are able to get BRAND NEW sounds from the studio. Their albums are very sonically diverse without sounding irrelevant.

> Does
>the beefing in hip hop keep rappers more competitive and more
>hungry?

no

>Is this just not happening and it's still a young
>man's game, with Kendrick, K.R.I.T., Exquire et. al. the
>rappers real heads are looking out for?

no.

Young dudes are always getting co-opted by the hip hop establishment.
See Drake
See all them young southern dance making rappers

one
k. orr