>There is no denying that he and many of his contemporaries are
>the "old guard" so to speak. The problem that you're
>addressing is that there is essentially no "new guard" yet...
>
>But how can anyone expect the stars from 15 years ago to still
>carry this shit and be relevent?
>


In deed, when you look at it even cats like Jay Z, Mos Def, Nas et al have been out recording for over 15 years (or nearly that). Its like what KRS-One said on his epic "I'm Still #1" -- 15 years down the line we'll be the old school artists. Therefore at this point there a generation of listeners that look upon the aforementioned in the same way some may look upon KRS, Dougie Fresh, BDK, Rakim et al of another era before their time.



>which makes Its really rare that somebody can be at the forefront of
>importance to his genre for multiple generations.
>One of the only people I can think of off top is Herbie Hancock because he drastically reivented himself multiple times. In the vast
>majority of cases though people either a)fall off b)become a
>self parody or c) become irrelevent because someone new
>renders them irrelevent.

True indeed basically the point as I take it is no matter the genre at some point the audience turns over to the point where your music doesn't speak to them any more on their level. Rarely can an artist transend and maintain relavence with a generation of listeners other than those who sparked his/her fame.


From a hip hop frame of reference KRS is the only one I know that truly can still rock a crowd like he did in his "heyday". And he's done it across 3 decades (80's, 90's, 2000's). Although his albums in the last 2-3 years haven't quite had the same punch as some of his early 2000's work.