Are there any scholarly essays on these topics?

1. PERSONA

I've been thinking about a few things regarding rap music and the way its changed through the years

like

Ok, so lets say with fine art there are several archetypes the artist has occupied.

For example, at one time the artist was seen as prophet and shaman, other times as skilled labor and in other times high educated creator of culture

So, with rap and hip hop I've been thinking about the set of rap archetypes (the playboy, the lyricist, the drug boy, the street observer, etc) and how they have evolved.

When I listen to 80s drug rap the character is different from 90s era drug rap characters. When I compare 90's characters to 00s and 10s characters the difference is also clear.

What is the dope boy in a post crack era landscape?

So, is there writing about the shifting perspective/character?

What new if any archetypes have emerged through the years?

Is someone like Future presenting a new character or is he the son of other drug using rappers like say Cyprus Hill?


2. LYRICAL CONTENT

listening to 80s/90s rap feels strangely very analogous or plain in comparison to the complex layering that is present in todays rap. The content may be very simple but the execution is seemingly more complex.

I'm not a rap historian but I have been trying to put my finger on what has changed and the best answer I can come up with is that it seems that story telling and descriptive content (i.e. this is what has happened or what is.) has been set aside for speculative (i.e. this is the persona and lifestyle I am projecting or desire to have and present) and boastful content.

If the content is descriptive then it is about consumption of goods, people or drugs

The latter has always been a part of rap I believe but it seems like its taken a backseat.

OR

perhaps another way of going at it are the lyrical patterns and styles that have emerged





I'm not down on contemporary rap in this context, I'm merely curious about the way its changed and the patterns that have emerged now that we have a ton of data on hand.

Is anybody writing about this stuff?

and how 80s and 90s hip-hop, particularly gangsta rap and the monetization of "bad niggers", SPECIFICALLY Snoop Dogg's "Murder Was tha Case" music video, subverted those tropes for personal gain.


it'd definitely be cool to read some essays that do the same for how, say, LL Cool J became A$AP Rocky.


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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

then progressed to lyrics about social issues

then progressed to lyrics about gang life (west coast rap)

technology advanced to a point where more complex arrangements could be made and the Jazz/rock sampled beats began to slowly decline

Music companies and advertising agencies began to understand it's popularity and started to market it more to white people

Mostly self destructive themes became more popular due to the aforementioned popularity among white people

Self destructive themes became the norm and are now maintained as such leading to younger generations of rap artists seeing this as the way to make it in the business

auto-tune became popular lyrical content became less popular

today

Just as recording allowed rap to graduate from "I rock this party so nice" to more lyrical pursuits, a whole bunch of technological advancements have changed the game.

Chuck D once called rap "CNN for Black America," at a time when CNN was the main news source. Back then it was a reporting mechanism. This is what I see. This is where I'm from. This is how we do in my neighborhood.

Now, most rapper-aged kids get their news from their social feeds- which are more internally focused. On top of that, culturally kids are more encouraged to explore their feelings than they might have been when Chuck was coming up. There's also already a framework of what regions sound like. You don't have to tell me about the Bronx or ATL anymore. Those places are in the canon.

Also, production technology has gotten so cheap and so easy to use that, rather than creating the new from the familiar like producers of old did with JB's samples, MPCs and 808s, I could create *exactly* the sound that's in my head, possibly even on my phone. So rather than Melle Mel telling me about the crack epidemic in the Bronx, and what he sees, Future can create the *experience* of being on lean. Or Earl Sweatshirt can take us through grief and agoraphobia so we feel it from beat to lyric.

I mean... Liquid Swords is STILL being dissected 21 years later.

"mainstream" lyrics these days are simple and stripped down. Shit ain't rewind-worthy. Once in a while a rapper comes along and injects some decent wordplay into their rhymes (Dave East comes to mind), but for the most part shit is very simplistic. I mean... they ain't even rhyming in complete sentences anymore.


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"Where was the peace when we were getting shot? Where's the peace when we were getting laid out?
Where is the peace when we are in the back of ambulances? Where is the peace then?
They don't want to call for peace then.