i am here to settle the ongoing debate in this post.
i feel i am qualified to do make these remarks because
i am the johnny come lately rap fan that that the people in this post are talking about.


and i can say, without a shadow of a doubt,
the average pop music fan does not give a fuck about lyricism, and never did.
hip hop heads that care about lyricism are like
rock fans that care about Jeff Beck's or Eddie Van Hallen virtuoso guitar technique.
they exist, but that's not what the average fan is focused on.

i grew to care about lyricism as i learned more about
hip hop, and started to get analytical about things like word play, flow,
cadence, etc.

but even to this day, none of that amounts to a hill of beans
unless you have a great song.
i don't care that kanye can't rap for the same reason i don't care that janet can't sing.
she has good songs.



the peak of rap as great pop music was probably 00-02.
and for me, the biggest hits were hits because they were great songs.
i didn't notice how well some of those dudes were spitting until years later.

outkast... always had great hooks.
eminem... always saying something shocking, had great production.
jay z... hit with fans like me because of the neptunes, timbiland, kanye, just blaze.
didn't even care that he could spit.




I'll take it a step further.
canibus... who you are claiming is a great lyricist...
well, i hadn't even heard of him until i looked at the liner notes of my
LL Cool J album... the first rap album i ever bought...
and i only bought it because i thought the beat to "phenomenon" was sick.

lyricism was never a fad.
it never caught on.
it was only a thing to be considered amongst hip hop heads.

which is fine.
but lets not say it died out.

it was never a thing that gained traction.