There’s a viral skit by Druski where he imitates “lyrical rappers” by spitting a freestyle of random multisyllabic words that (somewhat) rhyme while wearing an outfit that some might refer to as “Common-Core”. As funny as the video is, it appears that its exaggerated portrayal is the way some music fans genuinely perceive lyricism in rap. And they see the bids for complexity as negative or something to be scorned. The big question then is, when did “trying” with regards to lyricism become such a bad thing? Some people, when asked this question, will point to someone like Eminem and those inspired by him. The “white rapper who raps fast without saying anything” archetype made lyricism corny, they’ll tell you. But in a genre that’s inarguably black, why are white rappers controlling any aspect of the artform? The next most popular argument is that “nobody wants to listen to music with a dictionary”. But I find that a bit difficult to reconcile with, because more often than not, the music sounds good whether you understand it or not! And realistically, being unable to understand what’s being said doesn’t take away from enjoyment regarding music on the other end of the “lyricism” spectrum. Some people (the most boring people you know) will make it about the other sex. “You can’t play this around women,” they tell you. And yet, whenever I open my phone, there’s a woman who loves lyricists in music, sharing her love for them. Not only is this argument lazy and sexist,

it’s simply untrue. The most obvious answer, to me, is that this hatred for lyricism in Rap is an overcorrection from the “mumble rap” hatred era of the mid-2010s. And the talking points being brought up to denigrate “lyrical rap” are just as useless and anti-art as those that were levied against artists like Future, Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty. People seem to have difficulty appreciating art that they don’t personally like, and this has led to a grand-scale worsening of art discourse over time. This is most prevalent in Hip-Hop (in my experience), where there seem to be lines drawn in the sand over what type of Rap you listen to, with the popular opinion being on the side of the OsamaSons and Ches of the game right now. I just hope one day people can learn to appreciate the breadth of Rap music as an artform, and stop shaming rappers for trying, to the point where they have to declare that they aren’t.

Written By IdkYoungJ: www.idkyoungj.com/