Coldham: Hip-hop balances differing styles

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By Ben Coldham

Monday, November 30, 2009

As everything in life requires balance in order to sustain its own existence, the genre of hip-hop music is no different. Emerging as a revolutionary brand of music in the late 1970s, hip-hop has since branched off into two sub-genres that every artist, righteously or not, is allocated to and associated with. The balance these sub-genres achieve with one another is what allows hip-hop to remain appealing to so many people and continue to be successful.

Rappers are generally classified as either “gangster,” referring to the majority of highly publicized artists featured on MTV and BET, or “conscious,” those generally associated with the underground hip-hop movement.

Typically, gangster hip-hop artists produce “trap rap,” referring to the work of rappers who spit mostly about hustling, gangbanging and material possessions.

“Conscious” artists, on the other hand, generally tend to rap about real life for the rest of us, the state of society as a whole and their own lyrical ability.

Though all hip-hop fans like most kinds of rap (as long as it has tight lyrics over a dope beat), hip-hop heads almost always have a personal preference for one genre of hip-hop over another.

One fan may listen to Young Jeezy and T.I., while another might like Little Brother and De La Soul. This can cause rifts between hip-hop enthusiasts because one may respect the other’s brand of hip-hop less than their own as they often value drastically different ideals. For this reason, some fans tend to neglect the opposing sub-genre of hip-hop and stick exclusively with the style and artists they are familiar with. This is a grave mistake.

Though hip-hop is essentially divided into gangster and conscious rap, it is also a melting pot boiling with thousands of voices, each one unique and impressionable regardless of its designation as a gangster voice or a conscious one. Each of hip-hop’s sub-genres has so much to offer that it’s foolish not to explore the many other realms of the hip-hop universe.

There are many gangster songs that incorporate thoughtful lyrics and outstanding production on par with any underground artist. There are conscious rappers that release songs the biggest Rick Ross fan would agree “go hard.” It’s the balance of contrasting influences inherent in different breeds of hip-hop that make the genre and culture as a whole so intriguing and fascinating to follow.

The two primary sub-genres hip-hop has created have contributed an equal amount to the hip-hop movement in its rise to popularity and the international influence it enjoys today.

Gangster and conscious, mainstream and underground, all offer a different voice and appeal to different hip-hop fans. Hip-hop accommodates fans seeking violence and fans seeking guidance and knowledge of self. As a result, it psychologically appeals to a wide variety of fans.

Hip-hop is a versatile genre with ideals that are sometimes drastically different from one another. But, such as our own world, it is the balance of these ideals that enables hip-hop to maintain its existence and remain so popular.

— Coldham is a Chicago senior in journalism.

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