‘Fro Avenue: Death Of The Classic

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The other day while riding down the ‘Fro Avenue, me and my homies were talking about classic albums. When is the last time we can say a true classic was released? Better yet, when is the last time we had a new artist hit the scene with a classic? Most would argue it would be College Dropout in 2004 by Kanye. Since then the game has drastically changed; between the labels changing the way they deal with artist and the presence of the internet alone. With these things I had an interesting thought: That we will never have a classic Hip-Hop album again.

The thought of such a thing is scary, right? If you are a Hip-Hop head like myself it gives you that heavy feeling in your gut. Really give it a thought though. Can we say the reason we have not had any classic albums is because of the talent that is in the game right now? No, we have artist who are unbelievable at times. Everyone from the south like Luda, T.I., Jeezy, Wayne, and J. Cole to the east Jay, Nas, Shyne, Lloyd Banks, Nicki Minaj, and Dipset to the west Game, Dre, Snoop, and Fashawn, even Toronto has Drake. The current state of Hip-Hop is more diverse now than ever before. The music that is made is more wide ranging and so we should be getting more types of great albums, right?

It hit me that one thing that has really hindered the possibilities of classics coming out is the internet. The web hurts artist in two different ways. The first way is the album leaks. Look at Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, It leaked so much there was no way he could make that album what it should have been. Imagine had Wayne been able to throw a track list like this up:

1. I’m Me* (Produced by DJ Nasty, LVM, & Nasty Beatmakers)
2. Mr. Carter (Featuring Jay-Z; Produced by Infamous & Drew Correa)
3. A Milli (Produced by Bangladesh)
4. Did It Before* (Produced by Kanye)
5. Comfortable (Featuring Babyface; Produced by Kanye West)
6. Dr. Carter (Produced by Swizz Beatz)
7. Phone Home (Produced by Cool & Dre)
8. Tie My Hands (Featuring & Produced by Robin Thicke)
9. Mrs. Officer (Featuring Bobby V; Produced by Deezle)
10. Let The Beat Build (Produced by Kanye West & Deezle)
11. Trouble* (Produced by StreetRunner)
12. Gossip (Live)* (Produced by StreetRunner)
13. La La* (Produced by Infamous)
14. Operate On Me* (Featuring & Produced by Wyclef)
15. You Ain’t Got Nothin On Me (Featuring Juelz Santana & Fabolous; Produced by The Alchemist & Deezle)
16. DontGetIt (Produced by Rodnae & Mouse)

*Not on the actual Tha Carter III

That’s closer to a classic than what we got.

The second issue is the artist getting excited about a record and throwing it out for free too early. I love Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but how many of those tracks did we here weeks before the entire project was available? It was close to half of the album. When that happens, it is hard for the whole body of work to be appreciated like it deserves to be.

Labels also hold artist back! In the age where If you can not go at least 100,000 your first week you may be dropped, labels are playing bigger roles in the development process of albums. Great albums do not mean great sales. It is weird but sometimes the worst your album is the more you sell.

Although the thought of never getting another classic is scary and a very realistic possibility, there is some hope. The game is changing like I said earlier, some artist are figuring out how to play with the new rules. Look at Drake last year and J. Cole this year. The reason they are compared so much is because of the success they accomplished before ever releasing their debuts. Drake was selling out venues before ever signing to Young Money, and Cole has put out a very small amount of music yet selling out as well. One person said we may never get a Drake album that is classic, but So Far Gone may be a classic. J. Cole’s The Warm Up is also a mixtape that has an album feel and is up there status wise with So Far Gone. Does this mean mixtapes will be where the classic body of works solely come from? Hopefully not, but Hip-Hop never was intended for the masses so with mixtapes our artist have a chance to express fully their ideas with no label or Internet road blocks.

May Hip-Hop Live Forever

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DuB
Hailing from the West side of the country, Las Vegas to be exact, DuB was a fan of the website before he became a writer over here at the Fro'. He said, "I came for the Certified Bangers, but stayed for the Hip Hop". Once he saw what the site had to offer, he contacted us and asked if there was a position opening. Although we explained that we couldn't pay him initially he was still down for the cause. He officially joined the team in October of 2010, and has been putting in work ever since. Along with Arkitek, DuB has helped Fro' Nation hear the voice of the West Coast.
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17 Comments

  1. good article DuB, this is something I think about alot actually. and not just with hip-hop, but with all genres of music.

    see I disagree about the internet point. if something is “classic” then it should be that way whether it costs a million or if its given away free to a million people. now whether the internet is killing music and all that is another issue (one we’ve all been debating elsewhere on here)

    but as far as “Classic” status goes with music, I think it goes all the way to evolution.
    follow me now…, in the grand scheme of the universe, we’re just a blip born yesterday. so if you think of it in those terms, all the music we consider classic was put into that category because we as a species were just figuring out this new thing called “music”, cracking the “code”

    but now we’ve been doing it for alot longer, and the “code” isnt a secret anymore, its out there for everyone to consume and regurgitate into something “new”, but its not new anymore.

    “there is nothing new under the sun” – The Bible (<—its a rare occasion that I'll quote the Bible)

    basically its not that music isnt good or the cost, its that all music is SO much better, that in order to be a classic, artists have to re-invent the wheel. and thats a huge task. so yeah…I think all we can hope for anymore is "good" music. its kinda sad really….but at the same time, its good motivation for artists to TRY to reach a new plateau, even if they never get there…

    anyway, good food for thought DuB

    Reply

  2. good article man. good points made but i cant agree with it all.

    i think we’ll still get classic albums. not the same as the ones we’re used to but classic all the same.
    i think the lack of sales means the formula of having a banging single and the rest of the album filler is thrown out of the window. so now mcs have to to grind harder to make some noise.

    sure we still have guys like soulja boy and the likes but we need guys like that to keep things fun.
    but since the easy path to platinum is forever blocked off TALENT can be shown again without the worry of affecting sales.

    i still think the internet is hurting hip hop in some ways but the fact that rappers cant just sell millions off bullshit singles a new breed of artists have rose from this.

    you already mentioned drake and j. cole (who will release a classic) plus there’s guys like curren$y, wiz, b.o.b, who are buzzin in people’s minds without putting out those crappy songs.

    enjoyed the read bro

    Reply

  3. I’m glad you decided to tackle this topic fam. Good read! I kinda agree with what Verbose is saying and add this, that most of what we consider classic, we associate with personal times in our lives. Granted, the Golden Age put up some of the most brilliant Hip Hop albums ever, but unanimously, we tend to associate good albums with times in our lives. When you couple that with the majority of folks that label things “classic” (in terms of older albums) grew up with Hip Hop. So while I personally won’t consider 90% of what’s out today even in the running for that title, I can understand some 15 year old saying otherwise.

    The argument of “will we be playing that in 20 years” doesn’t really stand either. I mean, when was the last time any of us rocked Paid In Full on full blast? Don’t worry, I’ll wait (for someone to come say I listened to it just last week, I do it all the time). Meanwhile, someone is playing No Hands right now like it’s the first time they heard it.

    At the end of the day, music is personal so the only way that we can get to universal classics is when we start recognizing albums that are bigger than the CD. THIS is where I think Carter II and Kanye’s College Dropout and MBDTF come in. In all three cases, they helped move the genre and musical Hip Hop culture to a new level. In Weezy’s case, that album singularly entered his name into the argument for Greatest Rapper Alive (even if he entered it himself, the world started to agree). Furthermore, I’m not certain about this, but that “It’s going down, basement” style of citing your rhymes mid flow seems to have started with this dude and his camp. Everyone does that shit now. He’s changed the way folks rhyme (if that’s him that started it). Kanye managed to put out 2 albums that define the year and time of those that really appreciate the genre. In both cases, his albums stand apart from anything put out at the time and appear to set the bar of what you NEED to be doing on your album. College Dropout revitalized Hip Hop and gave it a push that was needed to get out of the Ice Age and gun totting mentality that it’s been in for years. In other words, Kanye made it cool to be mainstream and different again. His last album (flat out amazing in my opinion) has the same appeal.

    Anyway, I can clap to this article and y’all need to retweet and like this on facebook. Makes for great discussion.

    Reply

    1. “Granted, the Golden Age put up some of the most brilliant Hip Hop albums ever, but unanimously, we tend to associate good albums with times in our lives. When you couple that with the majority of folks that label things “classic” (in terms of older albums) grew up with Hip Hop. So while I personally won’t consider 90% of what’s out today even in the running for that title, I can understand some 15 year old saying otherwise. ” -Saule

      true words SW. its a really strange phenom when you get to think about it. every generation seems to be able to appreciate the music that came before them, but eventually their ears “get old” and they stop being able to feel the newest music. our parents felt their parents music and their music but not our music, we felt all of that and our music but not our younger siblings/children’s music, and this next generation feels all of that plus Lil B and whatever else is hot right now, and so on and so on, ad infinitum…

      I used to believe that Classic music had to be felt by anyone, of any age/race/other factors to really be Classic. (Thriller, Are You Experienced?, Paul’s Boutique, Abbey Road, everybody can add 100…), but if “we” cant feel the next Generation coming up and we sound just like our parents (“its all a buncha bullshit!”), then there is no universal Bell Curve and its all up to personal interpretation, and like you said, “that” place in time when “that” album was felt by “that” generation.

      its kinda scary to think that we can each only appreciate the Past, Our Present, but not necessarily The Future…

      (and before anyone wants to be a jerkoff, yes I know I contradicted my previous statements a bit, but we’re getting into abstract musical theory at this point, there is no “right” answer and its ok to second-guess yourself)

      “College Dropout revitalized Hip Hop and gave it a push that was needed to get out of the Ice Age and gun totting mentality that it’s been in for years. In other words, Kanye made it cool to be mainstream and different again.” -Saule

      yeah, I’ve never really thought about it too hard, but ya’ll are totally on point. It wasn’t just the Heads jammin’ College Dropout, it was almost everybody you knew. I still remember being at a house party and this Metal Head kid I knew (who was a straight mensch of a dude, but I could never talk music with) turns to me and goes “hey, you’re really into Rap Music right D? have you heard this new guy “Kane”? his album College Dropout is amazing”. shit tripped me out, lol

      I cant agree on Carter II being classic. it was a great album, a game changer and Wayne’s best overall album yet, but I still don’t rate it a Classic…..but then again its all up to opinion 😀

      once again, awesome topic DuB. I love this kinda stuff.

      Reply

      1. I really appreciate the fact that you guys not only read my article, but you have actually given it alot of thought. With that being said my little brother is also a avid Hip Hop fan who is much younger than me. He is very intelligent not to quite be a teen yet. We spoke about music the other day and he said he feels like music is boring right now. True, he does like Soulja Boy, and Lil B, but he spoke on the fact that those cats dont challenge his intellect like say a Nas or a Kanye.

        This blind sided me completely, I had to remember that when I was his age I also found myself liking “busllshit” artist, but I always had a Jay-z who would speak about things that made me think. This generation of young music lovers do not seem to have that at least not as much as we did in the 90’s. Think about it like this, we are ten years into the Millenium and we can not say we have had too many artist come in the game to make us really think about the times we are living in. Kanye has come and even Wayne makes us think at times but honestly times have changed in Hip Hop.

        The Ideology of what a great hip hip artist is has changed so drastically, that we are amazed when someone like J. Cole appears who reminds us of the past. It is only NOW that I truly understand why NaS felt like Hip Hop was dead. What we have stood for, for so long seems as though it is corroding right before our eyes.

        Reply

        1. yeah, thats real talk.

          which makes it even sadder if/when the J.Coles in the game succumb to the pressure to be the next Rap Messiah or biggest unit pusher, and end up flying off the musical handle

          its like I said in the fourms recently, it seems like Hip-Hop is all about extremes nowadays. its either too this or too that. too high-art or too dumbed-down. too Gangsta or too commercial. too wrecklessly introspective or too fluffy sugar nothing.
          All Flav and no Chuck.

          Music does seem to by cylical tho, and H.E.R. is still in its infancy against the backdrop of the muscial timeline

          So lets just hope we get to witness a real Rap Renaissance and its not dead, but just in a cocoon y’know?

          Reply

  5. Good article DuB, and good look to SW for bringing this article to my attention. I’m an old fuddy-duddy so I try to refrain from commenting on topics such as these because I view hip-hop music as something that has ended (or at the very least is in its final days) and something new has emerged. That’s another dead horse that bears no beating here.

    I do believe like SW said that classics are relevant to the time and to someone whose music tastes are still forming, classics are being made. We won’t see classics as we’re used to them because music as we’re used to it is rarely being made. Oh and yeah, I was rocking Know The Ledge the other day, lol. It ain’t PIF but it’s close. But I digress.

    What I really think impedes on the creation of classics isn’t so much the internet (as far as leaks and sales) but moreso the reduced amount of effort needed. This is the first generation where an album/mixtape or whatever can be recorded, promoted and “released” for relatively no dough. Back in the days getting a deal was a huge undertaking and crafting an album worthy of that opportunity was serious business. And I’m not talking back in MY day…I mean back in the days from the creation of recording equipment and instruments to the turn of the century. Back then you couldn’t just put out what you and your mens thought was cool. If someone was going to make a substantial investment in your recordings, even if that someone was the artist themselves, sub-standard just won’t do. So now production doesn’t have to be top notch, only catchy. Lyrics don’t have to be razor sharp, only simple enough to memorize and sing along with while dancing. Classic equals effort and less effort is required so less classics are created. Just my humble over opinionated take.

    Again great read.

    Reply

  6. The problem is simple the best rappers are not getting exposure anymore! Its not a coincidince ra has gone bullshit and I hate to say that its on the way back up but to me the scene is still sad. If your looking from a classic from a C- artist with A+ exposure dont expect it. Nas still makes classics, Elzhi made a classic in my eyes, Black Milk’s Tronic was a classic to me, And I loved Pilot Talk 2 I would go far enough to call that a classic. Yall get my point. I also think some of Game’s albums deserve classic status. And PLEASE DONT NOBODY TRY TO TELL ME THE CARTER WAS A CLASSIC! Sales dont make your album a classic!

    Reply

    1. and on a side note that’s why I listen to some underground artists alot. Good music and no bullshit label from holding them back

      Reply

  8. for the sake of keeping things going, heres another point:

    how big a part does Time have to do with something being a “Classic”?

    I know some of my favorite albums only got to “Personal Classic” status over time. they had to percolate, like good wine or cheese. I know I didnt even rate Thank Me Later as a “Decent” record until months down the line.

    I think thats why I’ve been shy to call MBDTF a Classic. I feel like it hasnt had the test of time yet.

    Is there such thing as an “Instant Classic”? and dont “Instant Classics” usually fold over time and we end up having to say “we might’ve jumped the gun a bit, its still great, but not Classic like we thought”?

    Reply

  9. What is the difference from a pioneering album vs a classic. I personnaly think that College Dropout is a classic album, but I feel like Graduation was his best. I do not consider Graduation a classic though. I feel like College Dropout changed the game, but Graduation was overall his best peice of work. Do we sometimes fall into the mistake of not appriciating an album because it isnt some greate force that changes the entire industry?

    Reply

  10. While I don’t think the classic is dead, it is a dying art. I think OBFCL2 was certainly a modern day classic. That album certainly was amazing. And while I think MBDTF isn’t one, it was a great album. It’s not the mainstream that’s hurting music, cuz everyone has their way. As for the Internet I applaud it because artists can put out new material and grow. I’m waiting for immortal techniques vol 3 to be the next classic. The first two were incredible and I heavily suggest those. Another modern day classic to me wool be Brotha lynches dinner and a movie. It was pure west coast heat. The story which he directed like a movie was amazing! He really is the king of horror core. IMO he is the reason the west will never die for me. Those are my personal top two favorites, so it may sound jaded, but we entitled to our opinion.

    Reply

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