Did Major Label Hip-Hop Market Correct Underground Hip-Hop

Fat Joe was on ESPN on Christmas Day. He was talking with Stephen A. Smith and it was joyous. I think Stephen A. Smith is absolutely incredible at his job. And Fat Joe is a charmer and clearly loves the Knicks which must be a real difficult situation. Although, I think across the last 20 years the Knicks have provided more joy for their fanbase than The Timberwolves. Chris Finch, when you want a recommendation for one more decent meal to get before you get figgity fired, liggity let me know.

So I had Fat Joe on the brain all day. When everyone was making videos with models hanging all over them while sporting copious amounts of jewelry, Fat Joe was close to a Gold medalist in having the most models hanging all over him and the copiousest jewelry arranged across his white tee. I had to go find the video for Lean Back. It’s my favorite jam from the Fat Joe catalog, hands down. This song felt paradoxical, somehow epic and spare, skeletal and regal. But I watched the video. I don’t think I had seen it before. It looked great, the models looked spectacular. But it didn’t look skeletal and regal. It looked bacchanal and to some extent awkwardly indulgent. It felt as though everyone was to some extent going through the motions of making a jiggy video. The song is also a dance video about not dancing. I’m enjoying the video at the same time I’m thinking about how much it’s just hitting one note. There’s no intended humor that I can discern, what I see in the video is this substantiation of Terror Squad as a great hip-hop crew on top of a legendary beat by a legendary producer with the video set to prove it. It feels like a victory lap and an assertion of dominance in the hip-hop scene. What confuses me is at the time I thought of this as not only the pinnacle of hip-hop success, but also, the only variety of pinnacle that could bring someone to these heights. I would listen to hip-hop artists with a smaller commercial footprint: Little Brother, Comon, Murs, The Roots, Hieroglyphics, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock and many others. . .and though I certainly appreciated their work and sought to emulate their work, I was aware that by emulating their work there was a clear ceiling of how high any artist trafficking in those textures could go. And that ceiling wasn’t super high. None of the artists I just mentioned, whether on a major label or not, could play an Xcel Energy Center which I think expects attendance of north of 10,000 to describe a show as a success. In fact, a lot of them would struggle to sell out a 3,000 capacity venue in many markets. To get some kind of “full meal” in the world of hip-hop it felt mandatory to me to enjoy Fat Joe and other monstrously successful major label artists to enjoy this one note pinnacle of masculine bravado and also seek out artists from some smaller scenes. It required me frequently to attend smaller capacity venues, to explore niche magazines and blogs to learn of where these artists could be found. IT WAS FUN AS SHIT. My band, Heiruspecs, was a small but significant part of that wave. So it was doubly fun to follow these artists, track them, grovel for opening slots from them. BUT BUT BUT BUT here’s the thing, when I scan my brain I can think of very few rappers from before 2012 who I truly believed were WORLD CLASS rappers who played a stadium show in the Twin Cities. Jay Z. came through with a Reebok tour that also featured 50 Cent in the summer of 2003. I know the Beastie Boys and Eminem have both done stadium shows at some point during my time in the Twin Cities. But, until I heard about Chance the Rapper coming through to play the Xcel Energy Center, and then in quick succession hearing about J. Cole, Logic and others, I just didn’t think amazing rappers played the big rooms or had the careers that required a room of that size to accommodate their fanbase.

WHAT CHANGED? Some of it is the economics of music. Touring is an essential part of many more musicians income than it was during the CD era. No doubt. But something else changed, artists who provided many more emotions, notes and sonic diversity in their music started to sell massive units and play shows with more regularity. Major label rap is better than it has ever been. I can find a lot of what I used to have to go to twenty five blogs to find on one Kendrick Lamar record. It was actually a truly disorienting feeling to hear Good Kid M.a.a.d. City for the first time. It was strange to hear an artist this universally lauded, this widely endorsed by the major tastemakers in mainstream hip-hop where the beats varied so greatly between songs, the primarily vocalist used many different voices to communicate his narrative, and the concept of the album was so complex that I wasn’t sure I was listening to it in the right order. Also, it was a success as a front to back record, it was incredibly listenable as a whole ambitious piece. I didn’t expect such committed ART from a major label rapper. At this point I need to carve out some space for Jay-Z period, and for Jay-Z from Blueprint to American Gangster in particular. Jay-Z sold immense amounts of records, crafted albums that might not have achieved the singular impact of Good Kid, but still albums that were artful and inspiring. I believe this through line is one of the reasons who Jay-Z has maintained a large percentage of his relevance across these eras. He’s remained pertinent partially because I believe he wasn’t exclusively aiming at the hyper-masculinity jiggy energy that many of his peers were. Sure, Jay Z. hit those notes, but not in exclusion to others sounds, to other songs.

UNDERGROUND HIP-HOP IS LESS PERTINENT NOW BECAUSE COMMERCIAL HIP-HOP IS BETTER The market spoke with artists like Kendrick, Drake, Tyler the Creator, J. Cole and many others. A lot of the artists that are even a couple levels of fame below those artists are still huge artists selling large amounts of records and filling massive rooms in most markets. Fans are getting a fuller offering of a hip-hop experience without having to go into small corners of the world to hear small artists. The value proposition for underground hip-hop has changed because there is less artistic real estate ignored by major labels. That’s my take. Happy New Years.