One Of The Great Rap Debates

Rap is something that people argue and debate about constantly. Whether it is who is the greatest? Who has the most money? And who is the worst? People argue about it. I have had many arguments and debates about rap. Now there is a question that I have been thinking about for awhile. After hearing about a Coremega interview where he said something about Drake not being real because he was born with money, it made me start to think about something. Do rapper who do not come from struggle have less credibility than those who do?

Yes rap did start from the struggle but it spread to other places. Most of the rappers who are the most respected in the industry are those who survived the guns, drugs, women, gangs and other harsh aspects of the environments that they came from, as well as continue to stay in them. Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, Tupac, Lil Wayne, T.I., Gucci Mane, 50 cent, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, The Game, and others who are considered the greats have all come from some sort of struggle and they talk about it in their raps. 50 cent always talks about aggressive content, is this what people love in rap aggressive content. Yes most of these artist are lyrically the top give or take a few, but are they the greatest simply because they came from the struggle?

At times it seems that some rappers are looked down upon because their content is not aggressive enough, or because they did not come from the so called "struggle". Some of the most underrated artist are those who some people say just rap because it is fun or something to do. Some people would consider these rapper under the ones that I previously mentioned because they are not hood enough or their subject matter is not aggressive enough and other reasons, Lupe, Andre, Common, Wale, Kid Cudi, Ludacris, Kanye and others. There are even artist who do come from the struggle who are grouped into this category such as Talib and Mos Def. Are these rapper lesser rappers simply because of where they come from. On many occasions I have heard people talk about Wayne is better than Lupe or Andre, and that you cannot compare them. How can you not compare them, they are all rappers? They simply come from different areas and have gone through different things(for some these things have been fabricated or made grander than what really happened). Yes there are different genres of rap but the end of the day they are all have the same intentions to create music, through word, metaphors and beats.

I have had some people tell me that Lil Wayne or TI are better rappers than Andre simply because he is talking about some other stuff. Also TI sometimes overshadows Luda, but in my personal opinion Luda and TI are about the same quality, and Lil Wayne is nowhere near as good of a rapper as Andre 3000. Yet it seems like TI and Lil Wayne are considered better rappers simply because they are more hood than Andre or Luda. Just because Andre is talking about Dracula, Valentines Day, and Aliens or Lupe talks about Robots, Terrorist, Anime and Manga their content is too weird. Many people were like what was Andre thinking with the Love Below CD. It was a Cd that took a different route, talk about different things in a different way. But at the end of the CD he has one of the best rap songs ever, simply talking about life, no mention of drugs, guns, or anything.

And one thing that we should not mistake is that the guns, drugs, and other things are not just in the hood. It is simply a different kind of struggle that some of these artist go through. It might not be the harshest struggle but it is still a struggle.

So I guess what I really what to be debated is in order to truly have credibility in the rap industry, not just in small circles(like the hood dudes or the hipster rap fans) but in all circles. Is it necessary to have come from the struggle? Doe that gain you more credibility? Or is it simply that since rap has always been about the struggle the rappers who talk more about the women, drugs, guns, gangs, and other things that come from struggling get more credibility?

I know that there are exceptions to this, such as Em and Nas. Em coming from a different kind of struggle than the stereotypical rap one(the struggle of African Americans). And Nas whose content often shy's away from that of where he came from.

One more thing i need to say is I am not trying to disregard any of the struggles that these rapper went through or any person who is from the typical African American struggle, I simply am curious about rap credibility.