About this hipster hop business

As time passes, more and more new hip-hop developments leave me feeling like a foreigner in my own country. I relate to the hipsters about as well as I can relate to dirty south snap music. But it’s important to keep an open mind, as I could easily become the Bill Cosby of hip-hop. I also haven’t forgotten the fact that labels can be divisive, constraining and just plain irksome: see “backpack rap“, “alternative hip-hop“, “emo rap” and “neo-soul” (why was I so angry?)

With all of that in mind, I dip in occasionally and am pleased to find some cats who rap pretty good. Those experiences are generally overshadowed by the ones that leave me bored, perplexed or unable to determine where the irony begins.

So I was intrigued when I belatedly came across the first (as far as I’m aware) hipster hop diss record.

He goes hard but it’s not solely an attention grab or an exercise in “hating“. The beef that stood out the most for me is the rampant cultural appropriation. My cynicism cranks up when I see keffiyeh going the fad route and I’m not even Palestinian.

Now I’m unsure of my opinion on the revelation that it was all an “experiment“.

So does the fact that he really went in and then said “psych” – while still standing by the assertions that you can’t live hip-hop on the internet and trendism leads to disposable music – water down his whole argument?

I like NYOil‘s approach better, although the target is different.

But this Mazzi cat succeeded on one front. I wasn’t aware of him before and I’ll be checking for him in the future. And both beats were heaters. And I’m quite un-mad at the b-girls in the video too.