Biggie & Jay-Z have negatively effected the rap game

Note to stans: please don't have a heart attack from this title, just hear me out!

True fans of rap and hip-hop (yes, there's a difference) surely have heard and perhaps participated in the conversations suggesting that "hip-hop is dead," and that new artists are getting worse everyday. This new era of ringtone and gangsta rap has made many fans of lyricism and creativity pursue other genres.

So what has caused this steady decline of quality music? I believe that rap icons such as the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z have contributed to this problem. How can I make such a claim? Well it comes down to one simple word: writing. Or perhaps the absence of it. Because of Biggie and Hov's well-known style of not writing their lyrics in favor of improvising in the studio, the notion of writing a great story or original concept has almost completely gone out the window. Since those icons are held with such high regard by fellow rappers and fans alike, it has become a point of pride and the norm to keep the pen and pad out of the studio.

Rappers like Lil Wayne, who many consider the best rapper alive today, and Kanye West both brag about their ability to freestyle on almost all of their tracks. Jay-Z has even been quoted as saying "if it takes you longer than 10 minutes to make a song, you're trying too hard." Such a sentiment echoes my point that the idea of sitting down and creating a song with substance and feeling has today been considered a thing of the past.

Now, in no way am I suggesting that Biggie or Jay-Z are directly responsible for the apparent downfall of a genre. That would be stupid. All I'm saying is that their infinite influence on up-and-coming rappers has shaped rap into a cookie-cutter genre. This would explain the repetitiveness of many songs today, because when you are trying to think of concepts on the fly, you tend to reproduce popular topics more often than original ideas.

I'm also by no means suggesting that no one can improvise on a song successfully. I do believe that Biggie, Jay-Z, and Kanye West (most of the time) can successfully create creative music without writing lyrics. But the problem is that many rappers see this as the status quo and therefore try to keep up with the rap giants when they really don't have the ability to freestyle. I honestly think if a lot of the rappers today decided to start writing, their music would improve drastically. However, some of them are simply not good period, and wouldn't make a good product regardless.

Let's hear what you have to think about this....