T.I. & Shaq Talked About Current Hip-Hop Landscape
T.I. and Shaq Talked About the Current Hip-Hop Landscape. In a recent interview with legendary NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, T.I. sounded off. During his interview on the podcast The Big,” we heard about new rappers. It was interesting that T.I. made comparisons between entering the NBA and rappers.
T.I. Compares New Rappers To NBA Alleged Wantabee’s
T.I. & Shaq Talked About Current Hip-Hop Landscape.
It is not the first time a veteran rapper has spoken about new hip-hop artists. According to XXL Mag, T.I. claims, being a rapper is not as easy as it looks. Here is some of what he shared,
“This generation reminds me of every other generation,” T.I. began around the 3:50-mark of the interview below. “You got some people who are exceptionally dope, and some people who are just alright…But it’s a lot more of it to choose from now. I feel that, actually, what they’ve done with music is equivalent to if they were to open up the doors of the arena and say, ‘Anybody think you can play basketball. Come on out the stands out here to the floor. Here go you a jersey, man. Get in the game.”
He goes on to say,
He continued: “The thing that happened is, there was what we call a paradigm shift in the industry. It went to a direct to consumer industry. Which means, you don’t need a distributor. You don’t have to go through Best Buy or Target or Blockbuster. You ain’t gotta do that. You can go straight to the consumer. And the consumer more than likely wants to hear something that reminds them of themselves. Sometimes, too much talent intimidates the consumer.”
Hip-hop heads may tend to agree with T.I., especially since today’s rappers have commercial appeal. Back in the day, rappers shopped for record labels to represent them.
Often, rappers got the short end of the stick. Or, they were offered the infamous‘ 360 Slave Deal.’ In that particular deal, rappers did not have the opportunity to own their merchandise.
Rappers did not have a say in distribution and sales. However, today’s rappers have streaming services, the Internet, and independent contracts. In other words, as T.I. mentioned, there has been a paradigm shift.
This is not bad, but it is somewhat problematic, as T.I. points out in his interview. Is T.I. correct in claiming anyone can rap without allegedly paying their dues?
Perhaps the rap arena is too crowded with less-than-spectacular rappers. Gone are the days when rappers fought hard to make a name for their craft. YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram created a space for anyone to think they can rap.
But have these social media platforms done more harm than good? Should there now be a certain standard or protocol for rap? At any rate, as Vibe stated, this is a great conversation.
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