"Welcome to heartbreak," kanye west said on his last LP release 808's and Heartbreak, an album so emotional and sappy, it acted as a catalyst for a whole battalion of sentimental hip-hop.
Let's see. You got your Drake, a former Degrassi cast member whose mixtape So Far Gone displayed a confident, but totally not confident rapper dealing with, yknow-- shit. life, grlz, money, cars, family turmoil, etc. yknow life-stuff.
He also sings with autotune and raps... (yes, that's hip-hop now).
the new Ghostface Killah album , Wizard of Poetry, (which is amazing) has Pretty Toney stressing girls! STRESSING GIRLS! This is the same guy who rapped "Remember when I long-dicked you and broke your ovary?"
I mean obviously the song (Wildflower) had him lashing out at a girl who cheated on him... and in the heart of that was male who was totally stressing a girl.
But on his new one he's talking about settling down. Maintaining a steady, monogamous relationship with a wifey.
I think he even says something on the new Raekwon album about his son being 25. DAMN. that's some real adulthood stuff. I mean... rappers are totally softening up. Could Ghost's tough exterior, a large, robust black male with skullys, be turning into a giant rapping teddy-bear??
Eh not totally. His first single Stapleton Sex has him fucking a girl, and describing it in graphic, filthy detail... he also orgasms at the end of the song, which has to be the most awkward moment in a Wu-Tang album.
We even got Kanye West-protege Kid Cudi describing himself as the "lonely stoner"?? Gimme a break, man.
Besides Day N' Nite being a really catchy hip-hop song... it's a soft display of what hip-hop has been masking itself as for years and years.
Gangster rap was hip-hop with a shit-ton of narratives laced with subtle tough-guy insecurities. But hip-hop these days is throwing out the understated... and coming out as really blatant.
It pays to be emotional today.
Welcome to present-day hip-hop, guys.
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