The music industry has done a great deal of good and bad. We have mountains of great music and unfortunate tales of artists never receiving credit or royalties they deserve. Rags to riches stories and those same riches financing a demon that stunts the level of legend a great artist could achieve. In this post, I’ll focus on something that I see as a huge issue pertaining to the genre of Hip Hop that we’ve all seemed to accept. There is an age limit for hip hop artists. I just don’t get it. Yes, in the 80s (to late 70s) at the creation point of Hip Hop all artist were young. That is understood but time has passed, and Hip Hop has grown up. There are 15-year-old rappers and 50-year-old rappers who started when they were 15 but my beef is deeper than that.
The root of my issue is this is not the case in any other genre. I currently live in Atlanta, GA. I attend many events at State Farm Arena. The following is the State Farm Arena 2019 event list for artists that would be considered old in Hip Hop but are having successful tours in other genres to this day. Elton John (Debut Album 1969), Kiss (Debut Album 1974), Ozzy Osbourne (Debut Album 1980 solo, 1970-group), New Kids on the Block (Debut Album 1986), Queen (Debut Album 1973), The Who (1965) You get the point. I’m not upset that these artists are still having successful tours. I’m upset hip hop artists that are as talented (or more talented) don’t or cannot.
To be fair, Snoop Dogg and Nas had concerts at State Farm Arena but that would be a total of 2 and their debuts were 7 and 8 years after News Kids debut (1993 + 1994). This is not okay, but it is accepted. Why? Somehow, hip hop was labeled a young person’s genre. I think that is total BS. Hip Hop has been systematically sabotaged by outsiders with falsehoods and horrible over-commercialized music. The truth is it is easier for record executives to exploit and control young people. This is regardless of genre but when you combine that with Hip Hop being portrayed as a young person’s genre, the window is not only small but closed before most artist hit their prime. I’m sure many people loved their thought process as a teen and believed they had a lot to offer the world but comparing it adulthood, it’s not even close. You live life. You grow up. You have more experience and can express it in ways you couldn’t as a child. You can also handle yourself as a professional and make sure you can live off your music for a lifetime. The childish approach of “I’ll doing anything to get a deal” goes away because you know your worth. Yes, it would help if all Hip-Hop artists approached lyrics with more depth but that can be difficult hearing what actually gets played on the radio. A good approach for all Hip-Hop artists would be to ask yourself, can I perform this song on stage at 50, 60 years old and not feel like a damn fool? If not, understand that you are limiting your window of making money on your own.
In closing, this is an issue that needs to be fixed a.s.a.p. A person can sing until the day they die. A person can play instruments until the day they die. Their voice/fingers may lose some luster, but it’s accepted. A Hip-Hop artist can rap until the day they die, also. Their voice will be the same although they may not cover as much ground on the stage or jump around as much but this goes for rock artist too. We, as Hip-Hop lovers, need to encourage our seasoned artists and older new artists to continue doing what they love and sharing it. It will only help the genre and provide fans with great music they would have never heard if we didn’t. It will provide a stable living for the artists we love. It will also make the barriers on entry more difficult which means better music. Better music means we’ll have the classics of our time like our parents and grandparents have. Let’s be honest…. we still listen to theirs.

Food for thought…. you do the dishes!