Quality over bling in rap’s latest trend

Not only is T.I. currently being hailed as the messiah of Southern hip-hop, but he’s achieved a… Not only is T.I. currently being hailed as the messiah of Southern hip-hop, but he’s achieved a holy trinity ‘mdash; he’s got the No. 1 album in the country and the No. 1 and No. 2 singles. The self-dubbed ‘king’ is hotter than any rap artist this year, and he’s beloved by both fans and critics. The last guy to do something with this much gravitas was everyone’s favorite mumbler, Lil’ Wayne, whose first week sales topped a million copies. And that was only a few months back. So with the massive success of Weezy Baby and T.I. overshadowing the genre’s usual high stream of low quality, is mainstream rap becoming ‘mdash; gasp! ‘mdash; respectable again? The proof is right there on the charts. Last week, T.I.’s excellent new album Paper Trail debuted on top with half a million sold. Underground, politically thinking rapper Murs’ latest record Murs for President dropped to No. 45 ‘mdash; a downright surprise considering his indie career status. Right between the two on the charts lies Lil’ Wayne’s blockbuster Tha Carter III, which, by most critical accounts, is one of the most accomplished hip-hop albums of the year, and maybe the decade. On the other side of the rap spectrum (that is, the less interesting, more cliche and far more pop-leaning side) sits new albums by The Game and Young Jeezy.’ Both discs debuted in the last two weeks selling less than 300,000 copies each ‘mdash; nothing to scoff at, sure, but when an underground mixtape genius (Lil’ Wayne) or ‘the Southern Jay-Z’ outsells more mainstream artists like these by hundreds of thousands of copies. It’s got to mean something. And if I’m right, it means that the age of blinging gangster coke rap (see: boring, only good when drunk and grinding up in da club) is sliding out of favor for the hip-hop hungry of the country. So what’s going on here? Can we finally say goodbye to T-Pain and send him back to the minimum wage night shift from whence he came, vocoder in hand and head hung low? I sure hope so. So-called conscious hip-hop is long overdue for its deserved reign over the minds of rap fans. Too long have we been radio-fed over-produced crap by clowns like Flo Rida, Hurricane Chris, Three 6 Mafia, most of G-Unit’s output and, of course, that god-awful, I’d-rather-go-deaf Soulja Boy, with lyrical content rarely extending beyond big asses, big wallets, big egos and respecting women. Well, all except that last one. But with these recent successes, including that of Nas’ latest and the to-be-expected sales of Kanye West, it does seem that hip-hop is moving toward a new day, where the beats are just as hard but the lyrics aren’t moronic. And what a day that would be. But why now? Well, maybe the world is thirsting for something with a bit of substance. Maybe we’re tired of the same single rapped by different dudes with ‘Young” or ‘Lil” in their name. Maybe we just want to be blown away by rappers actually rapping over a beat, not a hot beat with a rapper sparsely dropping barely intelligible and barely sensical rhymes, most of which have to do with grillz, rims or both. Whatever the reason, let’s hope the trend continues. Let’s support the lyricist rappers and skip the pop star rappers. Let’s support hip-hop, not crunk juice dribble. I’m not too worried ‘mdash; if T.I.’s current spot atop both the singles ation, it’s time for some intelligence to reclaim hip-hop’s crown.