Hip-hop was allegedly the most accepted genre of music in the olden days of 2 Pac, B.I.G, Big Pun, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim and their contemporaries. The set of rappers that took over from them which had the likes of Jay Z, Common, Nas, Eminem, Remy Ma, Trina, 50 Cent, Slaughter House, P. Diddy and the rest still maintained the Hip-hop culture as you would hardly hear a song back then, no matter the genre or country it came from without a bit of rap on it.
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The rap culture was kept very much alive with the new generational rappers such as Big Sean, Meek Mill, Drake, Joyner Lucas, Logic, Hopsin, Wale, J. Cole, Pusha T and Kendrick Lamar as the leader of the new school.
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However, with the arrival of artistes like Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage and their likes, things suddenly took a different dimension as they brought a new genre of music which was carved from Rap/Hip-hop called “trap music“. The trappers came and stole rap music with their trap music. And then out of nowhere, rap music went to the drainage. Even some rappers started switching from ‘rap music’s to ‘trap music’.
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Fast forwarded to 2018, rap music is now facing a rebirth worldwide as rappers are now working so hard to bring back the lost glory of Hip-hop. The year 2018 seems to be the rebirth of Rap/Hip-Hop. This year, we have witnessed a tremendous growth as new and classic Hip-hop albums keep emerging from both the old and new school rappers.
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In 2018 we’ve seen many rappers releasing dope albums and projects. J.Cole released “KOD“, which was a masterpiece. Nas released “Nasir”. Jay Z and Beyonce worked on an album together titled “Everything is Love”. Pusha T released “Daytona”. Drake released “Scorpion”. Nicki Minaj released “Queen“. And just recently, the rap god, Eminem surprised us with an unannounced album titled “Kamikaze“. And I must confess that all those albums are nothing but classics.
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In Nigeria and Africa at large, things are not different. Nasty C from South Africa released a dope Hip-hop album titled “Strings and Blings”, which got him the new title of “Best Rapper in Africa” as postulated by Wizkid, Burna Boy and many other African artistes.
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Just like the Western world, the Hip-hop culture in Nigeria has also faded and went to the drainage, which prompted the self acclaimed Nigerian rap messaiah, M.I Abaga to release a song titled “You Rappers Should Fix Up Your Lives“. On the song, M.I accuses Nigerian rappers of switching from rapping to singing just to make money and as such, allowing their South African counterparts to be killing them. M.I Abaga’s statement brought a lot of controversy and criticisms, and that geared many rappers into re-engineering their tactics and lyrics.
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Just like the American rappers, Nigerian rappers have also been releasing classic albums and projects. Terry Tha Rapman released a mixtape titled “The Life of Joe Spasm“, which was a classic. Ice Prince released the “Cold E.P”. Loose Kaynon and AQ released a joint project titled “Crown” which flooded the streets. M.I Abaga released an album titled “Yxng Dxnzl”, which got everyone talking about it. Blaqbonez released his album titled “Bad Boy Blaq”, which brought in a new debate about who is a better rapper between Blaq Bonez and Nasty C. It can be recalled that on Blaq Bonez’s You Rappers Should Fix Up Your Lives response to M.I Abaga, Blaq stated that “Nasty C ain’t got nothing on me”. I guess that explains the reason for the debate.
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As if that’s not enough, we still have many rappers working on classic projects that will be out before the year runs out. Terry Tha Rapman’s album “Blame it on Hip-hop” will be released later this year. King Sniffy’s “Arewa Invasion E.P” is coming later this year. Grammyboi is also set to release his E.P, “Kd to Lasgidi“. Borgrin’s “BOB Tha E.P” is coming soon. And many more.
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With all these projects that have been released and those that we are still anticipating and waiting for, I guess just like 9ice, ‘No Be Mistake’ if I say that 2018 marks the renaissance of Hip-hop because there has never been a year in which classic Hip-hop albums have been released like 2018.
They call me King Sniffy.
Twitter: @Kingsniffy
