The Era Of Party Rap

Before anyone flips out and hops on the old school bandwagon that claims 90 percent of today’s rap “Isn’t real rap”, you’re not wrong, but read this first.

In 2012, an up and coming Atlanta rapper by the name of Future was catching major criticism from the internet after the release of his debut album, Pluto. For many people, this was their first dose of the Freebandz wave and the mumbled lyrics mixed with the repetitive beats had every hip hop head planning a banishment of all things Future from the music scene.

Fast forward two years to the release of what is now considered a classic in his discography, Monster, along with his second studio album, Honest. Now what? It seemed like there were far less people on the Anti-Future wave and the hardcore hip hop fans were slowly beginning to get outnumbered. But who’s to blame. You can’t sit here and say that you didn’t bump “Move that Dope” when it first dropped.

All of sudden, Future was an innovator, ahead of the industry and inspiring artists from both Atlanta and nationwide to follow in his footsteps. We start seeing artists Like Young Thug, Uzi, and Migos gaining some mainstream plays, but what do they all have in common? Every single one of these artists saw more hate from the rap community when they first came up than they probably saw plays on their songs. Nonetheless though, they’re still here in 2018 and they are at the top of the Industry.

What happened? Rap is about musical poetry. Lyrics are easily the most important ingredient to being a successful artist in the genre, so how is it that these guys are making a living off songs with no substance and 4-8 bar instrumental loops. Party rap is the reason why.

Let’s look at some other genres and the history of music itself.

Rock arguably has one the longest runs as music’s most popular genre because it was a refresh of the Big-band-Sinatra era that everyone’s parents and grandparents listened to. It started with long hair and Rock n’ Roll, but do you still see bands inspired by Aerosmith and AC/DC getting the same mainstream play that they did 40 years ago? Of course not, because the times have changed and sub genres that have evolved from the roots of this wave are genres all on their own now. If you went back to 1975 and played a song from 21 pilots to the guys at the record shop, you would probably never be let in there ever again.

Do you see any similarities? Listeners became obsessed with the lyrics and catchy vibes that were coming out of both coasts in America in the late 80’s and early 90’s. However, do you still hear lyrics like Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, hell no, because rap has evolved and we have seen the birth of many different sub genres since. The early 2000’s saw crunk, the later years saw the birth of trap. You can also argue that conscious rap, gospel rap, and freestyle rap fit the definition as well. Now it’s 2018 and everyone just wants to party and bump hard music all the time. It’s the wave that Future started (some say it was Wayne but I personally disagree) and it’s the wave of party rap.

Party rap is any song you can put on in a scene and turn it into a banger. You don’t pay attention to the lyrics when you’re in the club, you just want it to be catchy enough for you to be able to dance to. It compliments the state that your in which is that your too lit to know what anyone is saying, but you’re still having the time of your life. That’s what artists like Future and Young Thug set out to accomplish with their music and they’ve done a pretty solid job at this point in their careers.

Why is this all important though? So what if it’s considered party rap? It’s still not rap. That’s where you would be correct, because it’s not rap, it is it’s own subgenre that has evolved from mainstream patterns in the rap industry. When Lil Pump and 6ix9ine make music, they have no intention of trying to make our genre’s forefathers happy, they want to live their life like rock stars and make music people can get hype and turn up to. Again does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Look, in no way am I advocating for these two artists or any of the other lil whatevers that are doing the same thing. As you may or may not be able to tell from our content, their style doesn’t exactly fit our taste. That being said, categorizing them into their own sub genre helps keep the image of what real rap stands for, clean. There’s still evidence of this style in almost every artist in the business, but great artists pull from multiple genres to create something unique, it just so happens that you can bump “NEVER” while still being in disbelief at the bars that J.I.D. spits. Bottom line You don’t have to listen to true party rap if you don’t want to, just know that it’s there whether you like it or not, at least for now.