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In 2013, Kanye West was mocked by mainstream media for making his bold claim that Hip-Hop music is the most influential music of our generation. It seems, once again, that the world owes Kanye an apology. According to Nielsen Music, the largest media analytic company in the world, Hip-Hop and R&B music is now the most listened to genre in the United States, for the first time in its brief history. In 2017, 24.5% of all music consumed in the United States belonged to the Hip-Hop/R&B genre, the largest share for any genre. What genre did Hip-Hop take the crown of the music industry from? Of course, it was Rock music. On one hand, that suggests that perhaps Kanye didn't go far enough with his assertion. Hip-Hop is now the definition of mainstream Pop music, not just a substitute for Rock n' Roll. On the other hand, perhaps this meteoric rise of Hip-Hop in the last decade was caused by an transition in the genre away from counter-culture influences that inspired Hip-Hop in its earlier years and towards the mainstream tastes of current audiences.

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Traditional Hip-Hop and its cultural perceptions stem from the sounds of the 90s and early 2000s. Through the raw, yet polished, story telling from artists like Tupac, Biggie, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and Ice Cube, American hip-hop listeners were able to dive deep into the post War on Drugs world of the inner cities from a distance. These artists, molded by the drug and gang violence, police brutality, and systemic racism in the inner cities, summarized the internal and external experiences of Black American men. Their common dilemma of not being able to trust their own community because of poverty, and also not being able to depend on white America and bureaucracy for support, allowed for hip-hop to serve as a common symbol of inner-city pride and of unified black resistance to widespread oppression by American society and authorities. As hip-hop entered into the mainstream music industry scene during the early 2000s​, putting to rest the East vs. West Coast battles of 90s hip-hop, it has begun to merge in sound production with the synthetic pop sound and electronic music. Specifically, hedonism has taken over hip-hop in an effort by artists to directly connect to their audiences. Whether this lyrical evolution has tainted the value of art is up to the listener, but there is no doubt that rap is now dominated by Atlanta's "trap" scene. The trap sound, fueled by advancements in synthetic music technology, such as auto-tune and stronger basses, glorifies luxury brands, expensive drug use, and the artists' personal wealth. By appealing to the universal desire for wealth and pleasure, rather than the audience's ability to sympathize with extreme poverty and systemic oppression, modern hip-hop artists have successfully tapped into the mainstream American audience.

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Evolution

"Rap the new rock 'n roll. We culture. Rap is the new rock 'n roll. We the rockstars."

Kanye West

MISSION

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My objective in From Counter-Culture to the Culture is to provide a quantitative and palpable representation on how hip-hop's lyrical focus on money has evolved across different American hip-hop scenes. In the 90s, hip-hop featured narrative masterpieces about black poverty in America, as the artists continued to experience poverty and violence through their adulthood, exemplified by 2Pac and Biggie's assassinations. Modern rappers, however, are the children of America's failing cities during the 90s and 80s who actually escaped poverty and used their talents to find fame and fortune. Thus, it makes  sense why modern rap struggles to find a lyrical identity. On one side artists,. like Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z continue the tradition of storytelling, using a more modern sound to combat modern racial injustice. And then there are the new generation of artists from Atlanta, like Migos, Young Thug, Future, Lil Pump, and 21 Savage, who have mastered the art of "feel engineering" at the expense of storytelling. Ultimately, while hip-hop has become the most dominant genre on the outside, modern hedonism and consumerism has made the genre more divided than ever before on the inside. 

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Each cities' tab features three modern albums from that respective cities' major hip-hop artists, determined by yours' truly. I conducted a statistical analysis of the percentage of lyrics in all nine albums that attempt to boast about wealth, luxury goods, and expensive recreational drug use. The data reveals that the traditional hip-hop scenes of LA and New York City have remained dedicated to rich storytelling about the experiences of 21st century black communities. Atlanta, the home of hip-hop's booming trap scene, has taken an entirely different lyrical approach, as its artists glorify hedonism and consumerism. Followed by the statistical percentage for each song, you will have an attempt to listen to songs from the albums. You will find not just a drastic contrast in lyrical content, but also a shocking difference in production and feel that conveys hip-hop's diverse range of sounds and tastes. Here is an extreme example of these differences, comparing J.Cole and Lil Pump. Pay attention to both the music video and the lyrical content, as you will notice how the trap scene significantly differs from traditional hip-hop

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