This year marked the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. Through the celebrations of the successes of hip hop, many have had to digest the negative impact that hip hop has had on the culture of the black community by glorifying all of the things that imprison black men and signal dangerous virtues to black women. The most glaring issue with hip hop has been the lack of maturity of the artists. Rick Ross for instance raps the same way about the same things (+ more brags about how much money he has and how much he’s purchasing) at the age of 49 that he did at the age of 29. In a normal society, this would be hard to do. a 49 year old man’s experiences are far different that those of a 29 year old man. As you enter into your middle ages, grandchildren, legacy..etc take shape. However, instead of self reflection, rappers are more concerned about alienating what people thing they were about than their actual growth as artists.
Here lies the difference between Andre 3000 and the rest of the hip hop world. “I’m 48 years old. And not to say that age is a thing that dictates what you rap about, but in a way it does,” he continued. “And things that happen in my life, like, what are you talking about? ‘I got to go get a colonoscopy.’ What are you rapping about? ‘My eyesight is going bad.’ You can find cool ways to say it, but….” stated Andre as he explained why his new album would be different.
Therein lies the truth. Instead of competing with his son for the same girl or rapping about things that would be fictitious to a 50 yr old man, he decided to make an album that contained not one rap and showcased him playing the flute in a peaceful Enya sort of way. Even with the switch up, Andre wasn’t even known to have nihilistic lyrics similar to artists like Rick Ross who only rapped about violating women. Then again, it would make sense that an artist similar to Andre 3000 would understand the true progress that needed to be made for Hip Hop. The ability to Evolve. For artists to really be better and help with black community , they would need to evolve with what the times need. This is why Andre 3000 is the hero that Hip Hop always needed. He had the courage to step so far out of the boundry that hopefully he inspires other artists to evolve from the nihilistic nature of hip hop.
