Stepping Up Their Lyrical Game

A few years ago, when fraudulent artists posed as rappers and garbage flooded the radio posing as hip-hop, it appeared that this wonderful art form was on the serious decline. It even forced Nas to put out an album claiming that hip-hop had died. Luckily, artists from the underground and the above ground showed their faces and hip-hop was saved. Jay-Z stepped up his lyrical game, Nas put out "Untitled," The Roots dropped "Rising Down," Lupe put out "The Cool," and artists that came into the game who really had no lyrical talent began being called out. Now, as up and comers such as Wale, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, Curren$y, Saigon, and many others wait their turn, if you don't have lyrical talent, hip-hop is not going to let you in. For me, it is sort of a Golden Age of hip-hop with so many good artists coming out and making good music again.

I find it funny though, that artists that once could get by making club bangers and simple raps woke up and realized that was no longer going to cut it. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

Joe Budden-Remember when he put out "Pump It Up"? I just listened to it and his lyrics are so simple, perfectly fitting into what all rappers were doing at the time, which was making hits for the club so their songs would get radio play. Does anyone remember the song he did with Marques Houston called "Clubbin"? His guest verse consists of our man Joe saying "Uhhhhhhhh!" and describing how he is going to get a girl home from the club. Houston is rocking a Tim Couch jersey in the video (shown at the bottom) so you know how bad this song must be. It is amazing how far Budden has come. On his latest CD, "Padded Room," Budden dives deep into many subjects, and the complexity of his raps makes me wonder where "Pump It Up" came from.



Royce Da 5'9"-As a former label mate of Eminem, you would think Royce would have always come hard with the lyrics, right? Unfortunately, Royce was not always the beast is now as part of Slaughterhouse. I found an old mixed CD at my house, and on it appeared the song "Rock City" that features Eminem. Royce has two very weak verses on the song, rhyming the same words over and over again and bragging about how tough he is, but without the lyrical creativity that he possesses now. See for yourself:



MIMS-Although "This is Why I'm Hot" became a huge radio hit, we all can agree that MIMS was not exactly the best MC in the game. In fact, the chorus is pretty terrible. But on his new song, "Move (If You Wanna)," MIMS brings some pretty creative metaphors along with an extremely catchy beat. "I am your father like Darth Vader," spits MIMS. Looks like these guys have stepped up their lyrical game!