Hip hop, rap have lost their touch

I am often teased by my peers and colleagues for being the ghetto girl with valley girl tendencies. They have even gone as far as nicknaming me “Boughetto.”

When I come into The Famuan office, I am usually singing Ashley Simpson or Hoobastank, and I keep the radio tuned to variety stations like WJAD-98.9 FM or WHTF-104.9 FM.

They complain about the fact that I am always listening to what they call, “white people” music.

But if you ask me, I just have eclectic taste. I mean, I listen to rap but someone has to admit, it is just not what it used to be. Honestly, it sucks. Our generation has experienced a dark age in hip hop.

Think about it. With all the new technology, I mean, yes, beats have improved. But if you take away from the beats, what do you have? Some I-gotta-brag-about-all-the-things-I-bought-with-my-first-big-check rappers flowing about money, cars and well you know.

Now there are a few socially conscious rappers such as Talib Kweli, Common and Mos Def. Then, there are the metaphoric geniuses, Nas and Jay-Z. I’ll even throw in the new “it-boys” Kanye West and Lil’ Wayne.

But when you start turning on the radio to hear the likes of some locals rapping about plain white T-shirts or the kids of “crunk” yelling for you to “knuck if you buck,” it is a problem. What does that mean anyway?

It has come to the point where people like me are forced to go to the clubs and pretend we actually are enjoying the poorly arranged mixture of infantile lyrics over a recycled beat.

Let’s face the truth: Hip hop, rap, whatever you want to call it, is going down the drain.

I hope it won’t succumb to the new era of I-just-want-to-get-a-deal artists.

Maybe the few good men and women of the rap genre will be able to save hip hop and make it like it was, before it reaches its unnecessary demise.

Until then, I’ll stay tuned to artists like Maroon 5 and Yellowcard.

Diamond Washington is a junior magazine production student from Miami. She is the Lifestyles Editor. Contact her at famuanlifestyles@hotmail.com