How “Street Rap” Made It From the Streets to Campus

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Rap has dominated the music landscape for the last 15-20 years. It’s become the most influential and popular genre of music culturally and commercially. What was once a controversial genre that scared suburban moms everywhere, is now the background music to seemingly every viral Tik-Tok trend. Recent artists like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West (or Ye), Nicki Minaj, etc. have all become not just music icons, but icons in American pop culture. 

As rap has grown in popularity, its messages, content, and themes have had to change to fit a wider audience as well. The “mainstream-ification” of rap has led to more and more subgenres being left behind for whatever is hot. Recently, however, there has been a growing interest in darker and grimier styles of “boom-bap” rap. Some call it “street rap,” while others see it as the second coming of “gangsta rap”, the subgenre is void of many of the familiar elements of pop-rap today. Deep and foreboding piano samples, deceptively simple drum patterns, and record static take the place of up-tempo rhythms, heavy 808s, and autotune.

Spearheaded by artists like Freddie Gibbs, Boldy James, Benny the Butcher, Westside Gunn, and Conway the Machine (the last 3 all being a part of the Griselda collective), the new movement has started to break through the more melodic sound of mainstream rap. Freddie Gibbs’ album Alfredo was nominated for rap album of the year for the 2020 Grammys. Benny the Butcher recently released a track with J. Cole, while Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine featured on Kanye West’s Donda. 

In a world where rap music has gotten extremely unauthentic, “street rap” often leaves little to the imagination with its raw reality. The storytelling and atmosphere of songs such as Skinny Suge by Freddie Gibbs and ‘97 Hov by Benny the Butcher help the listener to understand the attitude, reality, and severity of the events and themes that run throughout these artists' lives. 

“Street rap’s'' distinct sound has not only catapulted the genre to newfound notoriety but also helped to inspire other artists and genres. When Grammy-winning artist Tyler, the Creator dropped his most recent album Call Me If You Get Lost, he took to Instagram to credit rapper Westside Gunn for “making me want to rap again”. 

The success of the genre has spread so far that Syracuse University’s University Union intended to put on a show with rapper Freddie Gibbs in Goldstein Auditorium (leave it the Syracuse winter to make sure nothing fun ever happens). As amazing as it would have been to watch one of modern rap’s most prolific and decorated lyricists perform in the same building as we eat lunch, it’s impossible to ignore the irony of the situation. 

“Street rap” has also grown in large part due to its “street” content. As much as we’re sure some students may feel SU isn’t in the most savory part of town, we can assure you that Marshall Street isn’t the same kind of street that these artists are referencing. As the genre continues to expand and flourish it comes under threat of being misinterpreted, misrepresented, exploited, and appropriated by those outside of its intended community. 

We’re not saying that you must stop playing your favorite Griselda songs or that you have to read an essay on the history of redlining and gentrification. But next time you’re about to recite your favorite verse, just be conscious of the difference between your struggle of getting up the mount steps and the struggles and obstacles of the artists you’re listening to.