Rap Gets Real – Rap is changing. High profile UK artists such as Stormzy and Dave are shunning the genre’s dominant tropes of hypermasculinity and aggression. Instead they’re putting their battles with mental illness at the forefront of their music.

26 comments

  3. Stormzy is a bit of a cunt but Dave is amazing. His song ‘Black’ and performances at the Brits in 2020 and this year were amazing.

    Guy is really smart and socially aware and doesn’t seem like a knob.

  4. Not sure you can say ‘rap is changing’ as though it’s all encompassing; *some* rap may be changing…

    > shunning the genre’s dominant tropes of hypermasculinity and aggression.

    …some rap (or rappers) just got found [guilty of assaulting their partners and caught on film assaulting a photographer](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/mar/07/dizzee-rascal-found-guilty-of-assaulting-ex-fiancee) the day the verdict was handed out…

    …and some has become Drill music instead and [makes songs about the victims they claim to have murdered](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-50714625) in gang wars.

    Still, hopefully more will follow Stomzy’s suit than those above.

  5. >I want to say a little something that’s long overdue.
    >
    >The disrespect to women has got to be through.
    >
    >To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends,
    >
    >I want to offer my love and respect to the end.

    *Beastie Boys – Sure Shot – 1994*

  8. “The Slim Shady LP” was released in ‘99 and talks extensively about mental health. It’s hardly a new phenomenon.

  12. I’m a fan of them both especially Dave, but to say they are “shunning hypermasculinity” is bollocks

    >I’m seein’ man send indirects
    If you wanna war man then you better be vocal
    My right hand got a semi, that’s local
    And this Browning, I can’t post on socials
    My girl gotta be far from social, I don’t wanna see her at Carni
    Four-double-eight in the party, LBC how I nicked the Ferrari

  13. Rap does not change wholesale. Trends come and go but the general content is still as hyper masculine and sexist as ever. I say this as an ardent fan

  15. If you like hip hop/rap with meaningful lyrics I recommend you try out “Atmosphere” the final verse in the track “Yesterday” gave me goosebumps and bought tears to my eyes, the singer has some awesome flow and plenty of feel good vibes throughout many of their other tracks too, peace

  16. Rap is getting worse in the UK with regards to violence, promotion of drug dealing and gang activity and sexism.

    Drill music and the response videos are directly related to an increase in stabbings between groups. The cultural impact of drill and grime has wannabe Road men all over the UK copying the accent,clothing, words and actions of those rappers.

    If anything rap in the UK seems to be more heavily trending towards hypermasculinity than away from it. The occasional “deep” song from a mainstream artist does little to detract away from the majority of songs.

    Just look at the lyrics in clash by Dave and Stormzy.

  17. I think the most insightful opinion of the whole broadcast was Remi Burgz commentary on why rap has a (mis)conception of focus on violence, misogyny, and hypermasculinity. It can seem that rap is somewhat one dimensional because historically these are the trends which have been popular. That probably says more about us as the consumers, because anyone who know anything about rap can list conscious rap tracks devoid of such traits in every year going back 30 years or more.

    Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? Certainly UK rap has seen a rise in introspection, Dave and Stormzy are both cited as examples of recent exploration into mental health. But has this change in rap come about from a national mindfulness of mental health, or are we lead to believe that these artists have started something new? I’m of the opinion that this is just a continuation of rap being a dialogue on real life. Mental health discussions have been at the forefront for years now and popular music has simply caught up to discuss these issues, this is the case across all popular genres, not just rap.

  19. Rap went weird and shit after about 1997. Fight me. Nowadays the “hip hop” channel on Apple Music just scares and confuses me. Why do people think repeating the same word at the end of a line is rhyming?

    Yo, I got bare Peng in the whip

    I ride to lidl in the whip

    I give my mum a lift to the doctors in the whip

    I wank over jazzmags in the whip

    ​

    I remember when rappers CHANGED the words to other words that rhyme. Surely repeating the fucking word is poor show?

  21. > High profile UK artists such as Stormzy and Dave are shunning the genre’s dominant tropes of hypermasculinity and aggression

    Hm, except they aren’t.

  22. Also Stormzy: I don’t need a shank, I got money in the bank and I’d rather do a drive by – or something along those lines lol

  24. Rap was always about ‘real’ issues though wasn’t it? Tupac Changes has fantastic lyrics. Wasn’t it just recently when it all seemed to get a bit superficial? I’m glad these guys are bringing it back to what it was always meant to be as far as I was aware- an expression of truth, pain and the struggles and meaning of life. Nice one.

  25. The BBC is always late to pick up what’s going on in the music scene. They then latch onto an artist and assume that what they’re doing is the pinnacle of the music scene, completely missing the fact that a lot of hip hop isn’t about toxic masculinity and hasn’t been for 30 odd years

  26. _’London Posse’_ had some really controversial lyrics from the late 80s, early 90s about National Front Skinheads, racial abuse, black British identity, IRA etc ..

    _… And you can tell I’m a fucking nigga lover, same color as my … bigger brother and father and I’m rather glad, he ain’t a fucking old cunt. Who’s a National Front jerk, outta work cos he’s a big bastard, blamin’ a spade, every time he gets plastered, that’s why I never be the county bounty (?) or a power cat/gang (?)… is just like Arafat (?) with a Molotov-Cocktail, you wanna try our way and run things like the I.R.A., fucking up every cunt that you’re … pig dog, I’d rather be called nig nog, comes far with the bad…and he learns …… words, to erase this bastard (?) ‘cos when you’re black. It’s all about being a ruffneck mugstah_ – _gangster chronicle_ 1990

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