The Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am spoke about the current state of hip-hop during a recent interview with Rolling Stone, and he said it’s changed for the worse because of how easy it is to make these days.
He mainly blamed the decline on all the technological advances in music production. He believes an artist doesn’t have to be a musician in the traditional sense to make a song.
And it’s that kind of accessibility to making rap music that’s taken away some of its quality, said Will but it’s also what makes it the most popular genre.
“What’s the number-one sport on the planet?” Will asked. “Soccer, because anyone can play it. The problem with hip-hop is everybody could do it. It doesn’t take much f—ing skill right now to make hip-hop. It’s become the lowest-hanging fruit. It’s no longer about Rakim-level, Nas-level, not the deep, metaphorical simile sh–. Out of respect for the Nases of the world, let’s not call it hip-hop. Let’s say that’s rap.”
The L..A. native then said that making instrumentals will be the new way to show skill and separate the advanced musician from the novice. He also predicted there will be a famous rapper made of artificial intelligence one day.
“The John Coltranes, the Stan Getzes, the Jimi Hendrixes, the musicianship. That’s the only way to prove intelligence or taste: demonstrating your artistry,” said Will. “Right now we’re competing human on human and eventually we’ll be competing human on machine. The moment there’s a f—ing AI mumble rapper. It’s inevitable, bro.”
