Age as a factor - Should rappers in their late 40s still be taken seriously?

  • Thread starter Thread starter WatchWhatHappens1204
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Thread becoming extra informative though, thanks. Lil surprised at the good advice that came out the woodworks too...

I have to think about marketing most though, but you guys make it easier to consider marketability more so than just plain "he's 50" age...

Also, the last couple posts b4 this one give more aspects about the game that I wish people would think alot more about. Even though I'm that much younger, it still gives me hope between production AND artistry knowing that there's more to life than being MC I Wanna Be A Rapper Too... it pays to not be ignorant, huh...
 
I didn't know art had an age limit. I mean, if you're a 40-something year-old dude rapping about Gangsta ish, then ppl aren't really going to take you seriously.

But older rappers could have a lot of advantages - For one, their subject matter could be more mature (not explicit, just realer topics). They could have more insight into their topics.

Look at Jay-Z. How can you say he's too old. His style has matured with him as a person, and it's respectable.
 
j.troup said:
What does age have to do with it? When you hit a certain age, do you spontaneously lose your ability to put words together?? Does a walker and a hover round start growing out of your ass at 30?


It's about the music. When the songs get played on the radio, they don't say "and the new joint of the day is by 40 YEAR OLD RAPPER, MC DUSTY DUST!!!"

He's gonna look like Tone-Loc on stage.
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lmao

7mu****inchar
 
Here's an observation.
The same thing that makes you smile, makes you cry. . . .

Being founded on sampling others music could in fact be the cause for hip hops decline now. . . .

Just think if it was original music to start with, no one could take that from you. The genre wasn't based on musical instruments and skills. So the producers weren't very strong in composing to begin with. They get older and newer producers come up. The new producers are not taught musicianship either, so you have generations of sample based producers.

Then "they" pull the plug on sampling and force a genre with little instrument/ musical knowledge, to instantly come up with original music.
They are not very good at doing so, therefore the music suffers overall.

Rock n Roll, Jazz, Salsa, have never had this problem. If you couldn't play good, you wouldn't be heard of or signed. . . . .

It's like dropping out of school, sellin dope, going to jail and out on parole, then being told to get a real job. You didn't have real job skills to begin with so how will you compete now that they've stopped you from taking the easy route ?
 
Even an ugly young dude won't make it so there are a TON of ridiculous things that thwart peoples attempts at being successful in Hip Hop. Also Hip Hop only allows one fat dude to rap at a time. You had Fat Joe, then Biggie, then Pun, now Ross. Hip Hop is a genre of screwed up people and ideals but it's fun, dramatic and entertaining, lol.

Blue sky it all you want, name me somebody that's become successful in their mid 30's other than having a hard core Hip Hop fan base consisting of mostly Golden Era and BackPacker types. The Hip Hop artist does have a shelf life, it starts to expire around 27 -29. After that, they're that chicken they cover up with BBQ sauce and try to sell to people before it gets spoiled. So the 30 year old emcee has to sell out super fast and get on or he's going to be thrown in the garbage.

Radio stations don't advertise how old artists are but in the visual age of the internet... people will Google an artist right away. Lady Gaga wouldn't be Lady Gaga if people couldn't see he outfits. Nelly wouldn't have any fans if females didn't see that he lifts weights. So GrandDaddy Kane is going to have a song getting a buzz and he's going to be the equivalent of that Pants on the ground dude... a novelty act. "Hey, that old dude can spit... wonder why he didn't make it when Kurtis Blow was around?".

Oh, don't bring up the screwed up genre argument either, Smokey Robinson, Al Green, Commodores, Ojays... all still tour and when I went to the Ojays / Isley Brothers concert the Ojays said they've been around for 40 years and the Isley Brother said Thank you for 50 years... and there was nowhere to sit or barely stand and the concert was outside.

More mature subject matter? My Daughter got an A+ probably won't light up the billboard charts or My step kids get on my nerves probably won't be a good look either. How about Back Child Support or Brand New Pain in my leg?

You used to have more of a window to get in... because some people from the Golden era hadn't heard a Hip Hop record before they were 7 or 8 and it really didn't sink in until they were probably in their teens. Now you have kids that are listening to RAP music from the day they ride home from the hospital. The Rihannas and Nicki Manaj's and Biebers all cater to 15 - 22 year olds. The grown men rappers you know only cater to the people that used to like them - not the NEW youth. As time goes on, the window gets smaller. The kids that are 12 will be deep into emceeing by the time they're 17 and when you were 17 the age 30 was ANCIENT!

Like I said earlier... the FACE of Entertainment is a young one... or else there wouldn't be so much botox, plastic surgery, fake this n that going down. It is what it is. You could spit better that J Elect and J Cole... if you look like Fat Man Scoob don't expect to be all over the TV or radio.

All of the pioneers have had their day ... and they can still put words together. Check out the Rakim, Ice Cube, Scarface sales vs. Drake, Nicki, B.O.B ish...

Embrace your age, if you're not young and as spry as you used to be... sagging your pants and wearing a big hoodie isn't going to fool anybody. Switch lanes...

Beats don't have faces... they are the $5,000 suit on the artists voice. You might not know what Georgio Amani looks like but you can like his product... but not on Flava Flav. Get it.

I quit rapping when I hit 26... making another "demo" probably wasn't going to do much more than the other 5 or 6 I had made, lol. I switched over to beats and rapped over my own ish for a few years... then I realized I was approaching 30 so I figured I'd just be the backing behind that 21 year old dude that's running at full stride because I was kind of jogging at the time.
 
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Drethe5th said:
Here's an observation.
The same thing that makes you smile, makes you cry. . . .

Being founded on sampling others music could in fact be the cause for hip hops decline now. . . .

Just think if it was original music to start with, no one could take that from you. The genre wasn't based on musical instruments and skills. So the producers weren't very strong in composing to begin with. They get older and newer producers come up. The new producers are not taught musicianship either, so you have generations of sample based producers.

Then "they" pull the plug on sampling and force a genre with little instrument/ musical knowledge, to instantly come up with original music.
They are not very good at doing so, therefore the music suffers overall.

Rock n Roll, Jazz, Salsa, have never had this problem. If you couldn't play good, you wouldn't be heard of or signed. . . . .

It's like dropping out of school, sellin dope, going to jail and out on parole, then being told to get a real job. You didn't have real job skills to begin with so how will you compete now that they've stopped you from taking the easy route ?
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See that's the type of shit I get on FP for. Damn good post. I wonder about these things too though.

But then again, life on Earth is still young. Humans have an auto-habit of thinking we're advanced as hell, just because of history vs. technology, but in reality we barely know anything.

Let alone Hip Hop music, the YOUNGEST genre of music by far, period. At 31 years from its original jumpoff, Hip Hop is still in junior high school. LONG way to go...

Thinkin one of the problems is rooted in human nature anyway. The majority of people that take part in Hip Hop music, whether as artists and musicians, producers, suits, middle men, and even the fans, are bandwagon experts. They jump on the closest fashion phase smokin and ride it straight thru the next one. People aren't adopting a style for their own anymore, even as fans. It's losing its realness, its genuine delivery. Certain artists here and there are working to bring that back though, and bring it to new levels too, so I'm not too upset about it.

There's still alotta "because it's cool" going on, and that needs to die. As long as the youth is left alone to dictate the direction of music though......

EDIT ... and most of the women...
 
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Pointing out 1 or 2 mid 30's artist that get co-signs from people that are their age that made their way in the game from the mid 90's... won't apply to a lot of people.

A lot of old school artists are still better than the newer artists and they still make music... it's just that the new kids don't want to hear somebody elses Dad spittin' just like they don't want to imagine their parent doing the nasty.

It's like that old guy in the club that people think work there... "Hey, can we get some drinks over here? ... do you work here?"

There is a club in Tacoma though where Xabiton lives where the girls are in their 20's to 30's and the dudes are in their 50's to 60's, lol... and they WILL NOT talk to anybody that isn't suited and spending. We went there for a friends party and I asked a young lady why she went to that club and she said "Young dudes are a bunch of trouble and they're broke..." and she walked past me, lol.

X do you ever hit up The Eagles (or whatever it's called)?
 
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I'm gettin the feeling that Seattle is a whole different world lol... starting to seem like ALMOST everyplace east of California is the same thing...

To add, that might have been the most refreshing thing I've heard about a club in the last 5 years, lmao...

Sad that I'm only 27 and I look at my own kind like ugh sometimes... even sadder watching kids grow up today, my 10 year old nephew complains about reading... actually he whines about having to do anything other than play video games...

But coming back full circle, guess when it comes to it, that's what the kids wanna hear, or DON'T wanna see... but to be fair, I think dude needed alotta work with his flow and delivery... about the only thing he had going for him was his passion and the fact that somehow he's holding boards, studio equipment, programs, speakers, etc., and some hella stories... but my family and some peoples in NY, I might as well check him out next time I see moms or somethin.
 
Deck$ter said:
lil wayne,wiz khalifa,kanye west,jayz,lil boosie,rick ross,are all ugly, an ugly guy ccan blow up he just needs to have "swag" lol
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Their fans are band-wagoners...

Somebody that their fans knew liked those rappers first, so they started liking them too.

Once the main fan calls them wack, so will his followers.

"You still listen to Ross"

"Yeah"

"He wack now..."

"Yeah, he is kinda..."

"I don't bump him anymore"

"I probably won't either"

"You hungry?"

"Are you?"

"A little..."

"Yeah, me too..."

"Nah, I'm not hungry..."

"Me neither...."
 
biggrome said:
Their fans are band-wagoners...

Somebody that their fans knew liked those rappers first, so they started liking them too.

Once the main fan calls them wack, so will his followers.

"You still listen to Ross"

"Yeah"

"He wack now..."

"Yeah, he is kinda..."

"I don't bump him anymore"

"I probably won't either"

"You hungry?"

"Are you?"

"A little..."

"Yeah, me too..."

"Nah, I'm not hungry..."

"Me neither...."
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:cheers: lol.

rome know his shit
 
skee.taste said:
:cheers: lol.

rome know his shit
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Kids try to do that to my son. I tell him to be his own person.

Now he gets it.

Everytime I think of stuff like this I always remember my friend driving up playing Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby and trying to sell us on it. This was before Vanilla Ice was Vanilla Ice - it was like a single and he had on a pink shirt or something and my friend kept saying "This is going to blow up!!!" and we told him that we didn't care, lol. He tossed it out of the window.
 
Okay what about rappers in their 40s who are actually talented but who don't want to be in the media?
 
t2dam said:
Okay what about rappers in their 40s who are actually talented but who don't want to be in the media?
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If the rapper doesn't want to be in the media then they should be fine.

... when you think about words like stylist, photo shoot, magazine cover, etc...

well not even those words... just think "marketable" outside of emceeing. If there are limitations in that area then normally the rapper won't become a huge success.

Do you think that if Ted Williams had shown up on that corner and said he had the God Given Gift of Rap that anybody would've really cared?

"I fell victim to alcohol and drugs but I can really rap..."

"Ummm..."
 
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Cool, I'm 29 and I don't want anything to do with the industry except the sound quality, so I guess I'll be rapping with my grand children LOL.
 
t2dam said:
Cool, I'm 29 and I don't want anything to do with the industry except the sound quality, so I guess I'll be rapping with my grand children LOL.
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Well, if you look at it from that standpoint... 29 is young.

It just seems that now-a-days people want the ARTIST to be young. I don't think age matters as much in any of the the music biz related jobs.

It's looking like producers are going to have to be younger because people will see them as being able to stay in touch longer with a young crowd. I only say that from a "getting signed" perspective. Most producers are "work for hire" types and your music stands on it's own one song at a time. You can make 10 flops and stumble upon a banger or you can make consistent bangers and sell 'em all individually.

As the internet progresses though, A 40 year old emcee may be able to find his market on his own... he just can't try to cater to the Soulja Boy crowd... so since he's not on a label, he's not at the mercy of the Soulja Boy crowd. He might have to cater to the women on lipstickalley.com or something... basically, track down hubs for people that can relate to him and his music.

Ehh... let him rap but just don't expect to steal J. Cole, Drake and Curren$y fans...
 
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