Best Rap Album or Just the favorite right now

Cardi B is hot! We get it! She is sexy, she is charismatic, she has so much popular appeal but winning Best Rap Album at the 2019 Grammy's took things to a new level for how rap has become more and more a contest for popularity than the art itself.

This is not an article to bash Cardi and her success but more so to establish a sense of perspective. First things first is that I want to congratulate Cardi on her win, and say that without a doubt she is on a very impressive run. Even in the midst of having a child she continues to make sure her name goes no where. That in itself is an amazing feat seeing just how grueling and challenging being a star in the music industry can be.

However, this win just put things in a perspective about where the state of hip hop is at. If I want to be honest it all starts with the hip hop culture being overtaken by the pop necessity that Drake has created. We have come to a place in hip hop where the celebration over message and lyrics has been over taken with the celebration of image and mood. Hip Hop has turned into a quest for making music that asks "how it makes you feel" rather than "what is the music literally saying and feeding you". In the short run it sounds fantastic but when you strip things down to it's core you begin to understand that hip hop has lost its essential functions.

No longer are we tuning in to learn about ourselves, communities, or how to elevate. No longer are we being captivated by an emcee's ability to put words together to re-create vivid pictures and moments through similes and metaphors for the minds eye. Now we are just being sold on materialism, ego, money, drugs, sex and the occasional I'm "realer" than everyone else track. Don't get me wrong drugs have always had their place in hip hop, but the drug was the invitation for something greater.

Everything is lit, equals a lot of music being shit! Substance is no longer the goal, unless we have created a time where everything now is about feeding ego and underlying narcissism. If that is so, then it goes to further prove we have strayed away from what is Hip Hop. Now by no means am I saying that Pusha T, Nipsey Hussle and those alike are relaying messages that are uplifting. And I use the word uplifting because for some there music is motivation, but it's all self indulging motivation. Nevertheless I make this reach in stressing that one of them deserved the award over Cardi due to the fact that their lyricism was there, the word play was there, the metaphors and imagery was there, and the desire to be an emcee was there on their respective albums.

Cardi is an act. Possibly a soon to be novelty act depending on how trends swing. But an act she is and not an emcee. Best Rap Album should be going to those still putting forth the effort to uphold the foundational principles of that genre. If not then we need to re-write that award to Best Rap Act, and leave the music out of the equation, because the award is being given out as popularity compensation.