Cheat Codes

Listening to this album and not liking it actually resolved one of my greatest inner conflicts in hip-hop

Let me start by saying that I love hip-hop and ever since getting into music it’s become my favorite genre. But, recently the Travis Scott Pusha T beef has highlighted a huge problem in hip-hop that has been hugely bothering me. That problem being, despite Push absolutely bodying Travis (his only response was like 2 terrible lines on one jb2 song lmao) people on Twitter and Instagram have been praising Travis and Jackboys and dragging Pusha T and lgseo, saying things like “who even listens to Pusha T” and “jb2 > lgseo” which just highlights a larger issue in the hip-hop community, that being the polirazation of people who enjoy old school and new school hip-hop. It’s become you either listen to new-age, non-lyrical trap or listen to 90s conscious boom bap and beconsidered an unc, two groups that have it out for each other, evidenced in this current beef with people saying Pusha T sucks and jb2 is great (when the inverse is true) This can be extended to hip-hop as a whole though, as any old rap enjoyer says that old rap is the best and without being lyrical new rap will never be as good as it was in the good old days, while the new rap fans just call any old rap fans unc and end it there.

Now, here’s where I personally come in. I could’ve just chopped this up to Twitter being toxic and left the clearly online-ragebait-slop alone, but this issue has nagged at me ever since the beef began. Why I’m so conflicted about this is because, upon first glance, I kind of agree with the new gens: I don’t like Illmatic or any Wu-Tang affiliated music, and I’m not even a huge fan of MF DOOM, and my current 5 favorite albums are all 2010s un lyrical new age rap albums. So for the last few weeks, I’ve been asking myself questions like “Am I just like those stupid Twitter people?” “Does 90s rap just suck?” Until I listened to Cheat Codes and it didn’t do a lot for me did I finally realize the key distinction that solves my conflict: ITS ALL HIP-HOP. ANY STYLE OF RAP IS GOOD RAP. By realizing this, I found the flaw in the Twitter slop and realized what makes me different: by picking a side to be on, they’re discrediting the artistry and objective greatness of the other side. So, with this realization, I no longer feel guilty log for liking new gen rap style and not liking old style rap, as while I can appreciate it for being great and see why people like it so much, it’s just personally not my thing. So, while I don’t like Cheat Codes that much, I still believe it to be a great album and Black Thought to be a top 10 rapper of all time.