Hip-Hop Today

Hip-hop has flooded every cultural nook and cranny of the 21st Century’s fledgling second decade: it’s a living, evolving creative phenomenon — new beats are hatched, old grooves re-energized, statements slammed down, samples shuffled and sonic history re-written. The truly astonishing, exceptionally prolific Tyler, The Creator heads up our selection of contemporary hip-hop standouts with “Yonkers”, and Lil Wayne kicks in with “6 Foot 7 Foot” (feat. Corey Gunz) . . . then resurfaces alongside Eminem and Kanye on Drake’s slam-dunked More Than a Game track, “Forever”. Closer to home, Giggs retools Dre/Stat Quo’s “Here We Go” on 2008’s “Talking the Hardest”.

We go all anamorphic on today’s big hip-hop picture, in Next Steps.

The widescreen scope of hip-hop has taken the once-marginal movement across national borders, as rappers have pursued every conceivable opportunity for cultural crossover — which is why we find livewire cinematic connections among these Next Steps. Swizz Beats and Busta Rhymes join forces for “Stop the Party”, inspired by the predominantly metallic Iron Man, specifically the second instalment of that franchise’s featured score work by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, who also throws his hat into the ring with Cypress Hill on “Rise Up”. The tight ties binding rap to rock are also evident on the backing track for Chamillionaire’s “Make a Movie”.

Digmund Freud meets Stig of the Dump, in Deep Cuts.

So many beats and rhymes, so much mind-blowing talent and mould-breaking invention . . . we continue our grand tour of the current hip-hop universe with Young Money Entertainment stable star Gudda Gudda (“Young Money Hospital”), The-Dream — tipping his cap in the direction of Michael Jackson with the Kanye-assisted, uptempo R&B groove “Walkin’ on the Moon” — and London’s Mystro, mixing psycho-analysis with personal alter-ego philosophy on the easy-flowing “Digmund Freud”. Stig of the Dump brings the heat “like an arsonist”, as he puts it, on “I Got Game”, while Bashy puts Baby D. through his mixer, and tees-up a Preeya Kalidas vocal, on “Fantasy”.

The evolution and global spread of hip-hop since its genesis in the Bronx in the late-70s has been nothing short of astonishing — from its pioneering breakbeat roots and old-school origins through mainstream commercialization, via gangsta rap and cutting-edge alternative/underground explorations, hip-hop has always managed to stay fresh and ahead of the curve . . . and as we enter the second decade of the 21st Century, the genre continues to transform itself like some supercharged Darwinian musical mutant, embracing all manner of crossover styles, and saturating the pop landscape. Now’s the time to get up to speed, with Kano and Tyga; Wiley, Chingy and Bashy; Big Boi and Big Punisher; Nottz and Dels; and many more.