swag rport.

words: swagrporters

Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t. Rappers, often pursuing a career in the game to escape poverty, are accused of “selling out” for achieving commercial success. In The Tale of Two Taylors, Swagrport covered the variation in style and subject matter from Wiz Khalifa’s studio albums to that of his mixtapes, leading many of his long-time supporters to hate on his recent commercial success. I honestly couldn’t even support Rolling Papers. While copying the sound and style that has proven to be popular doesn’t guarantee commercial acclaim, it definitely doesn’t hurt either.

In Jay’s track, ‘Moment of Clarity,’ from The Black Album he breeches the topic of dumbing down his subject matter on previous albums, starting with Vol 2: A Hard Knock Life. Complex wrote a compelling piece on the album and claims that Jay’s line about “dumbing it down to double his dollars” serves as an introduction to new fans. “Allow me to reintroduce myself,” if you will. They claim that it alienates the Jay fans that had been down from the jump because it “betrays a back-catalog that [true fans] defend to the death in the Jay Z vs. Nas wars.” 

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We at Swagrport disagree. Rather than alienating them, I believe this is an appeal to those true fans. Jay is justifying that he hasn’t fallen off or lost sight of what makes true hip-hop. He has chosen to be a businessman that is a business, man. How could you argue with that logic when Vol 2 went platinum 5 times over, as the line points out? 

Whether or not you agree with Jay’s appeal in this line, one thing is clear: The Black Album was the start of a new era in Jay’s career. He dropped the intricate rhyme schemes that won him notoriety in the game and instead adopted an intuitive pattern of couplets. Predictable and easily digestible to even the most casual hip-hop fan. At the same time he assumed a maturation in subject matter a la his track “30 Something.”

Jay isn’t the only artist to struggle with this paradigm in a public context. Common and Talib Kweli have remained under the radar of massive commercial success for years despite being acclaimed two of the most technically talented rappers in the game. Lupe Fiasco also blatantly tackles the issue in his “Dumb it Down” track. He explains in complex couplets, rife with innuendos and metaphors, that he is deaf to the pressure to change his subject matter. He has chosen to pursue his own fulfillment rather than commercial success. This is in line with his promise to release no more than 3 studio albums, although that claim was later breeched due to his contractual obligations to his label. 

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A name that has been left out of this conversation, at least to date, is J. Cole. It should come as no surprise that a rapper who graduated magna cum laude from St. John’s University lays down an intellectual and technical subject matter. In the closing track off of his Warm Up mixtape, Cole explains that, “I used college as a tool to get to New York. I ain't have no family up here or nothing like that, I came up here on a scholarship.” While that may be true, there were some lessons from his Communications major and Business minor that shine through in more than his subject matter. 

Cole’s verses speak to a generation of young professional men. The kind of man that is educated and on his paper chase. The kind of man who knows better but still can’t deny the demons that plague each and every one of us. 

In a December 2013 interview with Hardrock TV, J. Cole tackles the issue directly. He explains that, “dumbing down is smart.” Not that it’s smart to simplify your music to sell more records. He means that it takes a truly brilliant artist to serve a subject matter that a wide pop-culture audience is able to easily digest while simultaneously painting a beautiful metaphor that only the true hip-hop heads will appreciate. He is speaking about a work of art that is both easy to comprehend at a single listen but rich with sub-context and double meanings. He’s talking about true hip-hop.

In his “Lights Please,” track first appearing on Warm Up and later on his debut studio album, Young Simba details a conversation with an unnamed female character. To the casual listener, it’s a song about getting with a girl; a topic that appeals to a broad audience. The discerning listener will realize that he tries to stand strong to show this woman, who represents a generation of objectified women, the respect she deserves of men but inevitably falls victim to the physical temptations. However, the true hip-hop heads will uncover that he isn’t talking about a woman at all but is instead speaking about his relationship with hip-hop and his desire to be respected as an artist while tempted to given in to what is commercially successful. 

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When Jay dumbed down for audience to double his dollars we all still yelled “holla” because Jay was still making incredible music. What Jay and now J. Cole have mastered is to create music that appeals to the masses of pop-culture while still crafting a beautiful narrative. Moving units while staying true to the game. 

Before you jump to accusing your favorite artist of selling-out, why don’t you give the record another spin and make sure the metaphor hasn’t gone over your head.