Internet : The New Underground?
If you're reading this, you're most likely on the internet. The people who will most likely read this article have already spent a large amount of their times in front of the screen, exploring what the 90's called "the interwebs". It's used now for research, shopping and almost every other convenience: especially music. With music streaming overtaking album sales for a few years now, being connected on Spotify, Itunes, Tidal or Tencent if you're in China, is more important than ever. The best part of the accessibility to music that is now a reality, at least in my opinion, is the fact that the underground has gracefully gone to the platforms that now dominate music.
When it comes to finding new artists, the internet has become a new way to connect to up-and-coming artists. It's easier for people such as myself to find new artists and to give them the clout or the help that they may deserve. Acknowledge that there is no modern conception of Drake without the creation of MySpace. The wave that is currently on the radio such as Lil Uzi Vert, Post Malone and Swae Lee are the product of the internet. Some of my favorite underground artists that I've gotten the chance to connect with and to talk to include R&B inspired MC's such as C-Note, thoughtful prose layers the likes of J.Otis and even local artists such as Nathan Baya. It's important to note that while the Internet doesn't filter out what's good and what's bad, that was never its job: that is our responsibility as listeners and fans of the genre.
Hip-Hop purists will claim that the same spots that were popping just a decade ago for battles are the same as they used to be, but we know they aren't. The battles that used to happen on a weekly basis now happen less and less often. While that generates more buzz for bigger battles, the true judges of these contests have become the people who comment on the videos of the battles such as King of the Dot or Rap Grid. The best rappers aren't specifically the ones with the best bars, but ostensibly those with the best memes. The medium has changed venues, specifically Youtube. What became famous in movies such as 8 Mile aren't as much as a reality anymore because those same elements have been minimized and transported to the digital world.
When it comes to finding new artists, the internet has become a new way to connect to up-and-coming artists. It's easier for people such as myself to find new artists and to give them the clout or the help that they may deserve. Acknowledge that there is no modern conception of Drake without the creation of MySpace. The wave that is currently on the radio such as Lil Uzi Vert, Post Malone and Swae Lee are the product of the internet. Some of my favorite underground artists that I've gotten the chance to connect with and to talk to include R&B inspired MC's such as C-Note, thoughtful prose layers the likes of J.Otis and even local artists such as Nathan Baya. It's important to note that while the Internet doesn't filter out what's good and what's bad, that was never its job: that is our responsibility as listeners and fans of the genre.
Arguably the most important role that shows that Hip-Hop has gracefully transitioned into the underground is the propensity for artists to use it on the bigger stage. The underground has always been used to promote and to propose new ideas in the culture. It took the underground for elements such as mafioso rap, sampling in Hip-Hop and other mainstays of the Culture to become a reality today. Today, all of those things are being evaluated and understood in real time. There is no filter. Rappers are being therefore put out at an almost blinding rate. From Young M.A. using that wave for her world famous "OOOUUU" track bringing old school New York back into the scene or even the entire modern sad Atlanta trap coming out of the woodworks of Soundcloud. Does anyone remember how Drake nearly destroyed Meek Mill's career while using memes at 2015's OVO Fest, a product of the internet? It's important to have these places to experiment; the Internet gives a bigger audience and a better gage as to what could eventually become hot and what could eventually fade away into our memories one day.
In conclusion, I can't tell you if the Internet will be a good thing for the industry and the culture as a whole. I have the uncanny ability to see the past, not the future. However, from what I have seen in the past few years, it's been a serious positive for the entire branding of the community. We used to say that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. I can say that in music today, the previously established idea is a false one: if you can make it on the Web than you've already made it big.