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A Debate Over House And Drill Music In Hip-hop

The sound of hip-hop music is altering its course with both legendary stars Drake and Beyonce releasing house-inspired music albums. Earlier, there was prominent usage of sounds of drill in hip-hop music, but now house music has taken over. The emergence of drill-inspired rap occurred on streets of Chicago, London and Brooklyn around 2010. Drill music is synonymous with underground artists from economically underdeveloped communities . They always use coarse and hefty sounds to tell their burdensome life experiences. On the contrary, house music is often pleasing and light to listen and accepted in R&B and pop music since 1970s.

Chicago as Birthplace for Both House and Drill  

However, there is certain commonality between the two genres of music. Both genres advanced their roads from under privileged singers. They raised their voices against injustices meted towards them in their birth place, Chicago. Both styles of music could consume different variants of music and generate an entirely a new kind of music. In Past, popular artists such as Beyoncé, British rapper ArrDee, Fivio Foreign have maneuvered other tracks. Apart from that, both drill and house music are extremely popular and persistent in some parts of US like Chicago, New York and Europe.

Reappearance of House Music

In recent time, a major trend we can witness that mostly artists such as Rye Rye, Cookiee Kawaii, Azealia Banks employed house music in their styles and tasted success on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram. Reappearance of house music in hip-hop culture has become more apparent with megastars Drake and Beyonce attempted house music in their mainstream albums. Nevertheless, both cannot be termed as only flag-bearer of house inspired music in hip-hop. There are other previous generations of musicians and singers who worked tirelessly to promote house inspired music in mainstream genres be it hip-hop, R &B, pop music and others. Daft Punk, Alice Deejay, EDM, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Calvin Harris profoundly endorsed house sound in their albums.

Popularity of Drill Music

On the other hand, one cannot deny the popularity and prevalence of drill music in rap. Impoverished black communities of Chicago began to drill, a way of expressing their underlying tribulations and trajectories of life. Soon, drill sound transmitted its popularity throughout New York and parts of Europe such as London, Paris, Lisbon and so forth. According to sources, drill music endorsed people from streets and made them popular stars in music world. It is because this bottom up approach, the lives of gang stars, con artists and often anonymous people from streets became tale of rags-to-riches. It is often associated with violence and gang conflicts. On the contrary, house music has no such implications. As a  top-down music, it is frequently promoted by affluent class.

Finally, one cannot predict house music will rule over drill music. Both sounds are equally flourishing in the rap world.

 

Chayanika Deka

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Vince Staples & Joe Budden Discuss Drake’s Album Eliminating Rap Music

Drake recently surprised fans with his latest album Honestly, Nevermind and has both fans and rappers talking good and bad. Vince Staples sat down with Joe Budden on The Joe Budden Podcast to discuss the new album. The conversation started with Budden asking if Drake’s latest LP is a sign of rap music heading in a different direction. Staples then commented saying he got similar backlash for his 2017 experimental album Big Fish Theory. “Music has always been very visual,” Staples said. “When I think about artists, visual things pop up… Michael Jackson it’s the moonwalk and 2Pac it’s a lot of aesthetic things. Of course, it’s the music, but the thing is we’re visual people.” He continued to say “…everything is Instagram, everything looks the same, moves the same, dresses the same and talks the same. The genre shit is going to have to go out the window eventually.”

Musicians Not Sticking To One Genre

Like Drizzy and Vince, many rappers and musicians have had their fair share of experimental songs and albums. Juice WRLD blends both rock and rap within his music and has been received well. In the late 2000s, rap group Shop Boyz also blends the rock sound within their music including the head-banging “Party Like A Rockstar” in 2007. More recently, Beyonce released “Break My Soul,” a dance-heavy track that samples Robin S’  “Show Me Love” from the 90s.

While Drake’s new album has a dance/electronic sound to it, he is familiar with the genre in his previous work. With songs like “Get It Together” from More Life, the record-breaking hit “One Dance” from Views and “Too Good” with Rihanna, rappers and musicians are always wanting to bend the rules to see what fits and what they are inspired by at the time. Both should not be put into a certain box or genre.

Written By: Roy Lott