Is Rap Getting Lazy?

When a rapper freestyles over a beat that’s not their own, that’s cool… it’s neat to hear the rapper in a different context, I can get with that if it’s good.

I certainly don’t mind checking out freestyles or mixtapes, but aren’t you getting numb to these promotional gimmicks too?

I mean, sure it’s sometimes interesting to hear Lil Wayne spit over Help by The Beatles and Wale rhymin’ over Duffy’s Warwick Ave is a novelty.

But Jim Jones on MGMT’s Electric Feel? That’s a bit of a reach, innit? It’s getting pretty tired. And these awful recordings are being released left and right with the novelty factor taking a serious nose dive (for me anyways).

Sure, on some level, this type of promotion is working, but don’t you think rappers are getting lazy? At the very least, they should put some work into it instead of shouting two lines over the intro of a hugely successful track that someone else wrote. And, yeah, I understand that sampling has been a building block of rap and hip hop, but the promotional stuff being released lately is really terrible… and there’s pretty much no creativity involved. Meh.

I’m not sure if this is an official release, but it probably is since he showed up on Hot 97 to debut it. Here’s Swizzy over M.I.A.’s Boyz. What do you think?

Swizz Beatz – I’m Supposed To Ball