Stay in your...

Life in the _________ Lane
written by Just K

The most important thing about the hip-hop game is authenticity. You’ve got to do you. You’ve got to be yourself. Whatever you are, whatever you know, put it in a song and we’ll buy into it if it’s interesting enough. That’s how you create your own niche. That is how you make your own lane. See, this where it gets interesting. What happens when someone else is doing you before you get to it?

Vanilla Ice’s rap star faded into obscurity by like 1992. Eminem didn’t surface until 1998. Seriously, were there no white MCs that possessed skills greater than Vanilla Ice’s between the years 1993 and ’98? I’m sure there were. The public just wasn’t ready to see the white rapper lane filled for a while. And Eminem literally had to disappear for years before this Asher Roth guy popped up. And if you check the countless blog comments about him, you already know who he’s being compared to. Hell, you probably compare him to the other white guy, too.

Maybe the white guy lane was a little too easy. How about that rap group from the Midwest with the sing-songy rapid fire flows? No, I’m not talking about Bone Thugs N’ Harmony. Am I talking about Crucial Conflict? Possibly. What about Do or Die? Possibly. See, once Bone Thugs N’ Harmony blew up, it was curtains for both Chi-town groups before they even touched a microphone. When you look at rappers from the Chi, it seems as though most of them have the ability to rap quickly, so I doubt these groups just decided to jack Bone’s style. They were probably just doing them. Bone just did it first. The fast rapping group lane was already occupied. The end.

It happens all the time. When Kris Kross dropped, was there room for another kid act? How many years did it take for a Bow Wow to show up? Remember Angelous, the dude that sounded like Jay? Lmao. If so, you already know how things played out for him. If not, you already know how things played out for him. Ok, yeah he swaggerjacked Jay, but he was done from the time he left the womb with those vocal chords. Gucci Mane and Jeezy always had similar styles. Anyone want to bet Gucci has as many hits or as much longevity as Jeezy? Right. Best of luck to B.O.B. in advance because the kid’s got talent, but his first single sounds like a leftover from The Love Below. Remember how many people couldn’t stand Magoo because his voice is similar to Q-Tip? There are way too many examples to mention in this one post. Sad. It’s hard to make a lane for yourself when someone’s parked in it already.