On one of my many late night travels through Youtube, I decided to check out some Hip Hop artists from a collective/record label called Doomtree. I'd been aware of Doomtree for a while, as it was founded by one of my favourite Hip Hop artists, P.O.S, and so I figured there would probably be some good stuff to listen to.
After listening to a few tracks, what struck me was how good most of it was. The production was brilliant (kinda has a bit of an old school vibe), the MCs had a great, positive energy, and the rhymes were imaginative and relatable. It is understandable then why I was so astounded to see that these videos had hardly any views at all. They weren't brand new videos either, some of them were nearly two years old. Confused and a little despairing, I then searched for some of what passes for Hip Hop/Rap today (at least in the mainstream) to see how many views those videos had. Not one of these 'artists' had less than tens of millions of views. Why the fuck do people like this horrible bullshit (UK Grime in particular, just rubbish, unimaginative music with terrible lyrics), and not artists like those signed to Doomtree? It's not like artists such as P.O.S, Mike Mictlan, Sims, Cecil Otter and Dessa, are unpalatable, their music is very listenable, whilst still being interesting, imaginative and moving. Maybe it's because people haven't been told to like them yet.I think the trouble is that unfortunately with the dawn of 'artists' such Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder, Hip Hop is the latest cash cow to be milked dry, hence why we are all inundated with bullshit songs about money, girls and cars, supported by huge advertising campaigns telling the whole world and his wife to buy Teeny Travis' new album . The major labels are struggling so much these days that they will try and sell anything, even if it is terrible Hip Hop just to keep afloat. The effect of this is more detrimental than they realise, as in the long run they are simply cheapening music further, and giving people more of an excuse not to support artists.
Well I say fuck all this nonsense, ignore the major labels, and see what indie labels like Doomtree have to offer. Head over to www.doomtree.net now and check out every artist, and if you like any of them, buy their albums, and I promise you will not be disappointed.
