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Life & Arts

How much longer will the limelight shine on R. Kelly? 

Rap on Hip-Hop

Eli Jabbe and Dante Eglin

Dante Eglin: With his Light it Up Tour, r&b legend R. Kelly is gaining momentum again. One question remains, though: Why is R. Kelly on tour and making albums instead of sitting inside a Cook County prison cell?

Eli Jabbe: Maybe he paid someone off in a high place? It seems like the themes and topics of his songs nowadays seem so simple and are inferior to the songs he was making in the mid-1990s. His new album seems concerned only with collaborating with whomever's hot on the streets.

Eglin: Yet, R. Kelly has been allowed by the fans to continue with his sexual debauchery. This is a glaring example of just how fickle a large portion of hip-hop fans have become.

Jabbe: That's part of the reason why I like the 1990s material he's put out. He's evolved into this weird, cartoonish character that's become hard to embrace. 

Eglin: This is part of the reason why hip-hop has stalled to where it is. Hip-hop isn't dead, but it sure as heck should be in an intensive care unit somewhere getting pumped with some epinephrine. Instead of complaining about the quality of the genre, fans need to take a serious look at themselves. 

Jabbe: When you turn on the radio and hear a song, switch the station and hear the same song playing, there's no variation. Most mainstream songs seem so competitive in the areas of money, sex and guns and you don't hear new topics. In order for hip-hop to be revived, it's going to have to be like in the 1990s. 

Eglin: Rap is like food: There's nothing wrong with a nice, greasy Philly cheesesteak every now and then. But when you're downing hoagies, subs and grease sandwiches all day, every day, it's not healthy and you're killing yourself off. As long as rap, and more importantly rap fans continue to allow the lyrical hegemony being practiced, hip-hop's eulogy isn't that far away.

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