Hip Hop's Family Feud: Old School vs. New School with Funk Flex [STREET SOLDIERS]

Some call it hip hop's family feud—old school vs. new school. But is the divide real or fake? I spoke exclusively to one of hip hop's most powerful people: Funk Flex. At the Hot 97 studios, Flex said that hip hop is evolving—no question.

"The minute it all starts sounding the same—it's not going to be cherished, it's not going to be respected," Flex said. "Are artists' styles like Nas and Snoop and Biggie and Jay going to come back in style? Probably not."

The so-called clone zone factor is a concern for Diddy.

"I'm not knocking anybody's dream," he said in an Instagram video. "I just don't want the culture to get diluted, you know, where it gets so mass produced it doesn't mean anything."

Lil Xan ignited a controversy when he went on RevolTV and rated Tupac a "2" on a scale of 1 to 9 and called him "boring." Waka Flocka went on Twitter to say he should be banned from hip hop.

"I may say a lot of things about Pac—boring is not one of them," Flex said.

Lil Yachty set off another "new school¬–old school" controversy when he called Biggie "overrated" and then apologized.

Flex said that riled up the young kids and the old guys, too. He admitted he went hard on Yachty, but they started talking. Lil Yachty recently did a freestyle for him, and they turned a corner.

"That means you are studying the craft, 'cause you're going home and trying to figure it out," Flex said.

Flex said too many of today's rappers are using social media gimmicks to get followers and mistaking that for a real career.

"If you're doing all of that and you have no talent, there's an expiration date for you, already written in stone," Flex said.

Flex does has many favorites among new rappers. He said the argument has been that new artists don't pay respect to the greats of the past. But he doesn't let the old school off the hook, either.

"The veterans of the music business need to share more information with the up-and-coming young talent," Flex said.

--LISA EVERS

#streetsoldiers #push4peace #rap #hiphop #rivals #respect #craft #art #talent #music #business

FEATURED CAST:
LISA EVERS, Host and Executive Producer, Street Soldiers

FUN FLEX, Hot 97 Host, DJ, Producer

DREWSKI, Hot 97 DJ and Host

LORD JAMAR, Hip Hop Legend, Brand Nubian

JAQUÁE, Hip Hop Artist and Entertainer

FIND US ON SOCIAL:

[KardiFan]

Lord Jamar was bang on when he said hip-hop went from being a talent contest to being a popularity contest.

[sabrenablack]

Radio station like hot 97 is part of the problem, playing the same trash all day.

[mikemaxwell]

I get exactly where Lord Jamar is coming from about the quality of Hip Hop music.... that just seems to be these days as if record labels or just throwing any thing out just to DESTROY the youths of this GENERATION!!!😡😡😡

[chosenonebeats]

My points: 1) from Melle Mel to Rakim to Nas Rap was on an upswing constantly getting better but now it has MOSTLY regressed. 2) You can turn up all you want but don't bombard me with it 24/7. 3) Trap beats & flows are cool but why everybody gotta sound the same?

[Dmaccabees]

this new era is funny because they are all vibing to the same beats now...you can't tell them apart...last time i checked from my era, we called that biting and there is nothing innovative about that...i like some of the new acts only when they have different sounds.

[defrocker]

The rappers of today are just EFFIN LAZY.

[itsstilljoose]

Let's not call this music hip hop if they will not acknowledge the elder. Call it Urban contemporary

[knightseen]

If you are from the new school and can consciously say out of your mouth that Tupac is a two on a scale of one to nine, I can’t rock with you. You don’t have to like Tupac per se, but I would argue that you have to respect him.

I was born in 1981 and didn’t come up on Run DMC for instance. I would say in general, the 80’s aren’t necessarily my favorite decade of hip hop. I will be damned though, if I relegate a figure like Rakim or Kool Moe Dee to a rating of I understand that without them, there would be no Nas, Biggie, Jay-Z or Tupac, who I did come up on.

The problem with a lot (not all, but a lot) of these new artists is they don’t pay respect to the veterans in the game. Vince Staples called Biggie and Tupac overrated because they didn’t sell as many records as Kanye West. That’s an incredibly ignorant thing to say and he deserved every bit of backlash he got.

Pay respect to those that made it possible for you to do what you what it’s all about at the end of the day.

[The-Enigma-S]

They should just change the name of this genre with these new age artists involved who are given a platform and not call it hiphop.

[Drill-knnh]

The same thing happened with heavy metal. The heavy metal purists hated it when the hair bands like Poison and Bon Jovi blew up. They've gotten back to their roots and I believe hip hop will to

[samidreddnyc]

"Rap music is what you do, Hip-Hop is how you live" -KRS-ONE

[QuietSpecialist]

They couldn't argue the "picture book" example at all because it was that spot on towards how ridiculous it is to listen to a song and not understand the lyrics (or have basically gibberish as the lyrics). Made it even better when he said "picture books are fine sometimes, I just don't want picture books ALL the time".
Lord J always 100% on point no matter the scenario.

[gdeiselable]

Lord Jamar da God. Thanks for sharing this knowledge

[defrocker]

I think that it's dangerous to only care about the beat of the so-called song bcuz the lyrics can suggest the listener to do crazy shit.

[tjizzle]

you don't have M.C.'s anymore, you just have rappers. Why? lack of education

[JEFFMAN]

I was born in 92 and I studied the greats. Most of the time only listen to late 80s and 90s hip hop. Underground hip hop today is in a good place but mainstream hip hop today is trash period.

[babyyou]

A variety of music plus we had 120 lessons to grow on.

[itsstilljoose]

18:20 what is this guy talking about? It's always been driven by the rhythm. Makes no sense and shows lack of experience.

[HyperOne]

Jamar's book analogy was on point.

[ejm]

"The beat helps us talk now" I get it now. It's all about the beat. The rapper is more a compliment to the beat. They can care less about writing books of rhymes.