The Middle Aged Movement & The Best Albums To Come From It
The Best Albums by Rappers 40+ and how today's Middle Aged Movement came to be.
What used to be a novelty afforded to legends with enough pull to be the #1 priority of an indie label (here’s looking at you Koch) or acts still stuck in bad childhood label deals (LL signed a 13 album deal with Def Jam, which for context most acts were getting 3-5 album deals at the time, and for even more context would be like Victor Wembanyama signing a 22 year deal with the Spurs) is now a complete norm. It’s been said ad nauseam how “Hip-hop is no longer a young man's game, the biggest rappers today are so much older than they used to be!”, which is sort of right. This truth strings back to rap being more fragmented than ever thanks to all of the new ways to find and avoid new music.
[SIDEBAR: It’s never been easier for even the most casual music fan to leave their house and never hear the biggest songs of the day. New rappers are younger (and whiter) that ever before, but you could go your whole life only whatever shards of innovation splashes in to solidified artists work rather than any one hit song. The radio doesn’t rule our lives and the corporate sponsored playlists that push shiny new major label artists can easily be swiped away and skipped through. For example, Megan Thee Stallion’s “HISS” was a 3 minute blowtorch of a diss record was replaced with Jack Harlow’s ode to rough sex “Lovin' On Me” as the back-to-back #1 songs in the country during February. Unless you’re an avid Rap Caviar listener or a Detroit Lions fan, either record would have come and gone with the breeze. New kids succeed on social media, YouTube, live streams and Soundcloud; all spots the Lower Back Pain Warriors resist. The biggest mainstream acts are 35+ because the average fan bought in to them when they had no choice but to join the inevitable new wave or stay in the 00’s. The lack of new superstars has created more tiny scenes with their own “stars” rising to the top. Cash Cobain, AyoLii, MIKE, Glokk40Spaz, Central Cee; all stars of their scene that rise in to the consciousness of tapped in rap fans but will probably never become equivalent to the megastars of old.]
Sure, for the first time rappers 40+ are in the limelight. Name recognition and a back catalog people are forever nostalgic for will keep them in the public eye over whoever is new, and they’re seizing the moment by in mass putting out music that doesn’t embarrass their legacy. From the early 90’s on rappers were burnt out by their 4th album (if they were lucky). Big Daddy Kane was doing Barry White cosplay by his mid-20’s, while Run-DMC couldn’t even stay hip with the times in to their early 30’s despite being the spark for every act that came after them. When Fabolous, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, Diddy and 50 Cent tried to keep their careers going in the early 2010’s they were making music to appeal to a younger generation by watering down what they did best. They ended up showing just how out of touch they were in every way; wearing all the leather clothes they could find, forcing themselves in skinny pants, becoming hip-hop fossils by making cringey club songs like the infamous “#TwerkIt”, or struggling to keep pace on the new kids turf (50 on “Hate Bein’ Sober” comes to mind). DOOM, E-40, Ludacris, Method Man, Redman and Jay were making bad albums or for the first time showed signs of being washed. Eminem still had a spark but was making dreadful pop crossovers. To go off in to the sunrise peacefully after the big 4-0 was seemingly impossible.
Really it was a slow build from beneath the surface of casual listenership for the old guard to get to this point. In their late 30’s and early 40’s Killer Mike and Sean Price set their 2nd acts in stone, O.C. and Pharoahe Monch popped back up after years in the wilderness with work that rivals their classic period, and Roc Marciano was setting the groundwork for the underground as we now know it all in the 2010’s. Without them who knows if Jay Electronica has his “debut” at 45. It’s exciting to have aged veterans hanging around, but how are they doing it?
While many point to King Disease as the spark of the Middle Aged Movement we’re living through, Life Is Good really is what changed reset the path for everyone. Not only was the album successful (debuting at #1 on the Billboard charts with 149k in sales) but it showed Nas was inspired for the first time in a decade as he guided listeners through picturesque flashbacks of childhood, the complexities of fatherhood, and his failed marriage with Kelis (leaving out some major details of course). He on top of his game channeling the same weathered overseer perspective that made him seem as a man among boys when he released Illmatic and It Was Written. A new approach was unlocked at the highest level. It still had the misguided swing at mainstream appeal (“Summer On Smash”, the lone wart on the record) but flashed between Golden Age Revivalism and orchestral opulence that would have made Rick Ross punch the sky if he wasn’t so giddy to be feature on the record all while maintaining his star power. The way I see it, this was the last seal to be broken for the old heads. There was now 4 main approaches to create a comeback record or keep your name alive for rappers of any economic status; The Avant-Garde Approach, The Business As Usual Approach, The Super Rapper Approach, and The Contemplative Tell All.
Approach 1: The Avant-Garde
Best Records In This Style
#1 Orphues vs. The Sirens - Ka
#2 Aethiopes - billy woods
#3 Undun - The Roots
#4 Samurai - Lupe Fiasco
#5 7 Days Of Funk - Snoop Dogg
If left up to major labels they would let every artist on their roster (rapper, band, singer, or instrumentalist alike) try to follow the Thriller mode of making an album: short, simple, and full of hits. But no one can ever be Mike and everybody doesn’t even want to be Mike either. Major label concept records like good kid, m.A.A.d. city or Igor are modern rarities that only legitimized stars with heavy creative control can pull off. Kendrick happened to have Dr. Dre in his pocket leading his charge, but for everyone listed above it took until the twilights of their careers or the freedom of self-releasing to get their masterpiece put together. Wether it be visceral short stories that pass like faint memories or funkdafied grooves that go against the publics perception of you, everyone from Snoop Dogg to billy woods have crafted thier records like a ship in a bottle project; a tedious labor of love that only someone with extreme focus and a dedication to beauty could follow through on. If the world is already leaving you for dead, what could getting weird for once hurt?The hit rate is much higher on these kinds of projects than you’d expect. It’s a way to flex skills that their younger selves never had with the ambition that only a person who’s already done anything could come up with. Storytelling verses, inventive song structures, theatrics out the ass, and producers working at the top of their game for a common cause are what defines these albums.
Approach 2: Business As Usual
Best Records In This Style
#1 We Don’t Trust You - Future
#2 The Midnight Life - DJ Quik
#3 Rather You Than Me - Rick Ross
#4 Black America Again - Common
#5 Donda - Kanye West
In many cases these albums are interchangeable with anything else they’ve created with only some added disdain to their voice; same subject matter, same team of producers. Returning to the well again and again can be boring for fans without subtle innovation. Future has always been on the cutting edge, enclosing new sounds to his world to make us all forget he’s only a year younger than Lil Wayne. Kanye brings the most out of everyone so even things that shouldn’t work on paper become unforgettable moments. DJ Quik exists so deep within his own rabbit hole that he’ll always sound distinct from everyone, forcing those who join him to mesh in to his universe. Evolution seems easy until you get around Ludacris, Jadakiss, Conway, Rakim and Busta Rhymes and you see how it can all fall apart. Albums that miss the mark on this method tend to have uneven tracklists, beats from the hottest producers bargain bin, few if any evolutions in what they rap about, and features from whoever is popping that could either be genius crossover events or forced gaffs for everyone involved. For some reason we live in a world where Raekwon and G-Eazy have a song together, but I can concede to such a torture if it means Curren$y and Babyface Ray can still make this.
Approach 3: The Super Rapper
Best Records In This Style
#1 Daytona - Pusha T
#2 The F.O.R.C.E. - LL Cool J
#3 Streams Of Thought Vol. 1 - Black Thought
#4 Mic Tyson - Sean Price
#5 PRhyme - PRhyme
LL Cool J was raps first superstar and musically the great-great-great-grandfather to Drake. Like Drake he was equal parts emotional, destructive, sanitized for middle-American consumption, and behind all the charisma was goofy as hell (“Milky Cereal” is as unserious a rap record that has ever exists from a peaking Hall Of Famer). He was the first to coin himself the G.O.A.T., and at that point had every right to do so. Now at 56, for the first time since Mama Said Knock You Out, he’s pushed his pen to prove he deserves consideration for such a lofty title. To do so shook off the bad habits his years as a major label darling taught him; no more simply structured crossover hits, death to the R&B hook, and a reinvigorated creativity that appears in extra long verses and off the wall song concepts. Like Royce Da 5’9, Black Thought and Pusha T before him he locked in with a single producer (this is a public service announcement for Q-Tip to stop hoarding records!) to cancel out the noise of expectations and return to simple, unfiltered rapping. All the aforementioned MC’s spent their late career records laser focused on vaporizing beats with breathless flows and eye-popping, grit and grind style #bars.
Approach 4: The Tell All
Best Records In This Style
#1 4:44 - Jay-Z
#2 Life Is Good - Nas
#3 Michael - Killer Mike
#4 No News Is Good News - Phonte
#5 Book Of Ryan - Royce Da 5’9
Leaning in a rocking chair on the front porch of a ranch style home while grandkids play in the yard is the dreamscape many aim of bringing to reality. As the sun lowers and the fireflies rise from the soil stories of your grandparents younger days play out like Biblical allegories. The night finishes it’s descent and the grandads last words for the evening are “Pops did that so hopefully you don’t gotta go through that”. That line may have been originally delivered by a young(ish) Jay-Z but it lies as the central idea for his best work since he came back wearing the 45. 4:44 wasn’t the first, but it’s become the most impactful album to come stocked up with therapy speak and LLC talk that has since led to a litany of copycats looking to enter their twilights with no story left untold. The ripple effect comes as a sub-genre of albums that are selfish in a way; each looking back on early career myth-making and drudging up buried traumas to adjust the public perception. Sometimes it’s short and messy (Ye, Anime Trauama & Divorce) and sometimes the final product is scatterbrained and uncompromising (Book Of Ryan, Please Don’t Cry) but they are always full of singular honesty. While No ID production doesn’t jump off the page he’s somehow been the only one to weave the connective tissues of classic sonics adored by whoever is rapping to unlock the comfort needed to be so vulnerable. He’s the mastermind behind 4:44, Michael, Life Is Good and other return to form records The Dreamer / The Believer and No Pressure. If it were up to me No ID would work in 6 month chunks with every rapper over 45 to create concise records like this since he played puppet master to the top 3 on this list. My wishlist for rappers to get reinvigorated like Tarantino did to a washed Travolta and a forgotten Pam Grier? Method Man, Wale, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne.