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Hip-hop is an ever-evolving world made up of countless different elements that are constantly expanding, shifting and changing along with the culture that it represents. But the music also means opportunity; to make something of yourself, to provide for your family, to rise above the different elements that may have held you down. Most importantly, it means something different to everyone who participates in the culture and the music, whether they’ve been in the game for ten years or two.
XXL got the opportunity to speak to plenty of rappers over the past few months, and we asked nearly two dozen of them to answer the question: What does hip-hop mean to you? From the cliched-but-earnest “hip-hop saved my life” to the responsibilities of protecting and bringing balance to a culture that has spanned more than four decades now, 21 rappers gave their own personal answers to that question. —XXL Staff
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Audio Push
Price: Hip-hop is when you’re being yourself, when this is what you’re supposed to be doing. I’m talking about the hip-hop for niggas that are supposed to be rapping. Hip-hop to me is just what’s real to you. When you’re being true to yourself then that’s hip-hop.
Oktane: Hip-hop is just that feeling. Whatever nostalgic feeling you get when you first heard real music. That’s what hip-hop is for me.
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Photo Courtesy: Atlantic Records
B.o.B
Hip-hop, to me, is definitely a lifestyle. It’s definitely more than just a genre of music. I think every genre of music has a lifestyle, but it’s more. It’s really a culture, man. It’s more than a lifestyle, it’s culture. It gives people a way of life. I think why a lot of conscious artists are cherished these days is because it’s so much commercial. It’s not even what it’s about, it’s just because there’s so much of it. You know when you see a video, you know it’s gonna have cars and hoes in it. You know somebody is gonna be talking about the same ol’ shit, but it’s about balance. It’s not bad to talk about it, it’s about the balance. I’m not always in the club and I’m not always hanging out with model bitches in front of a car. But I do it. I’m also into other shit as well. I kind of give the people the best of both worlds.
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Boaz
Hip-hop, to me, means life in so many different ways. I think that it’s very reflective of such. And it changes with the environment, man. As time changes, events change, the things that inspire people changes, and hip-hop is exactly that, and you gotta change with it. It’s not something that stays the same. As life grows, you gotta adapt. And you see different shit emerging from the culture; dancing, the way somebody might wear their hat, the way somebody might tie they tennis shoes, all that shit’s hip-hop to me. Hip-hop is pretty much a way to express freedom of speech. That’s a Constitutional right for us. And hip-hop is a clear expression of that. We say some pretty foul shit sometimes that a motherfucker could get some real scrutiny for. So it’s just a way to really live life, and hip-hop is fucking beautiful to me, and I think it should be an inspiration to everybody. Hip-hop gives everybody from different cultures a way to express themselves.
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Fat Joe
Hip-hop saved my life. Without hip-hop, I’d definitely be in jail for 1,000 years or die. Hip-hop has been able, for me, to live my dreams out. It’s given me a platform to leave behind a legacy. Hip-hop has helped me, helped others. I could probably go forever with metaphors. I could tell you all type of cliché shit. But that’s absolutely the truth.
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Freeway
Hip-hop means everything to me. I’ve been in love with hip-hop since I was a kid. Since I was like six or seven. I actually got a song about it on my new album. But it means a lot to me. I love hip-hop. Me doing hip-hop, it was a means for me to feed my family and still love doing it. It means everything to me.
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G-Eazy
Like anything else, it grows and evolves and changes. Any art form never stays in one place. To me, it started out as a way to express myself, a way to turn ideas into something tangible. And as a vehicle; a vehicle to make something out of nothing. I never knew what the fuck I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t wanna go to school, I just wanted to stay in Oakland and just figure it out. And when I got a scholarship to go to school in New Orleans and my mom pushed me to go, I got down there and was even more convinced that I didn’t know what the fuck I wanted to do with my life. I definitely knew I didn’t want to work a regular-ass job and I didn’t want to be miserable forever. Music became the vehicle to, like I said, make something out of nothing and make a living doing something I loved to do so much. And to talk to people and tell my story and to watch that impact people, and just connect to people through music. This is the best fuckin’ job in the world.
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Jay Rock
Hip-hop means a lot to me. It’s life, hip-hop is life. When I wake up, I think about music. Its just been in me since I was born. I love music and I love doing it. I just love it. It means a lot to me because it got me out of certain situations that I could have been in. It’s cliché, but hip-hop saved my life. It’s a beautiful thing.
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Joell Ortiz
Hip-hop and music saved my life. It means everything to me. Hip-hop means everything to me. I can be starving, thirsty, having to use the bathroom, all in one. And we began a hip-hop discussion, all those things go away. Nine hours later, “No, let me tell you why G Rap was that guy!” Hip-hop just changes everything for me. It’s just everything. If a beat was on in here now—without you knowing—I’d start activating. If that’s the word that I want to choose. I’d either start moving, maybe thinking of rhymes. It’s just everything to me.
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Kevin Gates
I don’t really understand when somebody says what does hip-hop mean to me. It’s a way to express myself, I guess, so to say. So it doesn’t mean anything to me, it’s just a way to express myself through music. If the genre of music that I make is even considered to be hip-hop, because I know people get real technical about what hip-hop is and isn’t. I don’t care—music is music.
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Kid Ink
I guess it’s always been one of those cultures and crafts where it was about speaking your mind and speaking about what you’re going through in real life and not really having a limitation. Hip-hop was the first music to put the parental advisory on it because everyone was just speaking their mind, and it was really just a 1st Amendment thing. And I think with hip-hop, it changed to where there was less of that, and now it’s getting back to where it’s more of that, with people really just being themselves and doing what they want and not really worrying about feeding certain markets; they’d rather just feed their own market and the people who they speak to.
I think that’s what hip-hop is all about. It’s not as worldwide and commercial as other genres, but it’s the one that speaks to a lot of people and really hits home for a lot of people rather than just radio music that’s just on for the day or for a party or something. And it’s also one of the more competitive sports, too, where people feed off each other to try and get better, and I like that too.
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Lloyd Banks
That’s a dope question, to be honest. Hip-hip to me is definitely therapeutic. It has always been though, even when I was starting off. It would get me through my day during my school days and even when I was playing basketball. It just always got me in the zone that I needed to be when I wanted to tune out whoever was around. ‘Cause I grew up in a big family, so it’s part of the reason why I still write music in my room today. ‘Cause I had to get away from everybody. It’s just a habit.
At this point now, I love it. It means a lot to me. I’m more aware of what I need to do to be stamped. I’m already stamped for what we’ve done but where I go in the next five, ten years as far as my career and how people remember me, I have a chance to kind of re-write that. For people that thought it was something that would just come and go.
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MC Eiht
Back when I started, hip-hop meant substance, it meant stories, it meant just good music, trying to make music or a craft that everybody can appreciate. And nothing was about gimmicks, everything was about real life, whether you was trying to be Run-DMC or you was trying to be Big Daddy Kane or Eazy-E. The music back then was more filling and had more foundation. Nowadays it’s just like anybody and everybody wanna get on, and whatever gimmick works it works. I think it’s lost some of that authentic feel, because back in the days we used to judge people for putting out good music, we used to criticize and we used to let people know. But nowadays, it’s about the almighty dollar and whatever gimmick works. If you can be the next this or the next that or the next copycat, whatever works.
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Meek Mill
Hip-hop means a lot to me. Hip-hop basically saved my life now coming up in the streets, being involved in a bunch of stuff I shouldn’t have been involved in. Had no guidance, my dad died young, my mom would be at work all day, left to the streets to learn for myself. I always was in love with hip-hop. You know, when I came home from jail I decided to dedicate my life to it, and you know it changed my whole life. It changed like my whole family tree life. It means a lot to me.
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Problem
Hip-hop means progression to me. Life—everything for me. It’s a way I support my family. It’s the way I escape reality when shit gets too rough. It’s a way for me instead of going and getting mad or doing something dumb, I can just go write a song about it. It’s a way of refuge. It’s brought on a bigger meaning these last couple of years just because of the impact it has on my life and how I can affect others. I loved that. I loved the fact that I can make somebody who is having a bad day listen to one of my jams and now they not tripping no more. That’s a lot on it, dog.
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Skeme
For me, it’s a release form. It’s something for me to able to get my shit out. That’s really how I look at it. It’s a way for us to talk. It’s a quick ass way to let everybody know what is going on in your head.
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Tony Yayo
Hip-hop means a lot to me. Like I said, I remember Run-DMC. Whodini. Kool G Rap. MC Shan. Real Roxanne. Other Roxanne Shante. Stetsasonic. KRS. The list goes on and on. Queen Latifah. She had records like “Ladies First.” Hip-hop was totally different. Even like records like “Self-Destruction” was crazy. You had Public Enemy, “Fight The Power.” C’mon, man. Hip-hop was crazy at that time in the ’80s.
Then it transferred into the ’90s. You had Wu-Tang, “C.R.E.A.M.” Ghost and Rae with the Purple Tape. It was crazy ’cause I remember there was something with Ghost and somebody said he didn’t write his album. I was a big fan of Ghost. The Purple Tape is a classic for me too.
You had Biggie and you had Pun. DMX. I love hip-hop now, but it was kind of so exciting. Even when you looked at Biggie and ‘Pac, right? Cool. Their beef was crazy and it was tragic then ’cause we lost two of the greatest rappers alive. When ‘Pac wrote “Hit ‘Em Up” and Biggie wrote “Who Shot Ya?” I still remember to this day how I felt, which is crazy. That’s what I really think was the fuel to the fire, ’cause the music was so hard. ‘Pac had his style and Big had his style. It’s crazy.
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Tragedy Khadafi
Hip-hop is fun. Hip-hop is an ongoing party. Hip-hop is molly mixed with the greatest kush in the world. Hip-hop is incense and candles. Hip-hop is some good fish and shit with some steamed kale. Hip-hop is everything. It’s just some ill shit.
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Twista
Hip-hop to me means freedom. Creativity. Youth. Those main three things right there.
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Vince Staples
It fixed my life up. I think people take it a little too serious with the whole culture shit. Like, I’m not about to be out here break dancing. You’re corny if you break dancing. No matter who you are or how old you are. It’s not gonna stop [you] from looking stupid, no matter how you do it. But hip-hop is important. It’s a means for motherfuckers who never seen shit to make millions of dollars. Even if they don’t, it’s still an opportunity. It’s music. I don’t really separate music. Hip-hop ain’t really better than jazz or rock and roll. It’s all music. It’s somebody telling they life and you feel like it’s worth your money. It’s not fair play. It’s winners and losers and stuff. It’s very important in that sense.
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Warren G
Hip-hop is a way of life, it’s a way of expression. It’s a way to express yourself where rhythm is life and life is rhythm.
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Young Buck
It means everything in a sense. It means the outlet, the voice. It means the voice, especially coming from the environment that I come from. It’s almost like our guidance. It’s our school. It’s our news channel. It’s our everything. So for me, hip-hop is basically a way of life.
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