Ab-Soul, Sauce Walka & A$AP Ferg discuss the importance of lyricism in hip-hop

The biggest change in hip-hop since its inception are the barriers to entry. At one time, a rapper interested in making a name for him or herself had to display lyrical skills or producers, DJs, and record labels wouldn't go near that person.

But once social media came into play, someone who wanted to be a rapper could instantly put themselves into the marketplace. All that person has to do is record on cheap equipment or possibly their phone, shoot a video with their phone, and post everything on TikTok, Instagram, or another social site.

The good thing about the new way is that it eliminates gate-keepers and the need for expensive music studios. The bad part is there are a bunch of rappers who simply can't rap. Sure, many can rhyme words together, but when it comes to creativity, lyrical dexterity, and delivering words of substance, a lot of today's rappers fall short. And the ones who are stellar lyricists, like say JID or Nick Grant, often get pushed to the background.

A$AP Ferg, Sauce Walka, and Ab-Soul discussed the importance of lyricism in XXL's Cypher Lab segment, and they all had interesting things to say about it. Ferg, for example, explained why lyricism isn't celebrated as much as yesteryear.

"More people are driven by the feeling and the emotion of the beat and the vibes and the melodies rather than the lyrics. So, sometimes lyrics can feel like it can be a lost art," he explained.

"I think people don't respect the layers of hip-hop and lyricism," Walka added. "You have the wordplay, then you have cadence, you have delivery, you have voice tone, you have subject matter, substance. It's so many lists to check off to be elite."

Meanwhile, Ab-Soul believes lyricism can't be easily defined because it all depends on how the listener interprets words.

"The beauty in being a creative or a artist in general — not even just hip-hop, but just an artist in any respect — it's all subjective," said Soulo. "Somebody gonna argue you down of why your favorite artist is the weakest, and that's why this whole thing is beautiful. It's so subjective. It's all perspective, it's community, it's a cypher, it opens a dialogue, it opens a conversation, it keeps the conversation going."

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