Hip-hop has been effectively deradicalized by middle age, botched love and commercialism, to the extent that so-called "conscious rap" often sounds like a grift to feed a void in the market — the hungry ghost of authenticity. Plenty of the music is no longer a visceral and spirit-driven creative endeavor. It might be realer to just make indifferent music in these instances than to feign the social conscience of a '90s backpack rapper 'cause you aren't hard enough (or new enough) to mimic trap or drill, or surreal enough to channel a new horizon out of the oblivion, one built on the remains of a bygone intellectualism inflected with swagger and rhythm.

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