BY IME EKPO • DECEMBER 3, 2018

After spending over twenty years making top-notch hits and ultimately paving his own lane, it appears that Will.i.am owns a very unsteady theory about the future of the Hip-Hop genre. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the Black Eyed Peas rapper expressed his thoughts about the livelihood of Hip-Hop’s global dominance and anticipated the coming and takeover of artificial intelligence rappers.

“What’s the number-one sport on the planet? Soccer, because anyone can play it. The problem with hip-hop is everybody could do it,” he said. “It doesn’t take much fucking skill right now to make hip-hop. It’s become the lowest-hanging fruit. It’s no longer about Rakim-level, Nas-level, not the deep, metaphorical simile shit. Out of respect for the Nases of the world, let’s not call it hip-hop. Let’s say that’s rap. But instrumental music is going to be the next biggest shit.”

If there is one thing out of Hip-Hop’s history that is telling of its universal appeal, which leads to its unlimited creativity, it is its barefaced journey to global recognition from being heavily discredited to a lasting folkway. Hip-Hop’s mesmerizing entrance was a green light to those who were linear to the culture and blatant migrants and eventually gave birth to the myriad of carbon rappers and unrestricted sectors of sub-genres. It was the showcased lifestyle of the prime catchy-rhymer that most aspiring rappers have spent the past 30 years crafting non-traditional tunes about, an often misleading and misunderstood expression.

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