Rap continues to change and grow, coming to a point where songwriting isn't necessarily all about lyrics anymore. French Montana addressed the current state of rap in a recent interview, arguing that lyric-driven rap is not necessarily what people want to hear, saying "All lyrical rappers I know are broke... I just feel like you gotta make people enjoy the music." (Though it should be noted that he was mainly referring to New York rappers who constantly criticize current trends, and pointed toward Jay Z as a good example of someone with a range).
Danny Brown, a rapper who generally does a pretty good job of rapping his ass off and making great songs, took issue with the remarks, taking to Twitter shortly thereafter to poke fun at the comments. In a new interview with Complex, Danny addressed the issue head on.
“To the French Montana thing, my whole point of it is just that I wouldn’t want to promote that to the kids,” he said. “Cause what does that leave for the future of Rap music as a genre if you tell them that ‘You don’t have to be good. You don’t have to be a great rapper to make money out of this.’ You know? And I think that’s just a total wrong way to look at it…".
Brown stressed that rappers should always strive to be the best they can be, namechecking Kendrick Lamar. "For the most part, I would wanna promote at the best that you have to be really good," he said. "And you have to be exceptionally talented to even step your foot into this ring of rap music. You know what I’m saying? It should be that competitive. We have Kendrick Lamars. We have Danny Browns…You gotta know how to rap.”
Watch the full interview, in which the OLD rapper also reveals details of the Bruiser Brigade album below.