Quantification, Hot Takes, Legacy conversations and lack of education on the art form are hurting hip-hop journalism.

The consistent urge to quantify everything is hurting hip-hop and basketball journalism. A constant push and pull between comparisons, legacies and more. Although there’s nothing wrong with these in moderation, they have taken over so much of what we call “journalism” today and as we keep going down the rabbit hole it gets worse and worse.

Although this problem has plagued NBA media for a while, for a artistic medium it’s worse, let alone hip-hop. The reality is some things are too great to simply quantify and one of those is hip-hop. An art form highlighting expressions of reality should not be boiled down to simply talking about legacies, or rankings, or what album is better than the next album. It deteriorates the value of the art form.

“First Take”/ social media discourse has taken a toll on the culture when it used to not be that way. So much of surface level discourse has spoken for all of the medium for the worst. The quality of journalism we are getting should be more content centered. Doing things for the sole purpose of engagement puts everything in a bad spot.

Discourse should not revolve around a body of work being overrated or underrated, somebody having a better legacy than the other, and surface level analysis. The importance of journalism is stories unheard, dissection, the nitty gritty. The quality of coverage is important to the respective medium at the time and serves as a icebreaker for the musician in a sense.

The whirlwind of hyperbole, comparisons, education ruling supreme and is hurting. It doesn’t help that people of influence and following are helping lead the charge, especially accounts that are supposed to be dedicated to covering hip-hop cosplaying as gossip tabloids.

Combating this will take some work, but it’s not a lost cause. Just like how people think the mainstream represents the state of music as a whole (although I do not agree with the sentiment), journalism has to as well. What you push will always matter.

For better or for worse.