Young Nigga Pick A Side

​In hip-hop the line "Ima an 80's baby" has been shouted on track after track. Artists like Lil Wayne, Big K.R.I.T, and Drake have romanticized being apart of the 80s era. It was the era that truly defined music, as well as the beginning of hip-hop. That was then. Now it's 90s babies turn. And they have very different vision than their older predecessors. The division seems to start with whether you like Kanye West's album 808 & Heartbreaks, or if you thought this is when rap started to become too soft. What is also apparent is that this division is further separating the genre of hip-hop, and putting new school vs. old school. New versus old. Oldest vs youngest. But what about the Middle Child? The ones that are stuck between not being old enough to be considered old school, but also have been around long enough that they are no longer considered new school. This is the very subject that J. Cole has even tackling in his latest releases. 

His track 1985 (Intro to the "Fall Off") is an example of how J. Cole is tackling this generational issue. Although coming off as big brother, J. Cole is giving advice to the new school rappers. But it's his tone and delivery that give off the perception that it's more of an ultimatum than a true invitation for a dialogue. 

I see your watch icy and your whip foreign
I got some good advice, never quit tourin'
'Cause that's the way we eat here in this rap game
I'm fuckin' with your funky lil' rap name

It's lines like these that fueled the fire in a lot of the up-and-coming artist. The new generation of rappers often seen as the younger siblings often wonder "the audacity of the middle child taking the oldest's side. Especially since not too long ago they saw the middle child doing the same things they are now talking down on. " And so with the release of J. Cole's song, an up-and-coming artist named YBN Cordae chose to respond with his own version of the song called "Old Niggas". 

XXL Freshman 2019 is one of the recent accomplishments of YBN Cordae. But for anyone that has followed his career knows that he's got bars! Old Niggas is a track filled with just that, as YBN Cordae spits his vision of the current rap layout and the generational gap that now persists.  

Uh, old niggas and new niggas, now what's the difference?
All in the same boat in a stuck position
So when an old nigga talkin' I don't fuckin' listen
They don't know, every day we make tough decisions

Line after line. Bar after bar. YBN Cordae goes into depth how his generation may be doing dumb shit, but the old school rappers are still doing dumb shit, and are not exactly the model citizens that they portray their generation to be.

Young niggas won't listen and we know it, ha
But old niggas always talk and never show it, uh
You gotta practice what you preach and the classes that you teach
We'll eventually listen, my mind mentally prison, uh
Lately, all my idols, they been failin' me
Catchin' sexual assaults and some felonies
Then, you want me to listen what you tellin' me
And wanna hate when we sing our lil' melodies
And other idols, they be broke, get your funds in order
And Kanye West is a Trump supporter
Then, we got R. Kelly and Bill Cosby
Who still probably got lil' girls in the Hills lobby
And these supposed to be our heroes? Negro, please
Old niggas unreliable like D-Rose knees

As seen in the lyrics above YBN Codae uses the same cadences and flow that J. Cole used in the original track, as to say, "look! See nigga, y'all did the same shit we doing." Even using J. Cole's most notable line against him, "Just remember what I told you when your shit flop. In five years you gon' be on Love & Hip-Hop, nigga". YBN responds with: 

And I'll be the greatest ever, nigga, just watch
Cardi B got rich from Love & Hip Hop, haha

YBN proves that all new school rappers aren't bad. They're just different. Just like the rappers that came before them. Also he also proves that they are figuring it all out just like the old school rappers was when they first started. Just like any young person going through life. And while J. Cole has lived past the young stage, maybe it's his life experience and studies of the older generation that makes him want to make sure that the younger generation does better. He grew up on Jay-Z who famously said, "Like I told you sell drugs; no, HOV did that. So hopefully you won't have to go through that." But the new generation whose heroes are now going to jail for charges way worse than selling drugs, it's easy to see how the new school could be questioning the medicine that old school is prescribing. Either way we all become old. And one day YBN Cordae will be an Old Nigga. 

Listen to YNB Cordae's track "Old Niggas".