Rap with me, brother

Why is it that the majority of rap or hip hop tracks are a collaboration with some other artist? Is solo not cool anymore?

Well, the simple answer is that it is just marketing. For a while, I found the lack of individuality irritating. It seemed that these artists collaborated out of necessity. Did they have so little content that they needed “helpers?” This view is just naive.

Everything in our society is highly commercialized, and that absolutely includes art. ‘Ft. Artist X’ is just another infiltration of marketing; it’s an endorsement. Cross-branding might even be a more fitting term for it. It’s like Bounce sheets with Febreeze, or Crest toothpaste with Scope.

So if these artists want to engage in this tactic, that’s cool. Kanye seems to like doing it as much as anyone else. In the past he’s teamed up with Chris Martin, John Legend, Dwele, and T-Pain, to name a few. I know at least one 19-year old artist he won’t be sharing the mic with—again, at least. Anyone else… well, that’s fair game.