Will Raps Rebels Ultimately Lose?

As technology advances at an accelerated pace, there is also a handful of people who are challenging industry norms, but will technology force these rebels to stand down? Or will these two feed off of each other to ultimately succeed?

Before these 'rap rebels' (like Chance the Rapper and Kanye West) were preaching about a new way to share music, the rap game was just like any other music industry. Once you were recognized, you would get picked up by a label that would manage you. But the management sometimes controlled musicians lives to the point where they couldn't release, or even make, the type of music they wanted to. There has been so many stories of musicians who were once huge celebrities, but then they mysteriously fell out of relevancy. This is usually because of bad contracts with their music labels. No one really wants to join a label because they know about these music horror stories- lets face it, after all, musicians are artists, and if artists weren't given the freedom to create what they wanted and share it with the public when they wanted, they would revolt.

 There have been a lot of music rebels preaching about these issues, but perhaps the most famous is Chance the Rapper. He refuses to join any label and with the increasing popularity of music streaming sites like Spotify, his influences is only being more widely felt. He even persuaded rap legend, Kanye West, to support his cause.

As of now, the rebels and the music streaming services are happily married, but have we forgotten about the, dare I say, greed of musicians? Would Kanye West be supporting Chance if he had not already made millions off of his own music and his own music label? It makes me wonder if this revolt can last. Everyone knows that in music, the big money comes from being a part of a label, and artists have historically given up their creative licenses to become rich.

Another thing that might extinguish the rebels claim: technology. As of now, streaming services are like steroid to these artists. They allow them to get their music out when they want and how they want and if they do enough self promotion, the results are incredible and groundbreaking. But does anyone else feel like there might be a big advancement in the way we listen to music in the next couple of years? While relatively new, music streaming seems like its in need of a bit of an update. There are so many to choose from, and often different options on each. Its starting to become like choosing between Netflix or Hulu, which streaming service offers the best stuff. Is development is actually contradicting what the rebels stand for: giving music to everyone who wants it, with no boundaries, and doing it when and where the artist wants.