While it’s apparent Hip-Hop celebrates its 50th birthday this year, both veteran and emerging acts such as H.E.R. and Ice Cube appear to succumbing to a generational gap.
A somewhat shocking viral TikTok video circulating has highlighted the unsettling fact that Gen-Z teens are damn near unaware of both the artists and music they’ve been surrounded by most of their lives. The clip in question captures an educator catching her students off guard by quizzing them about the recording artists emblazoned on their shirts. Of course, the kiddos who are rocking the dime-a-dozen band tee’s like AC/DC and Pink Floyd get the benefit of the doubt—because I’m not gonna sit here and act like I knew Metallica made “Enter Sandman” for any reasons other than I played skateboarding and video games as a kid.
But my jaw dropped when the young girl couldn’t name a H.E.R. song even if her life was on the line. While one other girl managed to rifle off “California Love” when asked about 2Pac, multiple others appeared clueless when asked about his catalog and a young man appeared unabashedly unbothered when failing to name a song by Aaliyah.
Does the radio station no longer spam songs such as “Rock The Boat” and “Ambitionz Az A Ridah” during the nighttime mixes? Or is it possible that artists such as Yeat and Lil Uzi Vert have the youth and their ears in a chokehold? No matter what the deal is, the writing is on the wall—us ’90s babies are really getting up there these days!
Watch the surprising clip below.
She asked her students to name one song by the artist on their shirt. The H.E.R. one shocked me. Lol pic.twitter.com/Gfo5QYnlw7
— DJ Heat (@DJHeatDC) August 10, 2023