Pop-Hop?

Above we have one of a new wave of rappers, Wale, shopping for a pretty pair of new shoes.

Is it cool for rappers/hip-hoppers to rap over quirky hits nowadays? I'm sure it's been done before, but it seems since Kanye West reworked Daft Punk, I've been seeing a lot more artists sampling 'cool' songs. I guess, once he made 'Stronger', this was the transitional period where he started blogging, embraced the french electro scene, started thinking he was an artist, and turned freaky (Martin Luther King Jr?..)

What I'm saying is that, it seems these hip-hoppers are using trendy songs by trendy bands for trendy people for their samples, in hope that they'll eventually get big and into the charts. It's the same thing with grime - noticed how a load of grime artists have made it into the charts with tunes that have the grime factor turned down a notch? Wiley, Skepta, Chipmunk, Lethal Bizzle, Dizzee Rascal! How I could I forget Dizzee Rascal's collab with Armand Van Helden! Yeah sure you might call that grimey, but not in the same way. I'm not saying I dislike any of this stuff anyway, it's all good fun :)

But yeah, the grime --> electro/pop crossover is one thing, but now there's these new trendy, genre splicing rappers popping up all over the place. I've gotten quite into it, check out this new trend below:

Chiddy Bang - Kids (feat. MGMT)

Kanye West - Young Folks
Not in the same position as these other guys, but still good fun!

Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.

Chiddy Bang - Truth (feat. Passion Pit)
Chiddy Bang was pretty quick on this one, realising the endless amount of hype surrounding Passion Pit. Some are calling them this year's MGMT. I guess Chiddy Bang's got a theme running.

Wale - Chillin' (feat. Lady Gaga)
This doesn't use a chart hit as a backing track but it's still good. I thought Lady Gaga was too 'up there' to feature on this, but I guess she's a kind girl, or she's friends with Wale, or she just like the idea of this collaboration. Whatever, it's catchy.

Let's not forget Kid Cudi, he's my favourite out of all this lot, but I thought it'd be unfair to the others if I posted another one of his tracks - I'll do it some other time.