8 Massive Song Cliches Everyone Is Tired Of Hearing
5. The Rapper Who Has No Business Being Tacked Onto A Pop Song
For better or worse, rap and hip-hop music has achieved the perception of mainstream “coolness”. It makes sense – there is a lot of incredible hip-hop music being made right now, and it's arguably the most diverse and challenging genre in the industry. This isn't really the reason for the “coolness”, however. The coolness is likely associate with the so-called lifestyle; the money, the clothes, and the general excess. While many, many hip-hop musicians don't subscribe to this sort of thing, it's definitely something peddled by mainstream reps of the genre.
Since this kind of music has a cool factor, then, there's value in incorporating it with pop. There are examples everywhere: Wiz Khalifa on Maroon 5's Payphone, Kanye West on Katy Perry's E.T., Snoop Dogg on California Girls by Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar on Taylor Swift's Bad Blood...seriously, at this point it feels like there are very few huge pop hits that don't contain a hip-hop feature.
That's not to say they're all terrible (they aren't), the problem is that with incredible frequency comes incredible predictability. It's just a bit tired at this point, especially when the hip-hop feature is more interesting than the actual song. Seeing great musicians used just to “validate” or help sell a pop song is just disappointing.