Notes on the Hip-Hop Messiah

nytimes.com - The hip-hop messiah is both real and not real. He — and with the possible exception of Lauryn Hill, it has always been a “he” — is real in the sense that every five years or so, whenever hip-hop feels too boring, or, worse, too corporate, an artist will be appointed as the spiritual future of the form.

But the hip-hop messiah is also a prospective title: When he’s anointed, it’s not for the work he’s already done, but more for the work he should do. He must create something that feels as though it has grown organically out of his city, but that is at the same time universal.