“Hip hop is youth culture. You’re supposed to be the hottest nothing at 60.”
According to rapper and businessman Curtis Jackson, better known as "50 Cent", he feels that hip hop is for the young and not something older men should be trying to participate in.
50 Cent recently said in an interview that while he still has some music in the vault, there will not be another album coming from him.
While it is his personal decision, and one that makes sense for an artist who has spent decades cementing his place in global hip hop; even if 50 Cent were to change his mind and release another album at 50, there is little doubt that he would still be afforded the respect reserved for his legacy (also known an OG).
The same can be said for rappers such as Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem. They may no longer be the youngest or hottest names in hip hop, but they have their own lanes. Their age has not erased their place in the culture or turned every new release into a conversation about whether they should retire.
In South African hip hop, however, the conversation can be very different. Once a rapper is no longer 22 and trending, fans are often quick to tell them to “retire the mic”.
Veterans such as K.O and Ma-E, both in their 40s, regularly face comments questioning why they are still making music. Often those comments come from audiences too young to have experienced them during the eras that established their place in South African hip hop.
The questions this conversation raises are: Why are international rappers allowed to age into respected OGs, while local hip hop veterans are so often treated as though getting older means they have nothing left to offer? Should it not be up to the artist to decide?
In June, many came to Ma-E's defence after the veteran rapper found himself at the centre of a heated debate over his contribution to South African hip hop.
The conversation started after TikTok content creator Xcalibar listed rappers he felt had fallen off. Ma-E came in at number four and the TikTokker did not hold back, describing the rapper’s music as “trash”.
He also criticised the way he dresses and said there was nothing the rapper was doing for the industry and that he did well by “leaving”.
“You had to go,” the TikTokker said.
The comments eventually reached Ma-E, who addressed them during an appearance on Podcast and Chill Network’s “Kasi Jam” podcast.
Known for his work as a member of “Teargas”, “CashTime Fam” and for solo projects such as “Township Counsellor”, Ma-E did not take the remarks lightly. Online, the discussion shifted from music criticism to a broader conversation about respect and legacy within the industry.
Rapper and podcaster L-Tido, who rose to prominence alongside artists like AKA, Riky Rick and Cassper Nyovest, says hip hop once held a powerful position in the country’s music landscape.
“When we were doing hip hop, it was the number one genre,” he said.
According to him, his generation entered the industry with a deep respect for the pioneers who came before them. He pointed to veterans like HHP and Pro Kid as artists they admired growing up.
“We looked up to HHP, Pro Kid. We never beefed with them. There was never a time when we were beefing with them,” he recalled. “SA hip hop wasn’t beefing. In my generation, we all became family too.”
“The youngins (young ones) will ask if you know a certain person, and if you don’t know them, they say the OG isn’t tapped in. But if an OG asks the same question and you don’t know the person, it’s suddenly acceptable,” he said.
“Hip hop was the number one genre in South Africa. You can’t diss the older guys because when they were on, hip hop was number one,” he added.
At the same time, some fans complain that “OGs are not respected”. That the ones who paved the way get forgotten as soon as the next hot thing arrives.
Speaking to “The National”, Slikour, who was part of the influential hip hop group Skwatta Kamp and has remained closely connected to South African music and culture, believes the problem goes beyond hip hop.
“South Africa has got no culture of acknowledging heritage. It’s not even a hip hop thing. It’s across the board,” he said.
He pointed to the way international music industries have built systems that allow older music and artists to remain part of the culture. In the United States, he said, radio stations can dedicate space to older music because there is also a commercial infrastructure that benefits from keeping that catalogue alive.
“We don’t have a culture in our media to acknowledge heritage,” he said, arguing that South Africa’s history of ownership also plays a role in why older artists and their contributions are so easily forgotten.
According to Slikour, acknowledging heritage is not simply about giving older artists their flowers. It is about allowing each generation to learn from what came before it.
“The more South Africans acknowledge their heritage, the better they become in the perspective on ownership and the perspective of building from one foundation to another,” he said.
He believes the consequences can be seen in the music industry, where younger artists can find themselves repeating mistakes made by previous generations because those stories have not been properly preserved.
“If you are not telling a complete story of heritage, you’re not telling a complete story of how people basically were getting bad deals,” he said.
He added that preserving heritage is ultimately a way of preserving proof of South African excellence. He used businessman Herman Mashaba and the growth of “Black Like Me” as an example of a story that could inspire younger South Africans if it were better remembered.
“History, heritage literally keeps on showing our excellence. The more you erase our excellence, the more every generation thinks that they are cleverer,” he said.
In that sense, the question of whether South African rappers should be allowed to age into OG status is part of a bigger cultural problem.
If the industry does not preserve the stories and achievements of those who came before, every new generation risks treating its predecessors as irrelevant rather than as the foundation it is building on.
Until South Africa builds that memory, every new wave will keep telling the last one to “put down the mic”.
nomathamsanqa.sithathu@nationalmg.co.za