“I hope you live 200 years, and that I live 200 years minus one day, so I never know beautiful people like you passed away”
-James Brown

Ever since the beginning of time, perhaps the truest mirror of society has always been the music that it both produces and consumes. And in today’s modern world no music has captured the imagination of the people quite like hip-hop. It’s source of popularity and staying power can be debated, but there is one thing that is undebatable, that never before has a genre of music been so engrained in the psyche of a generation of youths, and that never before has a style of music so completely captured the sights and experiences of the streets and street culture of it’s time.

Unlike almost every genre of modern music, it is a genre that is approachable by nearly anyone in the sense that truly anyone with something to say and a sense of rhythm can become part of it. The air-guitar of our parent’s generation has been put back in it’s case and replaced with battle rapping, mash-ups, and homegrown record labels. It is this sense of inclusiveness that is unique to hip-hop that is it’s greatest strength and the reason that it has been propelled to the forefront of today’s music world. But there is only one problem, this strength has also become it’s greatest weakness. And in those shining hours while we we’re all sitting in smoky clubs enjoying fat blunts and fatter beats, our beloved hip-hop crawled off into a dark corner and silently died.

In the word’s of the both universally loved and hated Nas, “If you askin’ why is hip-hop dead, then there’s a good chance you’re the reason it died.” Perhaps truer words were never spoken, but still, we have to ask ourselves, “Just why did hip-hop die?” Well, unfortunately, there are several inter-connected reasons, and to bring life back into our genre we need to look at each one in an attempt to start a dialogue on how we can change them and what direction we need to steer our own music to ensure that hip-hop is still being made by our grand-kids.
Problem one: The market is flooded with mediocre talent.
Here, we come back to the inclusiveness we spoke of earlier. Now inclusiveness is definitely a good thing overall, but as I said earlier, it’s ability to be a strength for hip-hop is watered-down by it’s somewhat lesser but still very real liability of becoming a great weakness. Today’s mainstream market has become so flooded with mediocre talent that listener’s, rather that seek us out in the underground are switching to the most rapidly growing markets such as country and so called indie-rock. We need to bring back some level of exclusiveness by raising the bar of talent needed to get in. Let’s continue to try and bring back live bands and creative wordplay. Let’s market ourselves to other genres by subverting their music with our own flavor. Let’s continue to try and push through the mainstream rap market to hook the listeners who are otherwise leaving. And finally, let’s talk about what it’s going to take to keep our music fresh and forward thinking to keep our own listeners. Because as much as I hate to say it, being myself a person who thinks my art shouldn’t be diluted with business, we need to beat the system of commercialization and major-label control by subverting it from the inside.
Problem Two: Hip-Hop continues to send the wrong messages, and glorify self-destructive behaviors.
The roots of hip-hop are engrained with violence and drugs. And we need to be true to that, being tied to those things ourselves for the most part. But we also need to be aware of the other themes deep-set in our roots, such as the struggles against poverty, oppression of all types, and the problems that litter all of our lives. And then there’s the more positive things such as love, family, and self-realization. We need to be more careful to capture the struggles and mistakes of our own lives without glorifying them to the impressionable kids who will inevitably be influenced by our music. And furthermore we need to challenge ourselves and our listeners to continue to improve as human-beings and members of our communities. Because finally, despite the rebellious spirit that drives all of us and our music, hip-hop will never live again without it becoming something more than most people think of it today.
Problem Three: The continued commercialization of hip-hop and music in general.
This is a problem that inflicts not only hip-hop but all forms of creative medium and media, but in hip-hop’s case it has truly proven to be the death nail. Art and business must always co-exist, after all none of us could make music seriously for too long without some sort of money coming in. But in today’s world business has unfortunately eaten art alive and sales have become the sole principle that guides the music that the mainstream music listener will hear. Now, I know, for a long time I myself blamed the listeners for this, and that the labels were merely filling a need for soulless, bland music. But slowly I have begun to see the listeners, and mind you I’m speaking only of mainstream music only listeners, are in fact sheep, and that the labels are the wolves that shape what they like and think is cool, especially in the younger, more impressionable demographics. Now, there is no easy answer for this. The labels are the Goliaths, and us the Davids. But if we continue to look deep and debate how it can be done, I have true hope that we can find the stone that will bring the giant down.

Problem Four: We have forgotten our roots.
Ok, I know this is probably a sensitive issue. No one wants to admit they’ve forgotten where they come from, but most likely, if you look deep enough you’ll find out you have. I spoke before about the roots of hip-hop, but now I’m speaking more specifically about ourselves and our own roots. It’s so easy to get up the game, or in ideals, or in anything for that matter. So, just for one second, take a look at yourself again, and ask if you are staying true to what your heart tells you and what you know deep down inside to be right. Because if we all do that, and transfer that into out music, then at the end of the day, no one will be able to stop is from transforming hip-hop back into a vibrant, growing genre that again can capture the imaginations and minds of the people and just perhaps be a catalyst to make a better world.
Finally, we are all responsible for where hip-hop and all music goes from here. With the power of the internet and social networking (more things we need to work to protect) we have the tools we need to bring hip-hop back to life. We need to continue to challenge ourselves to make better and better music everyday, and to continue to network and connect as artist so that eventually we will have the fan base and support to finally take the labels on head to head and maybe just come out on top with a new model of how music is heard and distributed to the people. And until that day let’s just continue to rock out and live life to its fullest, because, after all, hip-hop wouldn’t exist at all if it wasn’t just plain fun.

Peace