Music is suppose elevate the calm. Get a somber mood into a happy state. Have you feeling good to the point you put a certain track on repeat. Make you memorize the lyrics and mimic harmonies. It’s also suppose to be diverse. Dealing with Hip Hop, hearing the same style, same rhythm, same chorus or even the subject talked about can be very wack.
Hip Hop is the last genre that should be redundant.
For a minute now, all over the Internet, Bloggers and Hip Hop mags, all I hear and read is that the music is dead. Radio ain’t playing the real, BET programs suck ass for being another version of the radio and the outlets for our artists have dried up. Nas said “Hip Hop is dead”. Sorry but I beg to differ. We just stopped listening. What I mean by that is we want the radio and video to be what it used to be in the 90’s. We want to see our artists on tv performing real songs. Problem with that is we as fans stopped supporting our artists. We bootleg instead of buying so on the outside looking in, it seems as though we don’t care. We hate more than giving positve reviews which makes it seem like everything’s a bad choice. Why would a producer book a emcee who seems to not have any fans?
Straight up, for the past 2 years, I purchased 28 projects of Hip Hop! Once I got my iPhone, it was over with cd’s. Shit, I have a load of those as is…peep Federal Ranga’s Vlog to see what I’m talking about. Here’s quick Rundown:
*2008
LL Cool J-Exit 13
CL Smooth-Multi Barz of Fury
Q-Tip-The Renaissance
Elzhi-The Preface
Large Professor-Main Source
Heltah Skeltah-D.I.R.T.
*2009
De La Soul-Are you In
Masta Ace & Ed OG-Arts&Entertainment
Blaq Poet-The Blaqprint
Canibus & Keith Murray-(Undergods)
Wu Tang-Chamber Music
Dres-From the Black Pool of Genius
Ghostface Killah-Ghostdini
Crooked I- Mr.PigfaceWeaponWaist
Raekwon the Chef – OBFCL2
Q-Tip-Kamaal The Abstract
Joell Ortiz-Covers the Classics
Slaughterhouse-Slaughterhouse
Royce Da 5’9″-StreetHop
Statik Selektah-Pregame
KRS-ONE & Buckshot-Survival Skills
Skyzoo-The Salvation
The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
Method Man & Redman-Blackout!2
Eminem-Relaspe
*2010
Joell Ortiz-Road Kill
Freeway & Jake One-The Stimulus Package
Statik Selektah-100 proof (The Hangover)
And that’s so far for 2010! I probably missed a few for 2008 but they are on cd. Now with what I put down here, you see the diversity. You can’t tell me none of these artists are worthy or classic! If you’re looking for a certain artist or just checking for what’s on the radio and video programs, I understand why you wouldn’t care for the majority of these artists. If you’re the type who’s just checking got your GOAT, or favorite producer Dr. Dre, I understand even more that you’s a fool. Let’s be real, Hip Hop in the USA is bland because fans are spoiled rotten. We want our emcees to have a certain style and sound how we want them to sound without taking the music for what it is. We hate our emcee when they beef with our favorites acting like we wasn’t feeling them before the turmoil (Beanie anyone?). Dismiss a emcee who’s not on the charts or not selling as much as they used to. That is the definiton of selling out right? Hate a emcee who’s
on a Indie because they lack marketing but can’t stand a mainstream artists because of their “pop” sound? The majority of these emcees can only go the Independent route because a mainstream will not push them. We as the mainstream fans sort of speak, dictate whats being heard by what’s selling. If we don’t buy, they won’t be heard or pushed. Can’t blame white folks and chicks for that. They jam and buy anything that moves them. What do I know though, I’m just a fan who still enjoys a whole lot of Hip Hop music from our artists.
-Written By Curtis75Black
tonygrands.com 
I am going to beg to slightly differ here…
I won’t declare hip hop necessarily “dead,” but there comes a time where one must look at quality over quantity. Just because artists who HAVE been “classic” in a past life are releasing albums does not mean we’re getting classic material on name alone.
I own the last 3 on your 2008 list, and listen to Heltah Skeltah damn near every day still.
Own or downloaded 11 of the 2009 list, but would not call all of them “great,” and only a couple would I even classify as “good” at that.
2010 is only a single download from what was named, that would be Ortiz.
While we ARE getting product out from hip hop which keeps us from declaring it “dead,” one is clearly in denial if they’re not seeing it as a little “sickly” at this point.
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“While we ARE getting product out from hip hop which keeps us from declaring it “dead,” one is clearly in denial if they’re not seeing it as a little “sickly” at this point.”
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No ones in denial. The way Hip Hop is being pushed today is wack but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good “reliable” artists still out there. If you noticed, alot of my music came from elderstatesmen. I can rely on those artists because we already connected in life. They aren’t gonna put on a front just to sell. Gimmicks aren’t apart of their forte. Now to be honest and you can ask Tony also, the only product, I truly find uninspiring is the Canibus & Keith Murray project which was all over the place. Now, that doesn’t mean someone else will not enjoy it. Now if this is about sales and quality, I see you stated you own or downloaded 11 for 2009, but wouldn’t consider them great, only a couple you’ll classify as good. Now to clear it up, what I meant is the artists, these are greats artists. Sorry about that. The product is however you feel. I can’t debate that with you. I will say though, if you purchase something, you’re more inclined to listen than to look at it as expendable music on the hard drive and our artists won’t be suffering the way they are nowadays. Nice rebuttal though Philip.
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I do agree the music will still live on. It’s even easier now to make a song than yesteryear, when you had to book studio time and find someone who knew how to work the machines.
But from the business side of it, to make rap a career these days, and have some type of longevity with it, that’s pretty much a done deal. The mantra of ‘make a hit’ instead of ‘make an artist’ today is testimony to this fact.
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