To the people that say hip hop is NOT dead...

**quickdodge®** · 03-15-2009, 09:55 AM

Really and truly it is. Or rather it's in a hospice just waiting out the rest of it's days. Now know that I'm not talking specifically about hp hop altogether. Mostly the mainstream/radio play hip hop. I'll go back a few years for you to let you know where I am coming from. Some of you guys weren't born in the late 70s. Some of you were but weren't old enough to remember. And even some of you were old enough to remember but weren't really exposed to it. Hip hop barely got radio play back in the late 70s/early 80s. There were a lot of tracks out there and a lot of crews and MCs. Everyone mostly filed into little backstreet clubs and performed. Along came the mid 80s and hip hop finally kind of made it's way in Atlanta. V-103 started doing a show every Friday night from 8pm-10pm called the Fresh Party where they would play two hours of rap/hip hop. It was a damn good source for Atlanta hip hop fans. But that was it. There was nothing played outside of those hours. It eventually was extended to midnight but still remained only on Friday nights. When the late 80s came around, MTV ushered in the show Yo! MTV Raps. That really brought rap to the mainstream. After the show became successful, radio play rose. They started playing rap more and more and at different times of the day. It got to where rap was played more often than not on multiple radio stations. Within the last few years, not only has rap changed, drastically, but I've noticed less and less rap tracks being played on the radio. With the quality of rap declining, the invention of downloading music (free/illegally) and the "hype" that surrounds most rappers themselves, it seems radio is a fading outlet for this music. With just about every rapper feeling the need to "prove" they aren't fakes, people are turning away from it. Rap is not a growing and new thing anymore. It's old and getting tiring real fast. It's in a changing phase, but from what I can see of the progression, it appears to be changing right out of itself. As in...going away.

Now I called it back in 1984 when someone told me that rap was just a fad. That it would be gone in a couple of years. I told that person that rap would be here for a while and that it was just starting. I was right back then.

Will I be right now when I say it won't be but a couple of years before rap is virtually gone? Who knows.

I didn't type this because of my dislike for today's hip hop, but because I have lived through the entire life of hip hop. So I've seen it from birth to now. And these are my words. Later, QD.

**The Ninja** · 03-15-2009, 11:03 AM

Ok, so Wise-Man-Wrinkles speaks, and I agree to some extent.

While I won't say Hip-Hop is completely dead, I will agree that the Hip-Hop you knew has died and been layed to rest. It has morphed into this nasty conglomerate of half-assed entertainers using this mode to make money instead of artists expressing their emotions and feelings.

We've gone from Tupac telling us about a little girl dumping her baby to T-Pain telling us about how we've been "Chopped'n'Screwed". From Common telling us a heartbreaking story to money, cars, clothes, and hoes.

Just as you've watched it from its conception, you've seen its prime, just as I have seen the decrepit shadow of its former self be milked for the money its worth. Some say its dead because they don't want to associate true hip-hop with the bubblegum shit of today claiming to be Hip-Hop. Some say its still alive because they believe its just changes instead of died. Some say its evolved for the better, or for the times.

I believe Hip-Hop as TRUE Hip-Hop has died, and that this replacement is a sorry shedding for the times. Hip-Hop has passed its prime, and another genre of music or collection of genres of music will take its place and the cycle will continue.

I myself have long strayed from contemporary Hip-Hop and stepped into other genres that I like, even though I still listen to Hip-Hop, I lack the passion I used to have. I just listen to the "old"(Old to me, I'm only 20) stuff, or stuff that I like from previous years. Just as my passion for Hip-Hop has eroded, my drive for B-Boyin has also faded.

Overall, I agree with what you're saying.