You see it everywhere, from commercials to dumb movies. Hip hop music and culture is invading the mainstream. It has been stolen and marketed to a base culture that only cares about the next buck. Rap is made fun of in white culture. You see old ladies saying "what's the dillio" and some such rot. Rap itself is now a tool for mindless entertainment, not enlightenment. Even groups we respect are selling out.

Some members of The Roots complained that they want to make hits, and that Questlove wont let them, cause he wants to stay consious. They could possibly leave the band.

Common does Coke commercials.

Eminem has lost his fire; he is even loosing lots of black fan support, because of his embrace by lots of racist white youth. He is now being seen not as a rapper, but as a pop star.

Is rap culture dying?

I don't think hip hop is dead
There is ALOT of succesfull hip hop artist, Hip hop branches out to rock and pop, Just because there some comercial hip hop music doesn't mean the whole community has sold out (typical pop culture propoganda)
There still is Q tip , Cherrywine and all these amazing artists

if anything makes Money in AmeriKKKA that is Black Based chances are it will Be Spreaded out&Pimped to the Fullest&Watered Down eventually.Hip-Hop Been Main-stream in a true sense almost 20 years.but who is gonna knock Garth Brooks doing a Dr Pepper commerical? or Billy Joel&Elton John doing a American Express Tour Sponsorship? as long as the Money&the People are Buying a Product then you can't stop the Flow.

2freaky4church1 said:

no...just evolving. hey, it had to happen some day.

thank god for Improvised Jazz
[This message was edited Sat Aug 16 9:51:26 PDT 2003 by DoctorNickRiviera]

Rap culture has flourished for over a decade now, and is still doing so.

Hip Hop culture is alive, almost underground where it started, instead of the mainstream where it once found success.

To some degree the same thing that happened to Hip Hop happens to Rock and Roll. It's a cyclical industry, like most businesses.

Charley loves rap..

DoctorNickRiviera said:

Hip-Hop isn't evolving! Good Lawd...if anything, it's regressing to something it never was...a marketing tool to make rich people richer, and ignorant people even more ignorant. It is now baseless, without soul, "artists" will do damn near anything to feed that "bling-bling" mentality, with no thought as to what it does to the countless youth who worship the shit...I truly believe that hip-hop...or at least the mainstream shit, is a prime reason for the state of Black America today. The media shapes everything. This is a all-out consumer culture, and the bottom line, period, is making a buck, be ye black, white, yellow, brown, etc. America's culture is consumerism.

BlackandRising said:

2freaky and BlackandRising are right.

As a lover of hip-hop, I wish it would die. It was a potent cultural influence. Now it's a corrupted minstrel show. The phenomenon that was created to enliven and uplift the black community now promotes the worst stereotypes of black people. I like some of the commercial stuff, even, but it is really sickening to watch these so-called "bling-bling" cats coming across as modern-day shuffling "coons" in baggy pants.

It needs to die before its essence is lost forever.
[This message was edited Sat Aug 16 14:40:03 PDT 2003 by namepeace]

Over 70% of all hip-hop is bought by white America. The artists aren't complaining.

2freaky4church1 said:

You don't have the skills of Anji, that's for sure.

EvilWhiteMale said:

And this says what? That since over 70% (and I'd love to know where this statistic comes from) of all hip-hop is purchased by white people, and the artists aren't complaining about the money they make, that it's all good? I don't think so.
Again, this is a prime example of the all-mighty dollar ruling everything.

Well, both rap(moreso than hip hop) and hip hop have been exploited since, what the early 90s?
I garee with whoever said they wish all the hype would die down, it definitely would save an already tanking genre of music.

Money rules everything, the commercial artists putting out this music know this, think they care? Of course not. As long as they have enough money to buy they're "bling bling", big mansions, and an anbundance of cars, they're fine wih it.

It's not all good, but money makes it a lot better.

EvilWhiteMale said:

Of course they're not complaining! THEY'RE the ones makin the dollars! Bling-bling!

BlackandRising said:

Exactly, man. I don't understand why people still cant see that. That's exactly what I said in the last "hip-hop" thread. Then I got my head bit off by people who did'nt know what the hell they were talkin about. Well, I guess everyone has a right to their own opinions But in this instance, I'm really feelin ya.

kiss85 said:

We can all thank the "gangsta rap" subgenre for its profitability for that. Since then the entire genre hasn't had a movement to combat it, or transcend it. Hip Hop within the mainstream could have turned out better than it has, but its growth was stunted long ago by its terminal adolescent, and materialistic nature. Overall the first dozen years were much more interesting than what followed.

BlackandRising said:

I just saw a special on Jay-Z on Primetime or some show. They gave the figure of over 70%. It makes sense since the majority of America is white, not to mention people from around the world. So if all non-blacks stopped buying hip-hop, these artists would be making a fraction of what they get now. In this country, the majority of hip hop is bought by young suburban whites.

2freaky4church1 said:

Make up your mind...is it invading the culture, or has it been stolen? Old women or society types (see the upcoming bomb of a film Marcie X) using black slang is no different than Eddie Murphy acting like a rich white male in Trading Places. As if some of our black comedians didn't make fun of white culture? It's a give and take, and as long as it doesn't hurt anyone in the process, what's the big deal? You're over-reacting - the same thing happened to rock & roll years ago. The acceptance of hip hop on the scale it has been should be celebrated. It's been noticed, it's been well-received, it's been embraced. It wasn't a style of music exclusive to black people - as evidenced by the fact that most of it is bought by white kids.

Music forms never die, they just travel along and evolve all the time - all the past big music movements/genres are still being made by new and old artists alike.

It's just that the commerce end of the music industry sucks in a genre and promotes it, signs a plethora of artists who make that kinds of music, and generally exploit it's profit making potentional.

When it's at it's commercial peak, it's gradually dropped, and another genre is brought in as the next big thing, and promoted, artists are signed, and so forth.

Such is the cycle of the business.

I like the anti-American part of this.

Hip-hop isn't dying, it just bogs the hell out of everyone who has even a mediocre sense of relevance.