I've found this over at Davey D's myspace site. Enjoy!!!
http://blog.myspace.com/i...b4edff3b6e

Hip Hop's Death and Music Evolution
by Mark Skillz

It is said that in the last days of disco record companies were losing their shirts left and right. They had sunken millions of dollars into a dying art form and everyone was crying. There were signs everywhere "Disco Sucks".

Some of everybody recorded a disco record Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones, Phyllis Diller, Rick Dees (gotdamned Disco Duck) and too many others. It was a cash cow in the 70's. White folks danced off beat in discothèques, had orgies in stairways, openly snorted cocaine, drank champagne – like the shit really tasted good, it was the time of their lives. That was until the 'Disco Sucks' movement caught momentum and people stopped buying Donna Summers records. And oh yeah, all those nights of bingeing on cocaine and sex led to things like herpes and then AIDS.

Now that sucks.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about hip-hop being dead. I'm not sure if it is or not, but let's go back to my disco example first.

If you wanna see if Tommy Mottola is really a connected guy – you know some Italian cats like to say that they "know a guy who knows a guy that knows a guy that is connected…" well, Tommy's allegedly one of those guys who knows some guys who can plant your ass in Giant Stadium. Anyway, if you want to piss him off try going into his office and getting a deal for a disco act. Just mention words like "fever", "boogie" and uh while you're at it wear a white suit a`la Johnny Travolta in Saturday Night Fever style. Then look out because some 400-pound guy in shades with a baseball bat is going to escort you to the parking lot the Jimmy Hoffa way.

Tommy was one of those record execs who lost his shirt during the disco days. Disco is a bad word in record industry circles.

But is disco really dead? I mean how can a style of music die? Well disco morphed into house, techno and you also hear elements of it in acid jazz.

For the record they also say that Jazz is dead too…

Well if you ask any trained jazz musician he might say two things, one of them being: "No, it's not dead", then he might say something like "it isn't appreciated like it should be." And he would be right.

What about rock? What about the rock n roll of Little Richard, Chubby Checker, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis and all of those guys is that dead?

Well no one is recording new records in that style anymore. What is difficult for me to believe is that once upon a time – a very long time ago, those acts (minus Jerry Lee Lewis) were supported by African Americans. But if you go to see Chuck Berry, Little Richard or anyone else of that genre now, you will be hard pressed to find a black face in the crowd.

Do you know why? Because we abandoned that style of music 50 years ago.

I have a test for you put an ad in a Minneapolis newspaper say something like "Producer with a million dollar budget looking for excitingly, fresh band in the vein of Prince and The Time" and see who responds. Do you know what you'll get? Five fat guys in their late 40's who have just dusted off their guitars and keyboards for one last shot. Do you know why? Because the youngsters around those parts are too young to remember Prince in his heyday. But hey, with a million dollar budget you can get the five fat, balding, 40 year- old guys in the gym for six months and with a diet program and plenty of Pilates you can make one hell of an attempt at resurrecting a sound of a bygone era.

What about Rhythm and Blues is that dead? Hell, Nelson George proved that twenty years ago with his groundbreaking classic "The Death of Rhythm and Blues". When Rhythm and Blues died it supposedly morphed into R&B. I know your scratching your head asking yourself if you read that right – you did. Yes R&B stands for Rhythm and Blues, so let me ask you this…do you hear any "Blues" in R&B music today? Ok let's take a look at the top ten R&B songs of last year. Hold on let me get situated. Ok here were go:

Let's put it like this: John Legend, Anthony Hamilton and Leela James come damn close! But you can't get a Cuban cigar for it. Maybe a five dollar one…But uh…Mariah Carey, Nina Sky, Gwen Stefani, Pussycat Dolls, Faith Evans, Fantasia and Destiny's Child? Can you honestly with a straight face tell me that those acts sound like they have been inspired by the blues? I'll wait...

Whatever happened to Grunge, Modern Rock, Acid Rock, Industrial rock and all those other styles is the same thing that happened to the Do Do Bird and other extinct species – they got swallowed up. Whether or not you believe in evolution is on you, but one thing that is a fact of nature is that only the strong survive. The same applies in music.

So now is hip-hop dead?

Well, using my current line of thought I'll say this: The hip-hop I grew up on is dead. And it had to die to make way for a new generation to interpret the music their way.

In a recent interview with Tommy Boy Records founder and CEO Tom Silverman, I asked him what was the music industry doing wrong today?

He told me that the majors are pouring 1.5 to 3 million dollars into their acts and the records aren't selling. In other words record companies are losing their shirts with hip-hop and R&B
I asked some friends writers I respect "Is Hyphy Hip-Hop or a cousin?"

They all said, "Yeah it's Hip-Hop."

In all fairness I was supposed to call Adisa but I caught the flu, shit has had me out of business until today. Yo Adisa I'm gonna call home boy.

Anyway after some of the usual back and forth with this guy I say, ok, it's a sub genre just like Grunge and all those other styles are to Rock. But never the less it is Hip-Hop as are Snap, Bounce, Krunk and Chopped and Screwed. It ain't the hip-hop I grew up on, but it is hip-hop. One day in a couple of years from now all of those sub genres will give way for a new style of hip- hop. Speaking of which what happened to 'Miami Bass' is that still being done?

i hate the music and the people so please let all modern URBAN things die !

Some artists which incoperate hip hop or are predominantly hip hop like K OS will survive because of talent and integrity.

I can't stand 99% of hip hop now becuase i'm sick of all the sexism, homophobia racism, etc. Listening to old jay z albums it's pathetic how much he went on about women being bitches in nearly every song. Kingdom Come however is a big departure from that and has alot better material without the neagtivity which shows alot of growth(shame the Mastering engineer taotally fucked the sound up, my ears are still bleeding).

hip hop won't die until the following actually die:

Jay-Z
Nas
Mos Def
Common
The Roots
Big Daddy Kane
MC Lyte
Queen Latifah
GangStarr
Rakim
Diddy (he's going to keep sampling until the day he dies)
Timbaland
remaining members of Wu Tang
Ludacris
Ice Cube
Dr. Dre
and the list goes on....

even then, who is to say that their KIDS won't try to carry on the legacy as well?

Eazy E's son was on the '06 VH1 Hip Hop Honors and sounded just like his dad.
[Edited 2/7/07 5:34am]

I doubt that shit hop will die like disco did. Disco had taken over everything but just for a few short years. Shit hop has taken over damn near everything for 15 years. It's dominated much more than disco could ever have dreamed.

Rock fans were also pissed because disco was dominating the radio and they did something about it. Shit hop has dominated the radio much longer and people these days don't have the good sense to do anything about it. Where are the shit hop CD burnings in the baseball fields? Where are the "Shit Hop Sucks" signs? It's not gonna happen.

Folks like Ethel Merman made a disco record and also helped to contribute to it being "uncool". However, a lot of today's generation seems to embrace the "uncool". Hell, Disney soundtracks make the top of the charts these days! What could be more uncool than that!

Homophobia was also a huge factor in the death of disco. Shit hop ain't going anywhere though because the genre is full of homophobia.

And the biggest reason shit hop is not going to die.....major corporations dominate the radio and media these days and they are not going to let it die. Why? Because it's cheap, cheap, cheap and folks these days don't know anything about Rodeo Drive, they've been raised on Wal-Mart.
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[Edited 2/7/07 7:39am]

I've made this comparison in this forum for years and few paid attention. But the author has a point.

disco never died, it just went to sleep for a couple of years.

Damn! that was cold.

Very true. I remember when I first heard house music in the mid 1980s. I immediately said..."that's disco reincarnated".

Hip hop's been around since the days of disco, so I don't see it dying a quick death.

It's not a fad like disco, it's a form of music that has gone through phases, just like pop music became disco or new wave and changed to something else. Hip hop isn't like Run DMC anymore, but it's still around.

That said, I hope it changes into something much better soon.

loveisnotgod said:

Glad you are diggin' K-Os!


Later

I wouldn't exactly write disco off as just a fad because it definately left it's mark after it "died". Funk in the early 1980s was definately more uptempo, modern sounding, and danceable like disco than funk in the 1970s which was a slower tempo and more jazzy sounding.

Since I first started listening to music during the disco era and absolutely hated to see it die, when rock took back over the pop radio airwaves in 1980, I switched to R&B radio exclusively because the funk at the time was the closest sounding thing to disco. And the rap of the early 1980s sounded even more like disco than funk did. Then house music came along in the mid 1980s which sounded like an actual modern reincarnation of disco. Of course rap had to go and change and fuck things up by slowing down the tempo the furthest thing away from disco.

namepeace said:

The dollar will deal the death blow.
When it does, i'm curious to see if any "hardcore rappers" flip the switch and latch onto the new thing.

After all, for many of them, It's all about the benjamins. Yannowateyemsane?


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

vainandy said:

You make a good point, and I liked disco even when it was out of fashion--and you're right, if it died it was reincarnated.

I guess I'm saying I see disco as a style of R&B (which never died), and I see the current "gangsta" or "shit hop" as you call it as a style of the larger "Hip Hop" or "Rap" (which I don't think will die either)
[Edited 2/7/07 12:54pm]

If a new style of music finally does come when shit hop does, if it involves playing a musical instrument, a lot of these current artists will be getting a one way ticket back to the gutter.

I hope to God that Hip Hop dies. What we have today is a total farce of what was. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up ASAP.

Modern Hip-Hop is a travesty.

It celebrates some of the worst stereotypes.

It makes millionaires out of people whose greatest gift is stealing real musicians' work.

It pushes musicianship into the background and good music off the radio.

And it's incredibly cheap and easy to produce. All you need is a trashcan and a voice box and you can convince someone that you're gonna be a star.

vainandy said:

Disco became Dance music, so it never really died. The problem with Hip hop it is incorporated into every other genre of music, that's why peeps like John Legend and Alisa Keyes get so much prop, because they can sing a song with Hip=hop nowhere in sight.

Until to peeps learn to record song again without, silly, rap verses installed in the middle then Hip-hop will live on, unfortunately.

VERY true. You can't hear a so-called R&B song these days without hearing those weak ass shit hop drum machines in it that just barely tap.

No Hip Hop is not dead. Just watch the WHITE RAPPER SHOW!

magnificentsynthesizer said:

This is true. But I'll even go so far as to say, even when those suburban white kids of the '70s were throwing these black/gay/latin/urban disco records in the bonfire..

It just morphed into Dance, house, garage, techno, electronic/a, indie disco, jungle, acid, cunty, dub, ghetto, electropop, bright, hard, Hi-NRG, 4x4, Baltimore, tech-house, coke pop, nintendisco, italo, polo, synthpop, freestyle, IDM, happy hardcore, progressive, circuit, chillout, sublow, hip-house, ambient, trance, breakbeat, drum n bass, two-step, rave, dance punk, not-disco/dsico/bastard pop, etc. etc. etc.

...
[Edited 2/7/07 17:23pm]

disco didn't die because it turned into other stuff.

what is rap turning into?

vainandy said:

Ya, there's a really good book by Peter Shapiro entitled The Secret History of Disco and it outlines some of what you touch on.

Much of the mainstream rap scene itself first formed out of disco records. Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Sugar Hill Gang, Fantastic Romantic, Busy Bee and folks like them were using disco records like Chic's "Good Times," etc. People love to play up the "hip hop owes its life blood to James Brown" records and soul angle, but disco was also in the mix was well.

Most people get confused in the fact that they think of "Disco" solely in its initial form -- stuff like First Choice, Sylvester, Lipps Inc, BeeGees, Hues Corp. etc. Of course, that type of music dwindled in popularity, but it also transformed itself and grew with different generations and regions. Much like how the rock 'n' roll of Chuck Berry is different from the classic/arena rock of Led Zepp or Eagles and even wayyy different from the emo ish that is My Chemical Romance. lol.

Same thing happened with Disco. It's now under the catch-all term dance, but it is very alive and continues to morph and evolve all the time. I'm already seeing that happen with what we now classify as hip hop/rap music and right now it sounds crazy, but Snap/Do It/Hyphy/etc.etc. music like D4L, Bullys w/Fullys and YYT is really getting more and more on some "otha shit" and isn't really of the same cloth of folks like Nas, BDP and traditional HH.

...
[Edited 2/7/07 15:37pm]

vainandy said:

THAT right there would be an awesome footnote of the week.
[Edited 2/7/07 15:43pm]

Mara said:

Donna Summer lives on in M and Kylie. Hip Hop won't face the same fate of Disco because it isn't popular with the majority of gay people.

purplecam said:

.....with a little bit of a faster tempo.

Mara said:

I don't see hip-hop dying as a genre, but the decline of it's commercial appeal. Let's face...these guys are giving us the same songs with the samples...over and over again.

I think there will be an increase in quality and decline in quantity

ehuffnsd said:

You do know there is a Gay Hip Hop/Homo-Hop movement, don't you?