http://www.blackinthecity...icism.html

Personally, I'm not against the genre of hip hop. Though I dont listen to it anymore, I'm not against it. I'm just against the caricature its become. I just wish that the "art" of hip hop returned front and center and garnered attention and sales like the crap that's out in mainstream does now
[Edited 3/3/07 8:28am]

Hip-hop hasn't evolved in years and I think people are geting sick of it.That music has become boring and predictable.How can anybody be excited about the next 50 Cent album? We already know exactly what it's gonna sound like.We already know what he's gonna be rapping about.These rappers make the same album over and over.

Yay.....!!!!!

Gray, quick - change your name to GRAYALIVE and I'll change mine to COSMICALIVE!

Hurray!!!

LoveAlive said:

I completely agree with you. For every Common, Mos Def, The Roots - there are twenty million Lil Jons, Lil Waynes, Lil Dicks, Lil Pricks and Lil Brains - boring, derivative, talentless wankers. Hip hop has become the mjusical equivalent of reality tv.

Shapeshifter said:

LOL@ "Lil Wayne's, Lil Pricks"
ROTFL!

if they ever get back to makin lemonade theyll be a beast again

i must say hip hop kinda died together with 2 pac and biggie
nas latest album says it hip hop is dead .
and i dont know if he blows some life in it but i love older stuf from 2 pac

motownlover said:

I think there are some people who give Pac and Big too much credit for the sustainment and the subsequent death of Hip Hop. And Big was basically a blip on the radar in terms of how big Hip Hop was from about 1988 to now.

CosmicTalk said:

Agree with you about Big. Overrated. Pac was something else though. He may not have been the greatest rapper, but he wrote some of the best rhymes. Plus he was a VERY promising actor. Had he lived, he probably would have been a mainstream actor by now, occasionally making albums only his hardcore fans bought (like Ice Cube). Oh, and HAD he lived, it would have spared us all those crappy posthumous albums too ...

motownlover said:

That's just the title of the album. It's an attention seeking ploy. The album doesn't go within a universe of NY Oil's searing indictment of the genre in Y'all Should Get Lynched (I got SERIOUSLY excited about this track last year, becausae it was so damn TRUE -http://youtube.com/watch?v=6NjD_nrNnUo ) or Little Brother's equally damning The Minstrel Show CD. Nas cops out. Completely. Which is a shame. Doesn't want to alienate Fiddy Non-sense.
[Edited 3/3/07 17:32pm]

-
[Edited 3/3/07 17:31pm]

Shapeshifter said:

R U Still Down and Still I Rise were 2pac's best posthumous albums.

Until the end of time and Better Days were good albums. Some songs should have kept the original beats.

Loyal to the Game and Pac's Life were ruined because of Eminem producing the album, not keeping the original beats, and other guest rappers that 2pac never worked with during his lifetime.

Album sales in general have plummeted, not just hip hop.

Shapeshifter said:

I liked 2Pac enough in the early years, but I didn't understand how he got so big (and I still don't). I loved "Brenda's Got a Baby," "Keep Ya Head Up," "Dear Mama," "So Many Tears," and especially "If My Homie Calls" and "I Get Around," but I couldn't get down with hardly any of the stuff that came later. He got so wrapped up in that dumb-assed feud. It's a shame.

jayaredee said:

True, but Rap/Rb had been pulling the industry and now there really isnt anything thats pulling the industry outside of Disney productions like High School High and Hannah Montana. But one thing i can site for this issue was the Blending of the genres of RB/RAP, this was the fucking worst move ever, this is why you lost RB Bands and why artists like Van Hunt and Rashaan Patterson cant get played. Im so glad that the "BLING" of hip hop is crashing, maybe we finally can get rid off the people like Jibbs,Jeezy,all the Lil's and devote the air time or at least some of it to Common, Mos Def,the Roots etc.. You wanna see an example of how the Hip Hop "bling" is dieing, a Model who has done a few Rap Videos, last year made more money doing magazines and few videos than the top selling rap artist. Another example would be that 99.9 % of the things in "stereotypical" rap videos (cars,cash,liquor,girls,chains) are all rented, they dont own that shit, the label is forking out the $$ to pay for those videos and they arent making the money back, so now finally they are waking up to the fact that maybe pushing the shit they push, and targeting the 16 year old audience for your sales is THE DUMBEST MARKETING EVER! Every person at a label that thinks that targeting to 16 year olds is smart should be fired. The main problem is that people at labels dont want hip hop artists with a message, mainly because u cant fit a MESSAGE on a Ringtone, and that is all 90% of Rap/RB has become, just a dumb fucking ringtone. What bothers me more are the so called pioneers of the genres havent bonded together and tried to change things, shit, pool the money together and start your own label, start you own channel, fuck BET at this point, stop talking and do it already.

I remember when Kid-N-Play and Hammer were getting all the airplay while I was listening to Eric B. & Rakim and Public Enemy. Can't we say the same thing about Young Jeezy and Mos Def?

speaking of hip hop....a few weeks ago in Vegas there was a Lupe Fiasco, Gnarls Barkley and Kanye West Concert

then they all went over to an afterparty and the Roots played for an hour

hip hop will never die

AlexdeParis said:

He probably got big because of his association with the hottest label
in hip hop at the time death row. You know his boss was the booster cable
behind the feud. That probably pushed him into his so called legend status.
I am like you i like some of his earlier work like brenda's got a baby, keep ya head up, i get around, so many tears, and me against the world.
I would hardly call big or pac the best rappers to touch the mike. It is just
cliche in the hip hop community to do so.

Hip Hop has become 2day minstrel show...sad, but true...

It's hard to find rap with a message. There's a lot out there, but it don't get promoted so it's hard to find. Record labels can ruin ANYTHING...repeat...ANYTHING...

From the AP:

Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

SIDENOTE: So far, there isn't a rap album out there that is breaking new grounds at all.

Biggie mastered his genre. Nobody ever made lemonade like that. Lyrical chitterlings, hog maws.porks chops and hamhocks. The worst things were left to him and he somehow bizarely got the best out of it. His skills were superb. Tupac was a heart throb, hip hop James Dean. He was literally the poster child for the same genre but his gift was his ability to connect w/ his generation. Big had the skills, Pac had the image.

TonyVanDam said:

It's been out for a year, but I am still ridin' for J Dilla Donuts.

When I heard "Where's The Love" by Black Eyed Peas, I was impressed (that was the first song I heard of theirs). It was socially-conscious and positive. Lemme say that was a one-time occurrence, sadly. Everything since has been booty-shakin' music. Which I give them credit for, everything is positive . . .

But yeah, Eric B. and Rakim and Public Enemy could really get you THINKING. They didn't rap about what the new rappers seem to exclusively rap about (Cristal, Mercedes, drop-top this, 22" rims that . . .)

Hip Hop back in the day seemed to promote thinking and questioning the system. Nowadays, it's just about image.

I'd be glad to see the whole genre go away for a little while - to return stronger and truer to form.
[Edited 3/4/07 5:33am]

This is what hip-hop's become - from a link in the article which inspoired this thread:

http://www.onetwoonetwo.c...view/23/2/
[Edited 3/4/07 8:16am]

Well when CNN ran its week long report, "Hip Hop , art or poison" it pointed out that 80% of Rap album sales are from white kids, dont know if its accurate or not its just what they quoted. And honestly it would show some sort of disconnect between most Rappers and their audience. In a "stereotypical" rap video, cars,women,cash,bling one thing you dont see is a "white" person unless playing a "cop" or "business owner type", which is sad, because its only giving one image of every race. So i think the way to look at this would be to look at every other "trend" that died out. Everything from "Hair Metal" to "Power Rock Ballads" to "Grunge" to "Rap/Rock" u name it, things come and go when they become commercialized to a point where your selling to an audience that you dont even know or connect with. I think this is a sign of things to come, whether it will change Radio/Labels/Video stations mindsets remains to be seen, but at the end of the day, with falling sales, labels will just jump at the next trend to make money at. So now its time to wave goodbye to all the "Bling" and get back to the source.

like any other type of music, a new style (even if its an old style reinvented) will come up and all will be well again.

"Media Reports Creates Hip Hop Backlash"