Is Hip Hop Dead?

A few weeks back I was perusing the Broadside and one article in particular caught my eye. The article was questioning whether hip hop was on its last legs and may be down for the count. An interesting theory I thought since hip hop has been in a downward spiral, at least in the mainstream, ever since the "Golden Years" of the early to mid '90s, that produced such acts as Gangstarr, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Boot Camp Clik, Hieroglyphics, and The Pharcyde, ceased to exist. The article does state that hip hop can survive and I agree, but it misses several major points such as the fact that a) a lot of good stuff is underground and b) hip hop is evolving.

I am a hip hop junkie ever since I purchased my first Public Enemy album when I was ten years old and I never looked back. I've DJed at several hip hop events including Camp Lo and Non-Phixion shows, drank beers with Jedi Mind Tricks, wrote my senior synthesis arguing hip hop is a renaissance, know the majority of the DC hip hop community, promoted for Babygrande Records and DC mainstay Organized Theory, and judged the DC ITF DJ Battle and the DC 5 Elements of Hip Hop Battle. I feel I know enough to put my two cents in.

Mainstream hip hop has pretty much sucked for years. The author of the article points out that Young Joc, Dipset, and D4L all are reasons hip hop is in trouble and I couldn't agree more. But then he states that Nas, Jay-Z, and Young Jeezy are keeping it alive... Young Jeezy?!?!?! That's like saying crystal meth is keeping the family together. Nas and Jay-Z are both good and have paid their dues, but they are nowhere near their prime anymore and to be honest Nas needs to do that album with DJ Premier and Jay-Z needs to keep putting The Roots albums out and stick with that instead of doing Budweiser commercials using the same beat Wreckx N' Effect used more than a decade ago. Hip hop has always sampled, but to be the self-proclaimed "King of Hip Hop" you can't be using the same beats that have been used in a million and one hip hop cuts.

Last year another article in The Broadside was put out on the lack of a female presence in hip hop and I thought it was ridiculous. It mentioned the well-known Queen Latifah and MC Lyte, but failed to mention such talented artists as Jean Grae or Psalm One. What bothered me the most though was the mention of an up and coming new artist named Bahamadia... yeah, her first album was released in 1996 and is considered a classic in the hip hop community. Facts are important in journalism right? I'm not knocking the writing skill of either article, I'm just wish the writers would have done a little more research before putting out these articles.

So now onto the question at hand - is hip hop dead? Nope, not as good as it used to be, but then again The Killers are no Led Zeppelin and Jack Johnson isn't exactly Bob Dylan, but that's not saying they're bad. If you look you can find adventurous and exciting hip hop all over the place. Start with the labels and crews to keep it easy: Stones Throw, Def Jux, Okayplayer, Rhymesayers are all good places to start. They all have a fine collection of artists on their rosters including: Madlib, DOOM, The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Skillz, El-P, Murs, Atmosphere, Brother Ali and Mr. Lif just to name a few. Another exciting artist is Rockville's own Edan, who is critically adored and is a one man evolution of hip hop. He produces, DJs, and raps all of his records. Check out some of these artists to see why hip hop, minus the mainstream, is still alive and kicking.