This is my personal assessment of Hip-Hop as of 2-28-06
1. Is Hip-Hop Dead?
Personally, I think Hip-Hop is alive and thriving. Hip-Hop influences more of society than any other form of music ever has. From albums, downloads, to ringtones Hip-Hop is always the leader in sales. As far as trends go, Hip-Hop is like a constant Halloween! If Jay-Z is drinking thousand dollar champagne, we are trying, too. If Lil Wayne is rockin Bathing Apes, then we are trying to rock Bapes, too. If Young Jeezy is wearing T-shirts with a snowman, then we are trying to wear T-shirts with a snowman. Is it right? Thats a whole different discussion. I'm just presenting the facts. The fact is Hip-Hop is the most influential art form today!!!
2. Which coast needs to be brought back? East or West?
Are you serious? Both coast had damn near decade plus reigns at
the forefront of Hip-Hop!!
a. First, I constantly hear and read people saying that someone needs to bring New York back!! Well Jay-Z just sold 680k+ in his first week, and Jim Jones did 120k his first week ( I know in pure numbers it is not equal to Jay-Z's sales, but as an independant thats AMAZING), and If I'm not mistaken (being sarcastic) 50 Cent is from New York and he damn near outsells everyone (Hate or Love It, It's the Truth). Second, in the coming weeks we will get New releases from Nas, Ghostface, and Mos Def to name a few. These are stables in the East Coast Hip Hop scene. Last, You'd have to been up under a rock to not know who Saigon, Graph, Papoose, Jae Millz, Juelz Santana, Tru Life, Mims, Stack Bundles, or Maino are. Although none of these artist have blew up commercially, as a fan of Hip-Hop, there is no limit to the potential success of these artist (and damnit!! they spit!!)!! And I won't even mention the known artist who still are doing their thang ( Fat Joe, Joe Buddens, Remy Ma, Fabolous, [ cross ya fingers for a new album] The Wu-Tang Clan, Redman and so on and so forth)!!
b. As far as the West Coast goes you just got albums from IceCube, Snoop, and The Game. Plus, everybody in the whole world is waiting on Dr. Dre's Detox!! E-40 had some major hits and The Hyphy Movement has garnered the most attention since gangsta rap (as far as the West goes)!! Another thing about the West is that alot of their major artist are STRICTLY UNDERGROUND!! You might have never heard of Brotha Lynch Hung Or C-Bo, but I have at least seven albums of theirs (and down here they are Icons just like Jay-z Or IceCube), so if you don't get out there and really find them you will never know about Keek da Sneak, Killa Tay, San Quinn, Messy Marv, Turf Talk, Mistah F.A.B, Clyde Carson or Bully's wit Fully's, but they out there and they ARE doing their thang, I promise.
3. Is the South killing Hip-Hop?
At the BET Hip-Hop Awards Ludacris had a shirt on that read "Hip Hop Ain't Dead It Lives In The South" , here's MY PERSONAL interpertation of his shirt. Recently a bang of rappers have been quoted saying , in one way or another , that the South is killing Hip-Hop. FYI, In the beginning Southern artist seemed to be validated by the East-Coast's approval, but they only approved so many rappers (Scarface, UGK, and OutKast), even when Master P was selling out the stores nobody really said he was good. Even though the whole music industry respected his hustle, no one respected his music. So eventually two things happened. First, Southern Artist stopped trying to gain they're approval and focused on making music for southern people. Second, Southern Artist started realizing they could make more money by selling their own cd's than signing to a major company. Thus, you had companies like Cash Money & Sucka Free, and artist like Ludacris, Slim Thug & Chamillionaire selling 100,000 copies and making millions, which in turn had major companies trying to jump on the bandwagon(the reasoning goes if you can sell 100,000 copies in your state or region, imagine what you could do on a national level??). So now most of the new artist you here are from the South! Don't be mad at them, hustle harder (thats what Dipset & Fat Joe are doing!!)!!
Last. All you ever hear is the same type of songs over and over!!!
The reason behind that is that in years past record companies developed artists. They would let them do an album, build off the success of their previous albums, and eventually they would make a SUPERSTAR (Look at OutKast's Discography, they went from good, to great, to the most successful rap duo ever). But now, most A&R's are looking for the next big thing, instead of looking for the potential in artists. So now most all major companies are promoting people that sound the same, instead of looking for the best artist, they're looking for the next Jay-Z, Ludacris, Nas or Lil Wayne.
Thanks for reading my blog, now comment and tell me what YOU think!!!
