Hip Hop Is Dead

About few years ago, Brooklyn native Nasir Jones a.k.a Nas, stirred up controversy when he proclaimed that hip hop was dead. It has been just about a year and those words became the seed of a new movement.

There are those who will testify that the industry has not lost its swagger, but I beg to differ.
It seems that the demise of hip hop started in the South with the crunk movement. The movement had such an impact, Webster’s recently recognized ‘crunk’ as a word.
Not everything bad has come out of the South. Hip hop pioneers Outkast and successors like

Ludacris, Nelly and T.I all came from the “dirty South”.
The problem, I believe began with a rapper known as Young Joc and a track called ‘Its Goin’ Down’. With basic lyrics like, “I know ya wonder why/I'm so cool/ Don't ask me just do what cha do.” The song is more like a limerick than a record.

One year later enter Hurricane Chris with his single, “A Bay Bay”. With even more simplistic rhymes than his predecessor Young Joc, Hurricaine Chris’s lyric’s are pouring salt on hip hop’s open wound.

“When I’m walkin' and I’m pimpin' /when I’m talkin'/I don't trick on chick dat’s talkin’”. Chris continued to do harm to the industry when he released the follow up, “The Hand Clap”.
Now Joc and Chris didn’t bring hip hop to its downfall single handily. How could we forget Lil Boosie’s sorry excuse for a song, “Wipe Me Down”. Where the chorus consist of two lines repeated ten times. If you think you need to be wiped down, Boosie take a shower!
But I would like to send an honorable mention to Souljah Boy. His dumb, song doesn’t even deserve a paragraph.

But oh no, less we forget those who added to the problem, like Mike Jones and the now divided Cash Money Millionaires.
There are artists out there who never fail me and constantly drop hit after hit stacked with one, two, mamma said knock you out punch lines. Artists like Jay Hova, Kanye and Common. Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G must be rolling in their graves right now at the current state of hip hop.
Tupac was a lyrical poet. In “Keep Ya Head Up”, an ode to society, Tupac spoke the truth about societies problems. “You know it's funny when it rains it pours/They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor.” Consider the fact that this song was written more than ten years ago yet still stands true today?

Now the Notorious B.I.G, granted he was not as philosophical as Tupac, none the less, he went down as the true G.O.A.T, sorry LL. He helped spawn the careers of never-writes-his-own-lyrics P.Diddy and jail bird Lil’ Kim.
What ever happened to strong lyrical content? Whatever happened to Nas? It’s as if he dropped this controversy bomb and just left. That’s like passing wind in a room, and leaving! Lets hope Nas' N*ger alsum will help to revive what he feels is dead.

Thanks to Lil’ Wayne’s revamped style of rapping, Kanye’s and ever swelling head and creativity, Common and his truth, these MC’s are holding down the fort, trying to set a good example for younger lyrists to come.

In the November 2007 issue of XXL magazine, they come up with a list of ten artist who they think will dig hip hop out its hole. Artist like Lupe Fiasco, Papose and Rich Boy. But can they be the doctor’s to save an already dying victim: Hip Hop? Some can, but keep in mind Lil Boosie made that list.
This is just an opinion, to those who are offended by these words, I say: “A wise man told me don’t argue with fools, cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who”.