As we approach the new millenium, the Hip-Hop culture that we know and love is quickly becoming an enterprise for rich marketers to exploit. The culture has been divided so much, now people only know Hip-Hop as “rap music” and not as the culture that it once was. The problem is that Hip-Hop music is such an influencing medium for the youth to communicate with, that people all around the world have gained a respect for Hip-Hop that they dont usually have for any other kinds of music. Thus, the music has become more popular then the other aspects of Hip-Hop which has led to their public disappearance. The main cause for Hip-Hop’s death is the way the industry has used the culture only to make profit for themselves off young, influential artists and dedicated Hip-Hop fans. Record companies send out questionnaires with many of their products to find out what the consumers want to buy and what they dont. After learning what the average rap fan wants, the record industry does away with their unpopular, yet dedicated, Hip-Hop artists. Thus, the record industry uses the popular artists only for their own financial gain.
Doing this, they have not only began to destroy what rap music truly is, they have also left out the other aspects of Hip-Hop to slowly wither away and die. Many of the artists have been so deterred by fame that they too do not give credit to the other aspects of Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop is being used by every form of entertainment today including TV, movies and even clothing designers have stolen the Hip-Hop fashion for there own greedy purposes. The industry has taken and “juiced” Hip-Hop for its freshness. Take a look at Break Dancing for example; At one time, there was a chain of movies that came out after break dancing became mainstream. Break Dancing was “in” and was marketable. This is also true for graffiti.
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... Hip hop music continued to blossom after the release of Rapper's Delight. The music industry, the film industry, and the print media discovered this art form. Artist ... a rise to jargon on a daily basis is the hip hop culture. They used this jargon to create a street language that ...
Many people in the media realized that there were thousands of brilliant young artists in the ghetto and abroad. However, now that the popularity in these two aspects of Hip-Hop decreased, the attention that was once giving has stopped. The most attention that graffiti receives now is negative publicity on the news. Break dancing receives no publicity accept for the attention that die hard Hip-Hop fans give it. The problem is not the fans. Fans will take what they can get.
The problem is that the industry only cares about what will sell, and what wont. They will not invest their time into anything that does not make money. So, the artist follows along with this and will accept the small bills that roll in, as they stab the back of the culture that was once a thriving force of inspiration. Many of the so called Hip-Hop artists that we have grown to know and appreciate are just involved in Hip-Hop for their own success. They are not really concerned with what Hip-Hop once was and could soon become. I am sure many of you reading this are saying “so what!” Well, the problem is that many of the artists in the Hip-Hop community, have nothing but cellular phones and loaned Mercedes and have not taken any responsibility with the preservation of Hip-Hop. If every true Hip Hop artists were to take just a fraction of their money to start organizations and record companies and other Hip-Hop businesses and groups, we would be able to keep Hip Hop strong and take more control of it. What many of the artists dont realize is that just as the record companies have dropped other artists or aspects of Hip-Hop, they too will soon be a thing of the past.
Think of all those one hit wonders in Hip-Hop. Think of all the mega pop stars in Hip Hop who are now nothing but washed up suckers; i.e. MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Young MC to name a few. They we just pawns who were being used. The record companies knew that the artists wanted to use the culture so they offered them a chance to do that. The artists felt secure in there make believe stardom that they had no idea that they too were being exploited.
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Early on in his rambling memoir, Chronicles (2004), Bob Dylan expresses a surprising affiliation. I’d read that stuff. Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke, Montesquieu, MartinLuther—visionaries, revolutionaries…it was like I knew those guys, like they’d been living in my backyard. (p. 30) This “backyard” of the songwriter, identified through much of his career with subversion and rebellion, is a ...
So one day soon, rap music will also be another washed up aspect of Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop is now based on deceit, lies and propaganda. Every aspect is marketed until it is over used so much that fans become desensitized. Even lyrics have become mundane and overused. Statements in rap music all seem to become a Hip-Hop quotable and every little fish “artist” bites every single quote that comes their way. For example, I will use the term “keep it real.” to make my point.
In the early part of this decade, the term “keep it real” was used in one or two Hip-Hop songs and all of a sudden it seemed to be the title for every other song. Every emcee was shouting out “keep it real.” The statement did not make any suggestion to keep Hip-Hop alive, nor did it say anything that really made any sense. All the so-called rap artists would just follow the instructions of their record companies, which was probably something like “do whatever is popular.” What does “keep it real” mean anyway? Well, looking up the word real in the dictionary, it does not seem to say anything about being true to Hip-Hop. That is why I have never used the statement keep it real. I make my own terms up, and my term is “keep it true”. The term “keep it true” says a lot more then “keep it real.” Being true is being honest, sincere and loyal to something or someone.
That is why I keep it true with Hip-Hop. This brings me to this next topic of this article–originality. Hip-Hop has lost much of its originality. Back in the day, many of the break moves were similar, but the goal of most breakers was to add a twist or movements to another move to “blow away” the crowd. This is the same thing with graffiti. Many of the artists would try as best they can to do a piece that would out due the last piece they had done.
DJ’s and MC’s would go all out to add the most original flavor to the music of Hip-Hop. Whether it was a new scratch or new way to flow, originality was the goal. Nowadays however, the goal seems to be, copy the person who makes the most money. Much of this lack of originality in Hip-Hop is why the culture is dying. Underground artists are finding it harder and harder to sell tapes and perform because the fans are now only interested in what sells. The record companies are now using the fans as pawns as well.
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In 1841 an American artist John Rand invented collapsible metal tubes for oil paints. For impressionists, who often painted out-of-doors, this new convenience was indispensable. Before the invention of tubes, painters would have carried bladders (see image below left) to store the paint that they would have made in their studio. The bladders would have been made from pig membrane and tied at the ...
Take for instance the price of cassettes and CD’s. Many Hip-Hop fans will spend $11 on a tape or $16 on a CD at their local record store. These fans will consider them selves “real Hip-Hop.” However, if approached on the street with some underground Hip-Hop tapes, they will not likely spend more then $5. Why? Well, they feel that so-called underground Hip-Hop is not worth as much as the “store-bought Hip-Hop”. This is not the fault of the fans though. The fans are merely consumers who want what is sold to them.
If fans were more knowledgeable about Hip-Hop, they would probably be more responsible with what they purchase. If they were taught what Hip-Hop was, they would be more apt to support the efforts of true Hip-Hop artists. Take for instance the fallacy: “Underground Hip-Hop”. Would it make much sence if I were to say, “can I have a piece of frozen ice?” that would be fallacious because it is obvious that the ice is frozen or it would be water! Well, Hip-Hop’s origins are as an underground culture. Underground, meaning that Hip-Hop was based on the streets and was not mainstream. Now that part of Hip-Hop has become popular and more mainstream, we who are pure Hip-Hop artist generally feel the need to separate ourselves from the mainstream Hip-Hop by adding the term underground to describe ourselves.
When in fact, it’s not the pure Hip-Hop artists that should add a term to our titles; its the popular artists who are now “mainstream” artists. I am not putting down mainstream artists at all. Nor am I saying that the record industry is the root of all evil in Hip-Hop. I am merely trying to show the direction in which Hip-Hop is heading. I have seen it become more and more successful and distant from its origin. If you turn your back on a friend, your friend will eventually turn their back on you.
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The Misogyny of the Artist as a Young Man In most novels there are always certain aspects of the protagonist's life that serve as the basis from which the character is motivated to create or to encounter particular events. Often times these motivations are the key that the protagonist needs in order to realize their meaning in life and where their destinations lie. James Joyce cleverly uses the ...
Well, if we keep letting the moneymakers’ control Hip-Hop as we turn our back on the culture, we will soon not have the Hip-Hop culture to be part of. It will be just as hard to hear good Hip-Hop music, as it is now to find good spots to watch break-dancers doing their thing. In conclusion, we need to work on the future of the Hip-Hop now, or prepare for its death.
