Is HipHop really dead?
Check out this article from the interesting website AlterNet that poses the question “Is HipHop really dead?”. Alternet is a “syndication service of the alternative press, featuring stories from alternative newsweeklies, magazines and Web publications from across the globe”. The author suggests that HipHop artists in the states are forced by record company execs to stick to the now tired “bling sex and honies” formula to keep up record sales to the largely white mainstream fans who BUY the records. Artists are tied into record deals and payola issues that prevent them from breaking out of the cliched HipHop mould.
Here’s a snippet but read the full article here:
Hip-hop icon Nas made the provocative statement, “Hip-hop is dead,” in September and set off a firestorm of controversy. It was intensified by the January release of his album bearing the same title.
Many questioned why Nas would say hip-hop — a worldwide phenomenon that has generated billions of dollars — could be “dead.” After all, more hip-hop albums are being released then ever before, and the music’s influence extends to movies, corporate marketing and theater. That it’s dead seems absurd — until you realize Nas was looking beneath the surface.
He was speaking of the corporate side of the music and the mentality of executives more interested in turning a quick buck than nurturing rap culture. Nas realized sex, violence and bling, as themes for the music, had pretty much run their course. Album sales had plummeted, and ratings at hip-hop radio stations in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere had hit all-time lows.
A number of people, including this writer, also had spoken out about mediocre product coming from some of the genre’s biggest stars. Yet such talk was rebuffed by so-called industry experts, who blamed digital downloading and satellite radio.
We critics, however, were vindicated by a study published earlier this year by the University of Chicago. Data from the “Black Youth Project” indicated that while 58 percent of blacks between ages 15 and 25 listen to hip-hop daily, most are dissatisfied with it. They find the subject matter is too violent, and women too often portrayed in offensive ways.
Such feelings hint at a dirty little secret of the music business: Blacks are used largely to validate musical themes being marketed to the white mainstream. In other words, while 90 percent of commercial rap artists on TV and radio are black, the target audience lies outside the black community.
Paul Porter, a longtime industry veteran and former music programmer at BET and Radio One, is now with the watchdog organization Industryears.com. He says the University of Chicago findings offer proof positive that commercial hip-hop has become the ultimate minstrel show, and rap artists are pushed by the industry to remain perpetual adolescents.
As a result, we watch Diddy, Cam’ron, DMX and others brag about wealth and throw bills at a camera while bikini-clad women gyrate in the background. Should these artists attempt to break out of the mold, they’d risk having their work questioned by record and radio executives.
