Required reading. Link to full text
The following is a short exchange on the messageboards of MVRemix.com on an article by Dru Hepkins called A Reflection on Hip Hop which begins with my comments.
General Baker: “Hip-hop conservatism at its finest. Hip-hop is seen in this lens as static; as motionless and as a permanent fixed category. This is straight-up, tired nonsense. The author of this piece is not a bad writer, but definitely uncritical and full of knee-jerk reaction. A great example of the decay of hip-hop intellectualism.”
Response: “Well it definitely reads as more of a column or opinion piece or even a diary entry than an article, but I would hardly call it an example of a “decay of hip-hop intellectualism.”
General Baker: “‘As Hip hop culture continues to explode into mainstream reception, there are still underlying issues with Hip hop itself. The spirit of Hip hop is dying by the hand of its own popularity and mainstream appeal. Unlike a lot of the artists, DJ’s and performers I saw on the walls of The Powerhouse Arena, cats nowadays are trying to get into the game primarily for the paper chase. I noticed that a lot of the pioneering rap artists looked cool for their time, but not in a way that they were flashing money. They had a B boy street look that somehow evolved into wearing overly baggy designer clothes and sometimes suits while wearing a million dollars around your neck, ears and teeth. Hip hop is full of gimmicks, ghetto redundancies, stupid catchy hooks over generic beats designed to make you dance, among a million other music atrocities. Hip hop is uninspired and so image oriented that it’s losing its magic at a fast rate. To borrow the words of one of our esteemed Hip hop “poets” of today Young Joc, “It’s going down…best believe it’s going down.