I haven’t listened to the radio in a while so I decided to tune in to Houston Hip-Hop station 97.9 The Box.
Low and behold, the Young Money song “Bed Rock” was playing which is a song about a subject that is as synonymous with music as a treble clef: sex.
With record sales plummeting, the music industry has decided to bank on quick-fixes by making their artists record pop songs which are ringtone-friendly one-hit wonders. Lil’ Wayne and his Young Money artists seem to have taken over.
Or maybe Hip-Hop is experiencing a recession just like our economy. Lyricism has seemingly died since Nas released his album “Hip-Hop is Dead” in December 2006.
Fans laughed at the idea but respected rappers and music experts knew that Nas was on to something.
Then came Soulja Boy in 2007 with his dance-happy No. 1 hit “Crank That”. Then came many copy-cat songs whom nobody can name but everybody can sing the lyrics.
It’s like comparing “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe to the song “Eenie Meenie Miney Moe”.
Hip-Hop has been one of the greatest things to happen to music. Yes, it has had its negative influences but the positive outweighs the negative.
It is an art form for people to express themselves and describe their life experiences including their struggles, pains, hope, joys, triumphs and loves.
These days Hip-Hop seems to be getting away from that. It seems like artist creativity is being held down by the record companies. Artist must be allowed more creative control so that fans can identify with them.
The ringtone phase is not powerful in itself. The record companies are making it powerful by limiting artists.
Tags: 97.9, allan, box, dead, edgar, hip-hop, industry, is, lil', money, music, nas, poe, raven, record, sales, soulja boy, the, wayne, young
