Tell The DJ Bring It Back!!

In this ever changing world we know as hip hop, fads come and go and come again. With all the uncertainties the industry provides, we would have loved to think that the one thing that would have remained constant would have been the level of skill needed to be a valid entity in the music community. Unfortunately for consumers and artists who take their craft serious, this is no longer the case. The music we have grown to love has become an abundant grab bag full of carbon copied one hit wonder fads and the substance we once turned to for direction is so watered down that if we performed a rain dance during a drought the skies would open up and drop CDs. The real question now isn’t what happened, but where do we go from here?
Although I hate to sound cliche, we can’t go anywhere until we know where we’ve been. Despite hip hop becoming a big business and artists becoming hustlers in the game instead of students of the game, one truth still remains and that is music lives and dies in the streets. Until we the consumers change our buying habits, the machine won’t change it’s approach. What we really need to realize is that the richness of a culture cannot be overcome by the outside unless it has already been destroyed from the inside. Hip hop is dying and it’s not from homicide, but it’s from genocide. We are killing our own culture and smothering the one universal voice that we have. With all that said, you still ask me “So what do we do now?”
To put it simply, support the artists who make the music you like and only buy the music that you love. Every time you purchase one of these fads as a ring tone or request that new single at the radio station so your friend who hasn’t heard it yet can see how stupid it sounds, you are contributing to the downfall of a great culture. You know that CD you listen to from that hometown artist that no one has heard of yet, request his music at the station nonstop. Take a little time in your musical conversations to mention how nice this new emcee is that gave you a CD and then pass the music on. Artists, stop focusing on the money and get back to the grindstone that made hip hop what it is. Bypass the radio and quit focusing on the cars, the women and the bling. Spend that paper on some studio time and a quality sounding project that the streets wouldn’t mine standing behind. As a matter of fact, don’t even start rapping until you find out who your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper was and you have listened to atleast three of their songs. Although I hate to admit it, I feel like our artists don’t know their beginnings because it’s black history- and we all know black history isn’t important.
Anywho, I said all that to say this- hip hop is not dead but it is wounded and slowly bleeding to death. It’s time to give the game a blood transfusion and a new lease on life. Support your local artist and stand up for what you know is real music. Like it or not, the future of our culture can only go wherever we take it.