The Brutal Execution of Hip-Hop

Obviously, everything that follows this sentence could most certainly be taken as mere opinion, however viewed as extreme hyperbole or accurate analysis. I've frequently discussed the topic of Hip-Hop culture and music with my wife, as we've reflected our own smiles at each other while reciting lyrics to the songs that without question helped to shape our respective personas. What Black thirty-something could ever forget "I Got It Made," "Eric B. For President," or "Sucker M.C.s?" (which was the first Hip-Hop song that I ever heard.) And when I say that I was shaped, in part, by Hip-Hop, I consider a song by Main Source, "A Friendly Game of Baseball" which happens to be the reason why I only wear black socks, even to this day. By the way, how many of us are still waiting for the Large Professor album?
From Hip-Hop's birth in the late 1970's over its evolution to what its become today, it would be a terrible understatement to say that it's changed enormously. I know that there are and will always be differences in the genres of music and distinct sounds people prefer but it's my assertion that Hip-Hop has changed for the worse. It's gone from the lofty, pristine heights it has shared with other uniquely beautiful genres of music and descended into the filthy sewer of gutteral forms of expression and communication. This is based first and foremost on Hip-Hop's fervent long-lasting love affair with misogyny, followed by its tearing down of strong, upstanding Black men.
Hip-Hop as a culture has showcased the many complex facets of the Black (& Latino) community. Through Hip-Hop, we've shown a world that has long ignored us how we've overcome poverty and consequnces of centuries of oppression through celebrating the cohesiveness of our neighborhoods, uniqueness, and talents and gifts. Chuck D. once referred to Hip-Hop as the Black CNN. Hip-Hop has, since its inception been the "grapevine" of an impoverished, neglected people in which the truth was told.
I remember a time when Slick Rick urged young people to respect your mother and to go to school. Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions urged the Hip-Hop community to know its history and be the positive threats to a society designed to keep it locked out of the American dream. We showed the world that we knew how to party, dance, talk love, current affairs and politics- and we loved Hip-Hop because through Hip-Hop we were able to transcend the ordinary, the mundane. Hip-Hop was a vibrant, energetic living thing.
"Of course we gotta pay rent, so money connects" and when Hip-Hop became a bonafide cash cow, that's when her blood-sucking enemies lined up against her to drain her of every drop of creative energy her fathers infused in her at her birth. I would trace the beginning of her death to the moment where her positivity met her profitability. Pure and simple, sex and violence sells records. The record companies knew this and capitalized on that and aggressively pushed artists who "dumbed down" the culture and music to the point now wherein Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, and Soulja Boy are the exemplars of real Hip-Hop music.
I could go on for an eternity remarking on the degradation of this once-great artform and as long as Hip-Hop continues its degradation and exploitation of women it will never be great again. I would not want this to become a conspiracy theory for it is the Hip-Hop community that allowed the abduction and murder of its artform.
WE allowed our women to be commonly referred to as "bitches" and "hoes," "jumpoffs" and "bustdowns." We allowed a music and culture that enabled us to triumphantly transcend above the constraints of an ordinarily deplorable and distasteful reality (generally speaking) to enslave us all over again, to bind us all over again. Hip-Hop has showcased, for quite a while now, the drug-dealing, sexually promiscuous, booty-shorts-wearing, sagging-pants worst of us, and buffonish rappers, powerful CEOs, and record company presidents have profited beyond their wildest imaginations.
Hip-Hop was assassinated with cold, heartless precision. She now doesn't resemble in any way her original beauty. I consider the ignorance of a present generation that has no idea of what Hip-Hop can be or what it once was and it having the poor choices of Waka Flocka, 50 Cent, and Young Jeezy for its listening enjoyment. Hip-Hop once was the best of us. No longer, as profanity-ridden lyrics, drug-induced stupors, and men and women without morals, restraint, or regard for the community have overrun a once-great culture. I have no pleasure in laying flowers on her tombstone.

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