| The Radio Doesn’t Reflect the State of Hip-Hop: It Ain’t Dead. |
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| Written by Antwain Jackson |
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“It’s no longer an art it’s an occupation.”—Stack Bundles Hip-hop is a business; it isn’t a bunch of kids rapping over beats at parties anymore. The main objective when joining the hip-hop industry is to make money. This is why the streets are flooded with teens, young and old adults trying to establish a career in rap. The record executives could care less about actual talent, they want a gimmick or anything the can make them money. This is palpable on the hip-hop radio airwaves. It seems like there is a bunch of rappers that lack talent, but has great commercial appeal. The radio is filled with “happy go lucky jingles.” The majority of the songs have catchy hooks and beats but lacks content. This is the reason why there has been debate in the hip-hop community that “hip-hop is dead.” Yet, that is far from the case. It is up to the listener to filter their music. It is tons of great hip-hop out there, you just have to find it. Just because the radio plays the same 15 songs all day long that doesn’t mean hip-hop is dead. The radio doesn’t define hip-hop. There are several hip-hop sites that upload new music from new and old artist every single day. You have Web sites like datpiff.com that has mixtapes from rappers you never heard of that may have great music. It is the listener’s duty to find it. Don’t just let the surface of what you think is hip-hop persuade your opinion on an entire genre of music. Hip-hop is far from dead. It is an ever evolving genre of music. It has balance that the radio doesn’t play. In hip-hop you have your “conscious rap”, “gangsta rap”, “r&b rap”, “non-lyrical but I can make you dance rap.” Whatever kind of mood you are in the hip-hop genre has you covered. According to Billboard.com the top 5 songs played on rap as the week of June 26, 2010 are “Drake—Over, B.o.B. feat Bruno Mars—Nothin’ On You, B.o.B.—Airplanes, Ludacris—My Chick Bad and Young Jeezy feat Plies—Lose My Mind.” These songs include sing-along hooks and catchy beats—the formula for a good radio song. The remaining 10 songs on the Top 15 are very similar. Hip-hop radio is more concerned about clubbing and targeting the female audience, that it lacks the rawness of the early 1990s (Golden Age of Hip-hop). Songs like i.e. Wu-Tang Clan--C.R.E.A.M or Onyx—Slam sees very few spins on radio stations in 2010. The radio stations are businesses and in order for them to stay in business and get advertisement, they need commercial friendly/successful songs being played. This business focuses on the money more than the artistic value of rap. There a very few rappers that keep their artistic integrity while at the same time make their money i.e. Lupe Fiasco, Common, Kanye West and a few more. But in order to get your name heard the rapper must “dumb it down” in order to gain those initial fans. It is very difficult to have a successful rap career without any radio play. To conclude, Hip-Hop ain’t dead these rappers just scared. It’s difficult to stray away from the industry they have to go by the standards of the industry to earn success. There are exception and other alternative routes, but there not always the right way. For all up and coming rappers stay true to yourself, love hip-hop and just don’t do it for the money. It is an art and not just your occupation. |