On December 19th, 2006 the MC Nas released an Album entitled “ Hip Hop is Dead” the Album cover featured Nas under darkening skies with what looks like vultures circling. The photo, taken from the viewpoint of looking up from the grave, showed him dressed in black, dropping a like-colored rose into the ditch. With a solemn look on his face, underneath him lay his name and album title with lettering the color of a tombstone’s granite. Nas announced the albums title after a performance on May 18, 2006 in a late September interview on English DJ Tim Westwood’s Radio show. Nas said, “Hip-hop is dead because we as artists no longer have the power.” He went on to say, “Could you imagine what 50 Cent could be doing, Nas, Jay, Eminem, if we were the Jimmy Iovines. Could you imagine the power we’d have? I think that’s where we’re headed.” Later Nas would follow up by stating, “…basically America is dead. There is no political voice. Music is dead. Our way of thinking is dead, our commerce is dead. Everything in this society has been done. That’s where we are as a country.”

I had been thinking about this for a while, so when Nas made this statement a part of me began to consider “What if he’s right?” It had been a long time of me listening to the change within hip hop’s content as years progressed. Once with a broad range of topics and choices from the partying to the political, it seemed that only one voice was now being allowed out. I considered this voice a problem because it only seemed to allow all of the hypersexual, excessively material, and extremely racist views that I saw as damaging not only to the reputation of African American people, but Hip Hop itself. It reduced Hip Hop, an art form that I consider to contain extreme potential, to no more than a vehicle for hyper-americanized ideologies that were exacerbated by and further exacerbated the effects of commercialism. It appeared that Nas may have had a point in his assessment. Not only was Hip Hop dead, but it’s death was an actual reflection of the changing social structures within a new global economy.

Now, though many things have been affected by the change in globalization, when it comes to Hip Hop there are underlying events that make it a more complex issue. You see, the growing capitalism and technological advances that occurred during globalization are a catch 22 within the world of Hip Hop. The reason is this: the poor conditions spawned by capitalist endeavors that created the need for this outlet coupled with those technological advances (such as the turn table and mixer– two vital elements that form the base of hip hop) are, in a sense, what contributed to this culture. However, it is these same ties that are also what contributes to its decline when it comes to Hip Hop as an African American art form. Why is this? It is my opinion that, in accordance with scholars from Carter Wilson and Eric Williams, to George Lipsitz, and Patricia Hill Collins, that the problem lies in the fact that capitalism’s foundations lay upon the roots of slavery. This is dangerous because it then ties capital gain, which is becoming more and more prominent within Hip Hop’s
lyrics, in with traditions of racist attitudes and beliefs that then become magnified as they are filtered globally.

This is further complicated by the fact that these same dismal social conditions and beliefs that were constructed from this system, have imbued the culture and begun to dominate its current rhetoric. This in turn encourages more of the same rhetoric, perpetuating a dangerous and vicious cycle that can begin to corrode, and erode, a community. So my point is this: If Hip Hop is infact “Dead,” it is because the very conditions that have given rise to this art form, are now the very conditions that are truncating its growth. Proof? How is MTV and BET (the epitome of where our variety should be–and not just the same show in “different shades”) — going to both be owned by some white guy that heads up Viacom…

The bottom line is that it is extremely important that we start to become more critical thinkers as we listen to shit like “Superman that ho,” Yall. WE need to stop just bobbin’ our heads and pay attention to what is being fed to us. ‘Cause I don’t know about you, but I am not up for eatin’ poison.