What Happened to HipHop?

"What happened to hiphop" was an intrinsic question that I asked a group of friends as we furiously argued over the current state of hiphop and it's influence on the black community (especially black men in particular). After weeding through the lackluster album of Wale's "Ambition" and the incessant cackling of calling black folk cheap for not supporting "REAL" hiphop, no one really had a clear answer for hiphops demise. One friend said the current state of hiphop is only a "reflection of how society is at the moment", and another said " IT'S ALL CORPORATE!!!, BEWARE OF CORPORATE!!!". And my favorite one... " stupid American Consumers"! Despite laughing and bellyaching at the same time, I couldn't help but think that these guys were onto something with their responses even if they were at high pitched levels. But I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was lost in translation and I spent the rest of the day truly thinking about it. Honestly, I was still perplexed at the issue and because I couldn't figure out a sole reason why, it frustrated me to no end. I had become frustrated at the thought of a once proud genre that encouraged black activism, education, and progression being reduced to a "sodom and Gamorah" like celebration of black on black crime, disrespecting black women, and glorifying materialism all in the name of the "mighty dollar". And it hit me! There is not one but many reasons why hiphop went from "fighting the power" and "You must learn"   to "Cash rules everything around me, dolla, dolla, dolla bills yall" and " I like my B-word's better red". I came to the conclusion that  most if not all of the degradation of hiphop can be laid at the feet of the regression of black culture and it's propensity to create a movement, shape it, and leave it behind.

Brother Malcolm X once said  "A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own self-hood, it can never fulfill itself." It is no secret that Africans in America have endured the burdens of slavery, racism, and economic and social oppression at the hands of the dominant society for almost 400 years. Despite the obstacles thrown in our way, we have fought, died, and sung our way to the right to be free in a supposed free society paving the way and setting an example for other groups to follow. You would think that such a strong people who endured slavery, conceptualized and brought into existence the "back to Africa movement", Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Right's movement and the invention of American music art forms such as Jazz, blues, rock, and gospel; would have a strong, solid, spiritual, and moral base from which progress would surely be made. But somewhere along the line, cultural wires got crossed as we saw a once rich heritage of freedom, spirituality, and innovation reduced to that of lasciviousness, materialism, individualism, and a loss of identity. Somewhere along the line black culture itself lost it soul and become "Souled out". The change can be seen taking place at the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's.


During the mid to late 70's and into the 80's, we recognize a major shift in black consciousness taking place as the culture of materialism and individualism began to take over. This paradigm shift coincided with the increasing poverty of blacks nationwide and with it an ever rising of black on black murder rates, and the advent of drugs such as crack. These sweeping forces had such a massive impact on the black community, that it's impact is still felt today (even by my generation). Born out of this beast of confusion was the hiphop generation. Artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Kool and the Gang, Grandmaster flash and the furious five and many others sought to give blacks a voice in an ever changing world full of negativity. Songs such as Grandmasters Flash's "The Message", Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", and KRS-1's "You Must learn" served as a catalyst to induce social change and reform in the black community. For the first time since the civil right's movement, Africans in America had created another movement that caused a social firestorm in American society. But something about this movement was different.

Hiphop, once a vehicle for social and economic reform in the black community,  became a form of entertainment from which endless rappers now were able to profit financially and move up in class standing because of it. As time grew on Corporate America saw profitability in it and with it hiphop became a global phenomenon. The vehicle that once drove social change for Africans in America now became a worldwide sensation and now blacks were forced to share it with the world and in doing so, hiphop went away from it's original message and with it the morals and values it once had. The positive influence it once had on the black community now has been seen as an adversary of black progress. Many say hiphop is dead, and many say hiphop is one life support. I simply say, hiphop is in purgatory where it is neither dead or alive but stuck in the middle waiting for someone or something to breathe new life into it again. Thanks for reading this and God bless and take care.