• » Name: Anthony Springer, Jr
• » Age: 24
• » Location: Sigma Land/The City of Sin
• » Member Since: 04/09/07
• » Bio: Hip Hop fan, writer, promoter of higher ed... you want to know more: blusolo1914@yahoo.com
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Mr. Springer's Neighborhood

What Killed Hip Hop...

1.THE MUSIC VIDEO:

 I remember a time when I had no cable and the only outlet to get music was through the RADIO (some of you all are too young to remember such a time, the older readers know exactly what I'm talking about). Of course, there was The Box, and if you were lucky enough to have cable, BET had decent programming and unless you fucked with rock, MTV wasn't fucking with you outside of Yo! MTV Raps. Back when radio ruled, one could go weeks or even months without seeing the face(es) of the artist(s) on the other end of your speakers. This meant that a song actually had to be GOOD to be liked. Imagine the time that an artist had to stand only on the merits of his/her music to make it big. It didn't matter how you looked, a hit song was a hit song, which leads me to...

2. DUMB ASS HIP HOP DANCES

I said this back in Callin Out Names: Stop All the Got Damn Dancing and I'll say it again here: If your break out song has an accompanying dance move, (in the words of Craig Mack) you won't be around next year! Let history serve as our best reminder, The Tootsie Roll, The Dip, The Step Daddy, The Cha Cha Slide and so on and so on (and with the exception of the first, how many of these songs do you still here at the club?). Maybe it's a curse, maybe it's not... either way, MC 2stepSnapyafangasWalkitoutLeanwitit didn't pay attention. Dropping a dance record firmly cements you in people's minds as a gimmick, and we all know that gimmicks don't last. At one point, The Running Man and the Cabbage Patch were the hotness, NOBODY does them now unless they're reminiscing on the old school.

3. THE RAP GAME=THE DRUG GAME

The infiltration of the drug game lifestyle on rap is probably the biggest culprit. A SMART hustler gets in and gets out. Music is not a business, it's an art. Getting in and getting out means you've taken from, rather than giving to the game. However, what most of you average fans don't know is that the game will rape you before you rape the game. The emcees who claim to be getting in and getting out, are usually escorted out by the record labels and driven back to regional success.

4. DISPOSABLE MUSIC
   
There's a reason that artists like Cube, Rakim, Tribe, De La etc. still have songs that people know to this day. The game is plagued by what I call disposable music (see #2). Disposable music is that flavor of the month music, that you won't remember in another 6. Often times these  artists have one hit single, or an album full of singles instead of an album that's going to stand the test of time. Once again, Walk it Out (DJ UNK), decent song, but when the dance fades, his career is likely to go with it. Songs like Ain't No Fun... those stand the test of time (that is, unless Hip Hop gets a conscious and women start respecting themselves)

5. FREESTYLE FRIDAY

There is no single entity responsible for the decline of Black culture like BET (with the exception of shitty parenting and a lack of supervision). Somehow, BET was able to bastardize 106th and Park's Freestyle Friday. Have y'all watched that shit lately? I've seen rappers spit straight writtens (and shitty ones at that), the ones that do manage to freestyle fail to ride the beat and struggle to rhyme and the pre-teen crowd eats it up like it was Jigga on stage. My God, somebody bring the Fight Klub cats down there.

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