Rap and Hip Hop

"Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live."-KRS ONE

These words ring true to this day for myself, and many others in the hip-hop community. Not to say that rapping isn't an integral part of the culture itself, but it definitely is not the backbone. To fully understand the impact of commercial rap on hip-hops' cultural structure, you also need to understand the circumstances under which it arose. As many of you reading this may already know, hip-hop was a by-product of the disco scene around New York City in the early 70's. You had the D.J. crews of the area battling for bragging rights not only in their own boroughs, but also to prove which borough had the best party rockers. Probably the biggest difference between these early battles and the later versions that we now know, is that the prior were a means to respectfully and safely "duke it out". Whether you were breakin', rappin' or droppin the party on the ones and twos, there was a feeling of keeping it safe and keeping it real. Now, for the part where you will either love or hate me. Ready?

The actual culture of hip-hop has been suffering a slow painful death for the last ten years or better. Record companies are the ones who have successfully polarized the hip-hop community by pushing the rapper to the forefront and in effect, perpetuated a culture of materialism and hatred. Doesn't anybody realize that even to this day, we still feel the impact of the deaths of Biggie and Pac? I believe that fact alone illustrates the stagnant state hip-hop has been in for the past decade. How many times are we going to let these corporate leeches force-feed us the poison they're pushing?

Do you really think they care about the futures of inner city kids who look up to these puppets that they have making records? If these questions have not already been in your head for some time now, maybe you too have been blinded by the bling.