Who Murdered Hip-Hop?

Today's hip-hop enthusiasts will tell you that rap music is far from dead. In fact, you might be told that the controversial genre is undergoing somewhat of a rebirth. But those close to its origins are adamant that the core elements of hip-hop music have not only been watered down, but have been literally drowned out by things such as commercialism and sexual exploitation. Where hip-hop once was deemed an outlet for vocal expression, poetry, and storytelling, it has seemingly become in and of itself, a form of musical currency. Is hip-hop really dead? Many say that the genre died somewhere in the mid to late 1990's along with the quiet exit of several ground-breaking rap groups; how it died is still under debate...

THE STORIES...

In the early 1980's, Britain-born Slick Rick released a song which would be go on to be sampled, referenced, and remixed into several other artists' versions. That song was called "La Di Da Di." The elementary-style storytelling Rick introduced became the foundation upon which many other "pioneers" of rap would build their musical empires. But today's hip-hop lacks many of the whimsical qualities that made the music fun for listeners. The problem is not that there are limited topics to cover in rap music, but that people are choosing to say the same things over and over again. The original classics focused on addressing many of life's issues like life on the streets, the plight of urban romance, and even more comical themes. But there was an originality expressed in the lyrics that had not been done previously by young urban artists before them. Somehow, all that began to change with the introduction of the word "bling" into the American vocabulary. By the end of the 20^th century, rap songs became less about storytelling, and more about telling the world how many material possessions the rap star owned.

THE VIDEOS...