Has Hip-Hop Gone the Way of Rock?

One could argue that rap has its start with poet and jazz musician Gil Scott Heron, who released his song entitled "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" around 1974. Equal parts activism and humor, the song has since become a classic, reflecting Heron's mood towards the world at that point in time. Jamaican DJ Herc also contributed some to the genre's creation, laying poetry stanzas over funk, reggae, and disco songs. It wasn't long before the style caught on with MCs such as The Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow, who released "Rapper's Delight" and "The Breaks" respecitvely during the mid and late 1970's. Hip-hop itself emerged and established as a dedicated genre in 1983 with the release of Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force's track "Planet Rock". By 1985, groups and MCs such as Run DMC, LL Cool J, Jazzy Jay, Egyptian Lover, and many others were taking advantage and releasing their own records into the relatively young genre.

You fast forward up to two decades, almost twenty years after a group so renowned and credited as Run DMC first debuted, and rap is divided into seperate genres. Some of the older rappers such as Common Sense, now referred to as simply Common, and Nas, who was mentioned in the abstract diatribe presented in this article have been active for years. Even the commercially stagnate Snoop Dogg, who lampoons and makes mockeries of himself despite the fact that he was one of the volatile rap acts of the 1990's. The late 80's saw rap group N.W.A. gaining prominence and the attention of some government agencies with the release of "Straight Outta Compton". In recent memory the only rapper to gain such infamy for radical behavior and extreme activism would be producer turned MC Kanye West. Kanye West has gained a special degree of infamy regarding his behavior after having Katrina strike New Orleans. Rapper Mos Def was recently arrested for an unauthorized concert during a performance at this year's VMAs.