"And since when we get so lenient?"

"...dudes got whole LPs of freein'
I Paid ten bucks for this CD 
And I better get something worth repeatin" 
-8THW1

Authentic Hip-Hop music is not played in the mainstream media.  Songs that are promoted and played are used as a tools by corporations and rappers to influence the minds of young people. Many listeners, old and young think that whats being played is the best the genre has to offer. This is problematic because the public gets a lesser product, and their is no diversity of the content. Not to mention it makes the music and culture look bad to the casual listener or viewer.

There is a lot of blame to go around, some of which is beyond our control. This line by 8ththe1 got me really thinking about the gatekeepers and standard bearers among Hip-Hop nation. The people who have been around long enough to differentiate between rappers and real MCs, who are wise enough to see whats going on. Where are they? How can they help with quality control? The fact is all of these folks are just as much to blame for the current state of radio rap as are the younger generation.

There is a large group that stopped listening to Hip-Hop music all together. They left the genre, feeling as though they aged out. They heard how wack the rappers were and wanted nothing to do with it. My man Gil always says, "Man I haven't messed with nothing since AZ's Sugar Hill". Many others have similar peace-out points.  

You also have another group who still listens, but only to older, classic Hip-Hop. They pop in their D.I.T.C. and Boot Camp Click tapes or ATCQ Cd's and rock 'em religiously. They still have a love for music but have stopped listening to mainstream media sources once they realized they were being fed garbage. Unaware of the volume and quality of stuff happening off the radar, they spend time bashing corporate rap and are dismissed by "generation me" cats as haters.

Some heads simply got washed into the mainstream, when the authentic music went underground. In good faith, they kept listing to what was being put out on the radio, video, etc, thinking that the new stuff was the best being made. Between the radio programming them and the dope beats, they begin to drink the Kool-Aid, believing that what/who they hear the most MUST be what is the dopest right now. "If he's so nice, how come I never heard of him? How come he doesn't got a deal?" I remember my man saying to me not so long ago.

This can be fixed by bringing back some of the former members of Hip-Hop nation.

There is LOTS of good Hip-Hop being made right now. And in this age of information, it is wicked easy to find. We no longer have to tune into an obscure station with a shoddy signal hoping to coordinate the pause and record button on the tape deck well. You don't have to count on your "cousin from New York" to mail you tapes. Once you realize that Hip-Hop lives, find and support those artists, you begin the steps of advocacy. Putting people on.

The generation before us made sure to maintain checks and balances with soul and R&B music. There was a time that I thought Kool and the Gang was funk... until my uncle played Funkadelic for me. I thought the Temptations was soul... until I found my uncle's Otis Redding songs. I was hyped after watching the movie Breakin... until my cousin took me to see Beat Street.

We can't afford to allow a generation of listeners to think that Rick Ross is as good as it gets. Or that lyrics only can be about drugs, guns, strippers or materialism. And if it is going to be about that, it has to be dope.

I may start a series of blog posts aimed at bringing our wayward OG's back to roost. Perhaps even make a mixtape or two.