Since Frost's been talking about Soulja Boy and Everywoman expressed her love and distaste for certain music, I wanted to post a song that kinda addresses both issues.

In MrFrost's posts, there have been discussion about why vets (Ice-T mostly) feel the need to blame Soulja Boy for the fall of the industry, whether or not their in the right, and the real pitfalls for Hip Hop.

Imeverywoman posted a general statement about how she respects, but doesn't necessarily like (to listen to) all music & musicians.  In the process, she mentioned her waning toleration for Hip Hop, and attributed the falling interest to the changes that come with growth & and age; I'd add the decline of an artform.

On the post concerning Soulja Boy, Contrabandwidth argued that showmanship was a big reason for the fall of Hip Hop.  I agree, but place some of the blame on the internet; the ease with which people can create, distribute, or download music has led to laziness on from artists as well as fans.  But we haven't really discussed how the industry has a huge hand it all this.  Let's face it, Hip Hop is big business.

Since we live in a society of instant gratification, the methods used by record companies feed into the unquenchable thirst for music now, now, now.  Although you could argue that they haven't really figured out how to manage/handle the distribution of music over the net, the music that is being produced largely consists of catchy hooks, ring tone beats, poppy flow, and dance moves.  These songs can be put out on a factory belt.  It's the EZ Button for Hip Hop (did I use that phrase already?)...  So what else?

Well, there's the way rappers go at other rappers.  We love beef!  Hip Hop can't get enough, and there's always something (see 50 Cent for details).  And while I realize that battles are as much a part of Hip Hop as rhyming, the shit is a little outta control.  There's always talk about who's gonna cap who, and how tough these guys are, how they'll go pop the trunk or whatev... I seriously didn't intend for this to be a long

Anyway, basically I don't like Soulja Boym, but I don't blame Soulja Boy for the fall of Hip Hop.  I think there are way too many aspects, and one major aspect is money.  I mean, that's why he's in it right?  That's why a lot of people are in every field that their working in, but look at the way crappy music is fed to those w/ short attention spans.  Look at the promotion of beef dvd's (Mtv Fight Klub, Smack DVD, hell just look at YouTube).  Look at the overnight Hip Hop songs, that fizzle and fade as quickly as they caught on.  In 20 years, we'll be blaming someone else for the decline of our music, while the people making most money off Hip Hop don't even rap.

Mtv is runnin this rap shit
Viacom is runnin this rap shit
AOL and Time Warner runnin this rap shit
We poke out the asses for a chance to cash in

- Mos Def

peace