Dear Hip Hop,
Underground Hip Hop has always been a significant movement in urban culture. From day 1, hip hop's roots can be attributed to street corner cyphers/battles, backpacking and CD trunk wholesale distribution. But wow... nowadays the music industry has pushed everyone so far that EVERYONE is underground.
Maybe it's me, but I think one of the things that made underground hip hop so special was its deviation from the norm... so what happens when the norm itself is pushed underground. I guess this is where I see the State of the Union: The major media conglomerates are afraid to take a chance on artist, nowadays in order to get signed you have to have a following of 49307287494949878 people, a youtube accound with 374983267865876 subscribers, a blog page that EVERYONE follows, and you must demonstrate the capacity to sell 100,000 CD's on your own. GET REAL!!!! If an artist can do that on their own who tha hell needs a major label???? Think about it.
I guess the CEO's and corperate officials fail to remember how stars were developed and cultivated over time. That's how we got the Marvin Gaye's, the Temptations, and even the Jackson 5's.
Hip Hop you get what you put in, and right now you aren't putting in that much, which is why we are left with the Soulja Boy's, the Cassie's, and the Plies' of the world while artist such as Chrissette Michelle, Nas and Raheem DeVaughn get only half of the attention they deserve.
Hip Hop, do your research! People support artist they love! I will burn the shyt out of a Beyonce CD, but I will take my lazy azz to Target and pay $13.99 of my hard earned recession money for a Janelle Monae CD! Hip Hop, I love ya, but lets get right in 2009.
Your Number 4 fan,
Brandon Best
1 comment:
Word! Hip Hop is alive and well. My biggest issue isn't simply the the millenium Sambos in the limelight, but the lack of artistic representation and diversity in the mainstream playlist. But what else is to be expected from the corporate intent? So keep digging deep underground for the true art. Yes, there's a lot of dirt, but there's a lot of oil down there too.
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