The ascetic age of hip-hop, a time also known as the Golden Era, spanned the 1980s and early ‘90s and included acts like the Sugar Hill Gang and Afrika Bambaataa. Ostentation and excess were certainly present, but by and large, they were rewards enjoyed in secret. Yet by the late 1990s, legions of corporate interests had usurped the highest levels of hip-hop, and soon product placement began to engineer the aspirations and preferences of a disaffected youth. I recently watched Smiff-N-Wessun’s “Bucktown” on YouTube and immediately observed a certain mood; here, I realized, was the home of the original gun-clappers. Unlike the glitter and girls that dominate contemporary music videos, “Bucktown” is filled with concrete and authentic visual references to life on
the street. Here, nothing is glorified; in a word, the video is real. Even in 1997, the art of hip-hop remained a meritocracy of a revolutionary and powerful craft, one that filled the void in the lives of many young people and even a few older “hip-hop heads.” Hip-hop’s commercial success was booming. In the same year, the Wu-Tang Clan’s second studio album–Wu-Tang Forever–
sold an unbelievable 612,000 copies in its first week alone. The following year, Jay- Z and DMX had multi-platinum releases, both offering remarkably-composed works of struggle and redemption. Hip-hop was also undergoing dramatic changes. Just two years earlier, Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur (R.I.P.) were killed, casualties of an intensifying East Coast-West Coast rivalry. Still, the successful rap savants of the 1990s continued to pave the way for younger generations, elevating hip-hop’s financial viability, while managing to preserve the integrity of the craft, such as when Jay-Z boycotted the Grammy Awards in 1998. It seemed then that hip-hop’s war for commercial success and legitimacy was over. But alas, hindsight reminds us of the changes in hip-hop we never expected. Just as Jay-Z was becoming an international icon, the gritty raps I loved in the 80s and 90s were, in fact, on the verge of extinction within the fabric of mainstream music. Where does hip-hop stand in 2012? Not long ago, Nas had the audacity to declare death of the hip-hop, in the form of his 2006 album aptly named, Hip Hop Is Dead. Rather than being meant literally, Nas’ assertion was a bold metaphor that invited outrage from both newly-thriving artists and cultural conservationists who view hip-hop from a post-modern perspective. Today, the intelligent move is not to mourn, but to question the cause and meaning of hip-hop’s death, even if hip-hop appears bloated, fat and happy through the eyes of a corporate executive. We must distill the arguments to the quality of the artwork. Just as a child’s behavior often reflects the quality of his or her parents, so, too, do albums, singles and mixtapes reflect the quality of the artist. TO BE CONTINUED …
