by Jamel King

Created on: November 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 11, 2009

When Nas coined the phrase "Hip Hop is dead" it caused uproar amongst the Hip hop community. Southern artists such as Ludacris as well Lil Wayne felt as if that was a direct insult to the music they contribute with all of there heart and soul. What many fail to realize is what Nas achieved is a great debate which made artists work harder to prove him wrong and make quality music.

When you think of Hip Hop a few artists come to mind - Andre 3000, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def. When you hear them rap it is as if the beat was made to fit their flow instead of the other way around. I think Jay-Z explains it well when he said once you hear a beat you must find your place in that beat certain artist have perfected the pocket presence inside of a beat such as Jay, Common, and Kanye West to name a few.

Many hold the southern ring tone music movement responsible for the Death of Hip hop artist such as Soulja Boy, D4L, and New boys are known for there nursery rhymes with no meaning other than to mind control the youth into a dance routine. That being said there are many southern artists who represent what Hip hop is and how it should be displayed. Auto-Tune also threw the rap world into frenzy while artist like T-Pain mastered the craft others have totally massacred this once honored craft that would make such artist as Roger Troutman cringe. It seemed as if every song on the radio sinter 2007-summer 2008 had an artist attempting to sing into the vocoder machine. Once again Jay-Z came to the rescue with his single Death of Auto-tune and ended this well over-due phase in Hip Hop.

As far as the current state of Hip Hop, it is on the rise again with the release of The Carter III, Blueprint 3 and Eminem's relapse conscious rappers are take the art back. Hip Hop needs to return to the art of storytelling where a kid from the streets of Brooklyn can tell his tale of hustling to pay bills for his single parent home. A child from Queens explaining in vivid detail his story of beating the odds and making it out of the inner city and being a leader for his people.

Hip Hop is still very young and has a long way. Although it has a ways to go it is far from dead. With a new breed of artists on the rise such as Drake, Corey Gunz, and Charles Hamilton to name a few, this art form and outlet for many is not going any where any time soon. I truly believe that in fifty years kids will look back and marvel at the lyrics once spit by such artist as Notorious B.I.G, Nas and Tupac Shakur.

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