What’s the deal with hip-hop these days? Has it truly died?...
Can it be saved? Are you willing to help save it?...
This is Projectivity. Asking these questions about all aspects of society, not just music.
With music, specifically hip-hop, as our central focus we start off our mission concentrating on Hip-Hop.
From a recent conversation I had, in which I was discussing the fan base of The Higher Concept, how to expand it to its full potential, and who the best types of people to push our music and vision on, Tekst and myself realized that the majority of people interested in us do not listen to hip-hop music. In fact, many of them don’t like hip-hop at all. This brings up a very interesting question.
How can our music be enjoyed by so many non-hip-hoppers, when it can be defined as nothing else but hip-hop?
Sure we tag it as progressive hip-hop, underground hip-hop, and of course, music with a “higher concept”, but generally speaking it is still purely hip-hop music.
This brought us to start thinking about the term hip-hop or, more specific to our modern mainstream culture, rap music. These days our generation is home to two types of music listeners; those that have gotten caught up in the MTV/BET gangster youth culture they were raised on, and those who have come to reject the popular and everything the music now stands for. There is not much of a middle ground here.
So if we can make hip-hop music that the non-hip-hoppers enjoy, what does that say about the state of hip-hop. Have the images and ideas surrounding hip-hop changed so much that the hip-hop music that used to provide a middle ground, is no longer being made? Is this the reason for the lack of middle ground?
I believe that the people who claim to dislike hip-hop speak untruthfully, though they might not know it. These people generalize hip-hop, only considering what they hear on the radio to be hip-hop. These people see the way that the ghetto fabulous culture has infected America and cringe at the first sound of a rap beat. The mainstream has the idea behind the culture lost and it is almost impossible for those giving voice to the original design to be heard on a national level. If the majority of America knew more about the genre’s within the genre they would be less quick to immediately turn off a rap track.
All im really tryna say is, if you are one of these people who are anti-hip-hop music, don’t judge the book by its radio-edited cover. Dig deep into the underground realms of this music. Learn about the origin and the culture. The train bombings, The block parties, The break dance battles. The Public Enemy’s and The KRS-One’s. Learn about a counterculture that was born out of a need for positive change and swallowed by commercialization. Learn about the MC’s out there making music with a purpose, a meaning, and most importantly a passion… What you find may surprise you.
Once you reach this enlightenment hit us up…Get involved… Lets remind the world that hip hop is a culture. This is Projectivity.
-IBProfyn
