“Hip-Hop Is Dead”
This is a song by the hip-hop artist Nas. His newest album, Hip-Hop Is Dead, is his first with the label DefJam. He switched to DefJam from Sony because it aligned more with his views of what music should be and where it should be headed. Many of the tracks on this album boldly state his issues with the music industry and the consequences of commercialization on an art form such as hip-hop, which was created to serve as a voice for a marginalized group of society. Unfortunately, as Nas also seems to understand, corporate influences have resulted in the disappearance of this voice. What was once hip-hop artists portraying their views and the views of their society–views which were not commonly heard or given recognition–has now become a very formulaic and engineered “art” geared at advertising and self-promotion. Notice, artists like Nas, who put forth a critique of such aspects of the media and the industry, are not commonly granted air time and or being given the big name awards. I assure you, this is not a result of the quality of his music. After all, is “Shake Your Money Maker” what you would consider grammy worthy? Granted, it’s fun, BUT GRAMMY WORTHY? I think not. Anyway, here are the lyrics to the song Nas’s album is titled after, Hip-Hop Is Dead.