Is Hip Hop Dead Research Paper

In the world today, hip-hop music is inescapable; anyone who has been to a party in the last year has undoubtedly heard the smash hit “Broccoli” by D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty and even Hillary Clinton joined millions in doing the viral Mannequin Challenge to Rae Sremmurd and Gucci Mane’s song “Black Beatles”, both of which have been certified platinum. The genre, however, has rebounded from a completely different place than it was in in the mid 2000s and has regained its ground over the past ten years. Nas, arguably one of the greatest rappers of all time, even declared the genre dead on his 2006 album Hip-Hop is Dead. Since the release of that album, hip-hop has made a comeback. The crossover of hip-hop into many other forms of industry and entertainment,

Around the mid 2000s, critics of the genre said that hip-hop was a declining art form that was losing its importance. In his book, Is Hip-Hop Dead?: The Past, Present, and Future of America's Most Wanted Music, author Mickey Hess assesses the changes in the genre over time, and argues, at the time of his book’s publication in 2007, the genre is dying because current careers, lives, and personas in the genre differ from those in the past. Hess also notices that different ethnic groups, specifically White people, have began to break into a genre that was once strictly African-American. Hess analyzes the claim made on Nas’ album Hip-Hop is Dead, that the genre is at a stalemate and that power no longer belongs to the hip-hop artists. MTV has ranked Nas as one of the top five MCs of all time, and his 1994 debut album Illmatic is widely regarded as the greatest rap album of all time. According to the Nas, “hip-hop

Many see it is an artistic medium used to illustrate of the lives of the artists. This makes the music feel more personable; listeners feel like they’re learning firsthand about topics and situations they may never have been exposed to. However, around a decade ago, there was a lot of discussion about the genre dying. The industry that was seen as an art form losing its importance just years ago now boasts accomplishments such as leaders in other forms of industry, unparallelled album sales, and an ever-changing adaptation to the rise of social media and technology. Like all forms of music, hip-hop has evolved as a genre over time, and although some critics may have once declared the genre dead, hip-hop is as alive and well as today as it has ever