I got to admit..I was for a while walking around saying the same bullshit..."Hip Hop is dead"....then I thought about it after a while. Where the hell did this shit come from!? Then it hit me! My homeboy Nas! He single handily got people to really start believing this shit. In my opinion he should have never said the shit because it created a damn snowball effect. Now he did has some good reason behind making that statement. True music overall is going into a different direction...but why? It simple....music evolves just like everything else in our world does. Take a look at hip hop is the early days and compare it to when Nas was around. It was a completely different style of music. The flow...the rhymes...everything got more complicated with hip hop in the times of Nas...but yet he can come out and say with today music Hip Hop is dead??? Are you serious. Just because Soulja Boi is selling ringtones and making dance songs in no way makes Hip Hop dead. As a matter of fact Soulja Boy basically made a sub genre of Hip Hop. Just as Rock Music has "Alternative Rock" and all of its sub genres. So it only makes sense that Hip Hop has the same. Lets take a look at some older sub genres of Hip Hop. How about Gangsta Rap...or how about your down south "hip hop" music. Now just because it doesn't sound like what some would consider hip hop doesn't mean it doesn't still have the same elements deep within. These dudes are still rappers just like the rappers who consider themselves more hip hop. Its just that they're taking a different approach...and usually this approach is based off of where they live in combination with the current times. Take a look at down south music. Alot of bass....usually not very complicated lyrics and not much of a flow. Question would you consider this Hip Hop...prolly not..but the truth is that it is because it is something that has derived from Hip Hop. Basically as the point I really want to make is that as time goes on shit will change and that includes in music. There are several different variables that would help change this as well. Technology is another thing that can play a major role. The more advanced technology gets in music production there wider variety of sounds you'll start to hear in music. Software based VSTs can emulate the sounds from sound modules dating back to the 90s all the way up to current. So with all of these things playing a role in Hip Hop and music overall how in the hell can you say its dead? Also just because you don't like whats on the radio doesn't mean somethings dead....the people who call and request those songs are usually a younger crowd to begin with. Enough of me ranting tho....I could go on and on...but seriously who ever says Hip Hop is dead really needs to take a step back and really think about that statement before they make it. It hurts Hip Hop and I'm sick of hearing the dumb shit. THANKS ALOT NAS!