A Bay Bay

Picture above is the "rapper" known as Hurricane Chris. Probably best, and only, known for his club hit A Bay Bay, Hurricane Chris is, in my opinion, the unofficial poster boy for everything that's wrong with hip hop. Granted, when I hear A Bay Bay on the radio and in the club, I can get down with it, but that's pretty much it and that's were the problem lies. Today's hip hop lacks substance, nobody's talking about anything. Most artists today are going after one of three things. 1) A new dance 2) a club banger or 3) a new saying. For artists like the above mentioned, this can be a good and bad thing. It can give you instant noteriety and make you popular with the kids. But, on the flip side, it will probably be your only hit of your career and after the fad passes, you'll quickly fade into oblivian.

Which is why it's very easy to distinguish real hip hop from the jibberish that dominates the airwaves on the radio and in the club. Hip hop is a way of life, it's in how you walk, talk and live day-to-day. When done right, the lifestyle, whether good or bad, can beautifully be presented through rap or song. But as easily as it can make us feel good by listening to Tupac's storytelling, if we're not careful, we may get brainwashed into to thinking Party Like Rockstar is on the same level. If we're not careful, we may start to think Young (insert name here) is on the level as Jay-Z, the Roots and Mos Def.

There's an old life lesson that says what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular. So with hip-hop, let's remember, everything that gets us hype and makes us tap our feet is not always authenic, but it's the quality music that makes us just sit, listen and think.