Hiphop isnt dead, and also hiphop is not a product of the mainstream.
Its a product of the streets that was taken under the wing of the mainstream "POP" industry, when they realized the great money that could be made from it. Hiphop is a victim of the industry, taken in and abused for monetary gain. Now hiphop as a mainstream music, I think very well could be dead.
What people call hiphop on the mainstream nowadays just isnt hiphop, its POP plain and simple.
So to me to hear the phrase hiphop is dead, just means hiphop as a cash cow is dead. Its been played out in the mainstream world. I think the "dumbed down" offshoot of hiphop that we see in the mainstream now will continue to play on the radios as long as the kids keep buying it, so the mainstream products will always be geared toward the lowest common denominator as G, so very well points out.
As for hiphop, i think it has come back home, to the underground from whence it came. Its the underground-ness, of hiphop that is its power. Its the struggle of the downtrodden in lyrical form, its tales of social injustice in poetry form. Its about empowering neighbourhoods through an education they would otherwise not receive in the schools.
Its the rules of the street, not the rules of the Bentley, Lex, Ice, Gold or any other bullshit you simply dont see on the street. If you go around all blinged up in most places around here your liable to get your arse robbed.
The thing was, the strength of hiphop is what made it popular(in the underground) its was the crossovers "Walk This Way", "Rapture", "Beastie Boys" etc along with films like beatstreet, breakdance etc that opened up the white music buying public to the thing that was hiphop. Once this happened the doors were opened into the music industry for hiphop. And the cash started flowing, the public lapped up hiphop and so large profits were made. Slowly changes started to happen with hiphop, it was merged with rnb by people like Puffy(giving it even more mass appeal, maiking it more popular with the ladies so doubling potential sales)P.Diddy got very rich of this.
Slowly as the novelty of hiphop wore off, they started to market it more and more to the lowest common denominator to maximaise profit. As the mainstream hiphop music declined in quality due to the appealing to the "LCD" another thing happened which caught out the whole industry, the internet and piracy.
And now we are here, great hiphop still in the underground(hiphops birthplace and real home), and something in the mainstream perceived to be hiphop - HIP POP. The fad of concious hiphop is dead in the mainstream, but will live on for a long time(because of its quality as an artform)for a very long time to come yet.
As long as there are people downtrodden and struggling to escape the horrors of a fucked up situation, and there is a beat to poetically tell the story over, there will be hiphop.
