Mtv is the Culprit

Everyone is saying Hip-Hop is dead. I'm saying if Hip-Hop is dead, then it was murdered. Who would have killed Hip-Hop? After watching Mtv's Hottest MC in the Game show. I'm thoroughly convinced without a reasonable doubt that Mtv is the murderer.

Come on. This show starts off listing Jim Jones and Ludacris as honorable mentions. The debate doesn't lead into why Ludacris isn't on the top ten list, but why Jim Jones is arguably better than Nas. That accusation is completely laughable and ludicrous. However, these so-called professionals were spewing their half-baked ideas on why Jim Jones' fashion sense is hotter than Nas' lyrics. If I recall the definition of rap music is a person delivering an intricate and clever rhyme in a pattern over a beat to produce a musical composition. Where in the definition does it state that rap also includes fashion? Speaking of defining rap music as elegant rhyme prose delivered over a beat, the table lunges into a debate over the 10th. spot for the hottest rapper. You would think choosing the top ten hottest rappers would involve some level of rhyme skill, right?

This is where hilarity meets shame. The round table of idiots decide to discuss if Souljah Boy or Andre 3000 should hold the tenth spot. I would say due to their ignorance that their comparison makes perfect sense. Nonetheless, I cannot credit them to being ignorant since they claimed to be "professionals" in Hip-Hop knowledge and the music industry. Obviously, these people don't know how to define hotness. (Insert your definition of hot rapper here. Not popular rapper- 14 year old white girls should not assist in your selection of hot rappers since they are the buying public of popular music.) You know rapping is an art of words, so that has more weight in deciding what is hot than album purchases or radio spins, right?

How in the world could you compare the G.O.A.T. with someone that plays the game on a playground? Andre 3000 vs. Souljah Boy? Are you serious? An actual comparison between someone with over a decade of experience that has never written or spit a flawed verse against a kid that doesn't even rhyme in his songs. Moreover, it is absurd to be debating them over the 10th. spot on the list. I watched in amusement and amazement as these foolish people say that "Crank That" and "Yahh Bitch Yahh" trump Andre's collection of work. Now, if hottest was clearly defined as popular, then Souljah Boy would be number 1 on this year's list. But, it is not. However, they were debating the verbal vernacular between Andre and Souljah Boy. They didn't even acknowledge that Andre's verse on "The Art of Story Tellin' (Part 4)" makes him the G.O.A.T. because it is possibly the best verse of 2008 and historically one of the best crafted verses ever. I will not spend more time debating the foolishness of these Mtv professionals' ranking methods.

The Mtv professionals completely left off Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Big Boi, Scarface, Bun B, Cee-Lo, Ghostface, The Game, Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliot. Hotness incorporates the ability to excite people to want to hear you or talk about you. Any of the aforementioned names would cause a Hip-Hop enthusiasts to the casual listener to run and purchase or download their album. I mean we all love to hear these people spit their verbal venom. We get excited about their verses saying how hot it is and it is always the best verse on a song. You never hear anyone say, "I can't wait for Souljah Boy to spit the hotness with Timbaland." But, you do hear it for Missy Elliot. People love Missy and can't wait to hear her drop an album, a song, or a verse. She is completely fun, entertaining, and witty. We love her for it. These things make her hot.

Souljah Boy isn't hot, his steel drum production for "Crank That" is hot and we loved it. Seriously, we hear him regurgitating the cadence and word pattern of "Eni Meani Mino Mo" while uttering nosensical non-rhyming fantasies of masturbating and ejaculating on a girl's back and face. Can we delineate further from rap without rapping (rhyming over a beat versus talking to a cadence) and still call his raps hot or him a hot MC? I won't continue to bash this young brother for his coonery and foolishness. Hell, he isn't the first person to sell his soul to the devil for fame and shame. But, he is used in a prime example of so-called professionals elevating low quality work onto the champion's block of Hip-Hop.

When so-called professionals praise this subpar and inadequately skilled compositions such as Souljah Boy's work, it becomes representative of Hip-Hop's culture and evolution. As a result, this praise and perpetuation of ignorant low quality rap music discredits the works of solid artists in the industry. Joe Public would like better quality artists if they were presented with better quality artists. People only appreciate what they are exposed to in their lives. If a person is only exposed to shit works, then they will appreciate the best shit works. Furthermore, your average consumer doesn't have the time or energy to search or learn about better-than-shit works because they are too busy putting gas in their tanks.

Mtv, why don't you present Joe Public with the best? I know you are in the chicken and egg cycle, and you claim this is what the people want. But, no one wants shit. You have to change public opinion on quality music, they shouldn't have to change in order for you to change your programming. They will actually eat and digest anything you give them. Look at all the shit you fed them over the years. And, they still come back for more. So, stop killing Hip-Hop!