"Reclaiming the Mic: Hip-Hop and Protest"

As I read this article in Under the Radar, I was pleased to find that people are starting to push just how much hip-hop has changed into the limelight. Back in the golden age of hip-hop Public Enemy’s album, A Nation of Millions, sold 500,00 records, but back then it wasn't about those kinds of sales, but rather about sending a message to people buy using music as a tool for "prying open the eyes of an American culture that had dismissed hip-hop as a quasimuisical fad," as Matt Fink writes. Today, hip-hop has lost its original purpose as the "Black CNN," no longer sending lessons to the people, but going on about "get money and fuck bitches." There are artists that are on the underground scene that do still philosophizes about the problems in all the different levels of the world, but the majority of artists that are getting the publicity and money are blabbering mindlessly. This is because a "real" rap song contains a large volume of words and is intimidating to most of our population. The thing is though, if you're going to use all those words, you better have something to say, and everyone, from MosDef, to Immortal Technique, to Jedi Mind Tricks definitely has something to say. "Music has as much power as a war chant," and with more articles like this, I'm sure we can bring back the real hip-hop, and exile the main steam shit forever.