Yes the business will always have casualties. It's a business where there are no limousines or private jets, a business where nobody forgets where there from or who they are. Hip Hop isn't about guns anymore, and to some extent, never was; but that doesn't mean people don't get shot.
So if rap isn't violent anymore, what is it? It's important to understand the general lyrical diversity of the music being created and mass exported through the hip hop industry today. I include a small sample of a song from an album that I reviewed for a website recently, which briefly touches on the subject of Black oppression.
My forefathers hung in trees to be free (Rest in peace) //.
Got rid of slavery but kept the penitentiary //.
And now freedom got a shotgun and shells with your name //.
Releasing bullets and letting freedom ring //.
- Jurassic 5 (Freedom).
This is the type of positive state that Hip Hop is in now. As I explained that as an industry, it is always changing, growing, and moving forward, for this reason it is the largest selling individual genre in the world, as it; and all of its future manifestations are likely to always be.
Not always the giant it is today, Hip Hop's humble beginnings took place in the late-seventies with individuals who are now considered the true pioneers, the people who did it for the love of the music even though it was illegal. Of these entertainers it was DJ Kool Herc who set it all off. These were the days when Hip Hop was all about moving the crowd; days where parks and recreation grounds were filled by the thousands with fans wanting to witness the new type of music that was being tagged on the streets as rap. These so called "concerts" were not legal, they didn't generate huge prophet, they were done out of pure love of the art form; and from those early years it has continually evolved, through eras of money, rock, gang-influence, shiny-suits and business and it continues to evolve into the philosophical state its in today and will further do so into the future.
