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Hip-Hop Goes Gold at the Grammy Awards

© Steve Juon

It's that time of year again when most hip-hop fans turn their heads to the side and cough: the Grammy awards. This year though it's a little different - in various categories we have nominated artists such as Big Pun, Lauryn Hill, and Jay-Z. If each were to win in a category it would be a nice all around representation of hip-hop: black, latino, and female.

I know Chuck D said "Who gives a fuck about a god damn Grammy?" but the funny thing is that the Grammy awards have finally come correct about nominating artists that are highly credible to the hip-hop heads. This is the first year we can check out a "Grammy Rap Nominee's" album in the stores and guess what? The songs on it reflect the SAME songs we bumped all year long. From Wyclef Jean's "Gone Til November" to Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" to Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life", this album could just as easily pass for a volume of The Source's "Hip-Hop Hits" or a "Best of '98" mixtape.

What brought about the change? Several things. Rap sold EIGHTY-ONE million albums last year, which is NINE million more than country. Hardcore also proved a surprising ability to crossover to the people who were bored with less controversial pop rap. Since so-called alternative music has been in decline and rock'n'roll has not produced any new major superstars, the media turned to hip-hop and finally recognized rap's big appeal. Then major media outlets showed a greater willingness to play it (with occasionally heavy editing). Of course this has provoked a lot of concerns that hardcore is mainstream and now it will have to be replaced by the ULTRA-independent movement as the vanguard of hip-hop music and culture.

I won't take a stand on that one way or the other right now. I'll just be happy to see real hip-hop get some props at the awards ceremony for a change instead of Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Whatever the winners are tonight, we should applaud the direction the music industry is taking in finally giving hip-hop it's due and CAPITALIZE on that. If we slack up now then there's nobody to blame but us for not bringing hip-hop to the limelight when we had it shining the brightest.

Peace, Flash

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