NC Underground Nov/Dec 2013 | Page 5

The Ammo Dump Is Hip Hop Dead? by Jacob Brewer The current state of Hip Hop is cause for concern and has been for some time. The overall acceptance of William Leonard Roberts more commonly known as “Rick Ross” who assumed the persona of notorious narcotics trafficker “Freeway” Rick Ross seemed to really signify the beginning of the end. Then most recently Miley Cyrus did a Hip Hop song with producer Mike Will then another with Future. Ok, I have no doubt that the 23 video by Mike Will made good with all of the Nike product placement. Everyone has to earn a living in some form or another but is it really necessary to water down and sell out Hip-Hop in the process? Miley is from Disney not the streets. There is nothing about her that is “hood”. She made a fool out of herself by “Twerking” on national television. Her father was a country one hit wonder with a song called “Achy Breaky Heart”! I understand that she is trying to break her wholesome image but exploiting the hip-hop culture is not the way to do it. The fact that this is acceptable to so many makes it even worse. In many ways, I feel that Hip Hop died with Tupac and Biggie even though there have been a few standout albums in the last 15 years such as Eminem’s “The Slim Shady LP” or Scarface’s “Emeritus”.