Blogger’s note: Before I get into the topic of this blog post, I first would like to state that this is all out of love and admiration for the Hip Hop community. I love Hip Hop because I am Hip Hop, so you can call this a cry for self preservation if you will.

I am a firm believer in the old saying “It takes a village to raise a child,” because that “child” grows and hopefully matures, to become the village. Now with that said, it is the previous generation’s responsibility to help mold and prepare the next generation to propel the village into a more prosperous and brighter future. I realize that not all members of the older generations are irresponsible and do not cherish the gift of Hip Hop that was bestowed to them from those who came before them; however, the larger makeup of the Hip Hop community has failed its youth.

This failure transcends into various components of Hip Hop culture such as music and lyrical content, and self respect. Jay-Z’s “D.O.A.” has received plenty of feedback and commentary, positive and negative. I think the record is dope; the lyrical content and delivery is impeccable, and the topic of the song is spot on. Jay was right for putting out the track because he took it upon himself to call out his peers on their degradation on something that is so dear to him. As a member of the older generation, he felt the responsibility to steer the younger folks in the right. The culture of Hip Hop was built on competing with and trying to out do your peers, not jump on the bandwagon that is T-Pain. I’m not trying to take anything away from T-Pain; he is good at what he does, but its a damn shame when just about everyone in the rap world is on the auto tune pipe.

Jim Jones voiced his opinion on “D.O.A” on BET’s 106 and Park:

We’re getting money off of auto tune, it’s just sounding like somebody’s trying to knock a hustle and I don’t think that’s a little bit gangster if you ask me. We getting money. He’s knocking the hustle, ya dig? If these young men are making money off of auto tune why would you try to stop that, when you got all the money already? I seen him [at Summer Jam], I don’t think he wanted to see me. He almost stopped the whole concert because he said I was in the way of him getting on stage and all of that. But that’s politics for the game, ya dig? How you doing? We back, we ballin', we poppin’ champagne.

This is very sad to hear Jimmy speak this way. It is clear he is missing the point of “D.O.A” in believing that it is about knocking the hustle and stopping the flow of income and not what it really is about which is challenging your peers to be better lyricists. Fabolous and Jadakiss never relied on the use of auto tune, yet they still produced great singles this year and even greater albums. Your lyrical content should be enough to solidify your place in Hip Hop history as well as “get money.” It is very disturbing to hear 90% percent of the songs on majority Hip Hop stations have the use of auto tune in them and almost no superior lyrical content. We have to challenge each other to be more creative and meaningful in our rhymes in order to preserve our dearest love of which we call Hip Hop.

Recently, I’ve noticed that the degrading and disappointing Hip Hop performances have begun to grow at an alarming rate. Two performances in particular that has amazed the shit out of me are the Young Money BET performance and the horrific Get Your Life Together Productions performance at the Harriet Tubman public school in Harlem.

Blogger’s note: Special shout out to my colleagues Ron Mexico and Julie for posting this and their added commentary. Check them out at http://www.ronmexicocity.com/

This is what happens when there is no guidance in the community and no one takes responsibility:

I was appalled and full of laughter at the same time when I came across this blog entry and video. I was heavily disgusted to see a song titled “I Eat Da Pussy” performed in a public school, Harriet Tubman public school at that, with kids no older than 10 years old dancing and performing suggestive sexual explicit acts on the stage. Again, “it takes a village to raise a child,” Hip Hop community. We have to be there for each other and make sure atrocities like this never happen again. Where is the school administration to prevent this from happening? Where are the parents of the kids on stage? Most importantly, why are the people in the audience just sitting there as if nothing is wrong? Hip Hop, we can do better than this; we have to do better than this. The so-called performers were terrible and the things they said were just hilarious, not in the comedic sense but in the “You had the audacity to say that?” mindset. I don’t feel the need the need to touch on the video any further because Ron Mexico did that already and it speaks for itself.

We HAVE to do a much better job in mentoring the younger musicians and show them how to do things because if we don’t, this is what we have to look to for the future of Hip Hop. These grown men actually went ahead with this performance on a tribute to the greatest entertainer of all time, Michael Jackson. It wasn’t a great idea by BET to have these men perform a record in which they are talking about having sex with every girl in the world while having 12 year old girls dancing on the stage; this was the worst possible tribute to the late great Michael Jackson due to the years of allegations and condemnation from the world over child molestation charges (and they actually had the nerve to say “rest in piece Mike Jackson” at the end of it, what a real shame). Again, look at the people in the audience singing and dancing along to the performance. This signifies that its OK to rap about having sex with every girl in the world while there are little girls on the stage. BET should not have allowed them to perform that song, especially in that manner. We have to hold each other accountable for our actions because it affects the entire Hip Hop community. We have to do better.