Remember when you used to listen the radio and hear good Hip Hop music? I recall a time when I sat in my room with my radio on, two tapes in the dual tape deck waiting for my favorite song of the week to come on to record. Sometimes I would just leave a cassette in and press record until the button popped back up. (Now that was an original mixtape.) Back then you were able to trust the DJ talking to you between a set of 8 – 10 dope tracks; you were confident that he was delivering the best music Hip Hop had to offer. There were  radio singles, but sometimes you heard tracks off an album that weren’t meant to be top sellers, just quality. The radio wasn’t the only trusted source for good music, but television had some excellent programming before “Yo MTV Raps” and BET’s ”Rap City” were dismissed by teen friendly shows like “TRL” and “106th and Park.” The days of turning on the radio and not feeling like you’re in the club, or finding a real music channel that isn’t 90% reality shows are long gone. The decline in records sales doesn’t help the situation either, artists aren’t getting the same opportunity for record promotion that was so prevalent back in Hip Hop’s glory days. Fan’s have to dig much deeper to find artists avoiding popular trends and status quo. No longer is good music spoon fed to the consumer, because now the hand that feeds you is keeping the good stuff in the basement.

When Hip Hop was at its pinnacle in the early to late 90′s, a variety of  MC’s who wouldn’t see the light of day in todays market were getting plenty of air play in all forms of media. Artists like Jeru da Damaja, Gang Starr, Organized Confusion, and many more were regulars in the radio and video rotation, but now they would be considered underground, and their voices would never reach the ears of somebody not willing to do a little research. We’re dealing with an era where the Internet gives you open access to almost anything you’re searching for. Within that wide open platform it can be difficult to sort through the  abundance of media out there, yet there is not a more important time than now to look beyond what’s simply within your reach. The radio and T.V. has turned against us, and if those sources are solely relied on you will only be exposed to a small sample of the music; this is a prime example of why the culture is so misrepresented and abhorred by older generations.

Finding an artists outside of the generally marketed rappers can seem like a burdensome task, but there are plenty of other options that provide quality music for those willing to search it out. There are Hip Hop sites all over the Internet that promote a wide range of music on their sites, like hiphopdx.com. Streaming Internet radio like ”Pandora“ allows you to search for specific artists and create a station based on the genre. A lot of the times something brand new will be played that might catch your ear and the information on the artists is there for you to look into. Get out and attend Hip Hop shows, a local opening act may attract your attention.

The general public can be easily swayed by trends and fads, record labels promote artists that have the best chance of increasing their revenue. The fans no longer decide whose album gets supported and pushed to the forefront to deem their release important. It’s up to the people who really love the culture to go outside the norm and support artists putting their souls and passion into the music. We as fans have to reclaim our voice in a culture we helped create. I’m also guilty as a person who claims a deep affinity for Hip Hop; I rarely take the time to give new artists a chance to crack my rotation. I’ll take the first step forward and write an artist profile once a week here on hoodiepeople.com to show my commitment to recognizing new and innovative musicians in the game. Think of the movie the “The Matrix”,imagine if Neo relied on the Architect to tell him that he was living in a false reality? He would’ve continued to accept anything the machine provided for him without a chance of escape. In that same regard we cannot rely on the radio, T.V. or record labels to provide us with music that is in direct opposition to their very existence.

Mansa Motif @ www.ofoneculture.com