NOTE: This isn't my blog, it's a post from someone elses. Just thought you might want to read this. I know there is alot of hip hop/basketball/Nas fans on here and just read up on how this dude compares the NBA to Hip hop and he also talks about why hip hop is dead. Nice read.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Who Killed It? AKA If Hip Hop Did Die, I Wasn?t Anywhere Around When It Happened So I Can?t Possibly Be Blamed For It!There is a saying that if you throw a rock into a pack dogs, the one that barks, growls or yelps will be the one/s hit with said rock, it?s called the ?Hit Dog Theory?. Very recently, several people in the field of entertainment have taken issue with Nas? album title ?Hip Hop Is Dead?, including members of D4L, Ludacris, T.I. and Young Jeezy.They maintain that ?Hip Hop Is Dead? is nothing more than a dig made at the fact that Southern rap is on top of the game right now and rappers/emcees from New York/the East Coast resent that because the focus is no longer on them...I personally don?t blame them for feeling that way but, that?s NOT what he means....so why are they getting so damn defensive?Do East Coast listeners whine every time the focus of Hip Hop the rap industry shifts off of them and turn into crybabies? HELL YES! I witnessed this phenomenon firsthand back in the early 90?s when the West Coast took over and moved to the forefront of the Hip Hop scene.The subsequent whining, jealousy and bitterness was brought to a boil that fateful night that the infamous DJ Quik/2nd II None Yo! MTV Raps episode aired and Fab Five Freddy asked 2nd II None members to kick a freestyle at the end of the show...they declined and said ?Nah, man. We don?t do that?. That very night the entire East Coast exploded.Shortly thereafter Tim Dog released ?F*ck Compton? and Masta Ace released the classic ?Slaughtahouse? LP (AKA The Yellow Tape) making fun of gangsta rappers. The Source began writing articles about if you could truly call yourself an emcee if you don?t freestyle and if you don?t have certain skills you shouldn?t be rapping.I found this weird because Too Short had been rhyming since 1983 and I never questioned whether or not HE was Hip Hop or not...there were too many holes in that way of thinking. sh*t, even Big L didn?t go off the top like that! He WROTE his sh*t first. Who cared how they did it as long as it came out dope?New York was committed to ?bringing the East Coast back? (sound familiar?) and once the Wu Tang Clan, Boot Camp Click, Notorious B.I.G., etc. all came on the scene New York was ?back? and all of a sudden Hip Hop was enjoyable again? What the F*ck? So when the West Coast was winning it WASN?T? Jeru the Damaja named his first album ?The Sun Rises In The East?. Many fans both in the South and West saw that as hypocrital and assbackwards...we?re not on top so something is wrong with hip hop. When they?re back in the game now all of a sudden hip hop?s back and it?s another ?Golden Age?.With all of that said, this isn?t about that. It?s about the concept of commerce completely destroying the PURITY OF A CULTURE...no matter what culture or what field, the pursuit of money will kill it. Once getting compensated becomes the end all be all of anything, it is never the same as it was and, in effect, killed or leeched on until it is either dead or a shell of it?s former self.I?ll give another ?Hip Hop Is Dead? analogy for the slow that don?t get it, jump to conclusions and catch unwarranted feelings over nothing (No Jeezy...AAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!).Let?s take basketball as an example. Before going to the pros back in the early 70?s, players came from college with no chance of going to the pros early. They couldn?t even play as freshmen at first because they used to have to redshirt. This was before sneaker companies began courting teams, before AAU coaches sponsored by corporations were recruiting high school players. This was before the NBA was generating a bunch of money and paying outrageous salaries to it?s players.Once Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league from college, the injected new life into the NBA, which was losing money at the time and it?s TV ratings were anemic. The Lakers, Celtics, 76?ers, Bulls and Pistons helped bring the NBA back to prominence and all throughout the 80?s more and more legendary players entered the league and became superstars...this began being regarded as the new ?Golden Age? of the NBA.Back then, it was important to have solid fundamentals and play hard every night. Players had mid range games, they could bank shots in from off the backboard, they screened, set picks and could guard the pick and roll. When rookies came into the league, they were expected to defer to veterans and they were expected to carry their bags on road trips, bring them donuts and newspapers in the morning among other things. When superstar rookies began getting drafted into the league later, these practices began dying out.Power players stayed in the paint/on the blocks and rebounded and blocked shots, they didn?t try to handle the ball and step out to shoot deep jumpers and threes. Eventually, that all changed with the new kind of players that began entering the league in the 90?s with different and more varied skill sets. The mid range game suffered as a generation of kids that grew up watching Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler , Dominique Wilkins, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson all wanted to dunk or shoot threes.By the time the 90?s rolled around the last generation of players from the 80?s such as Charles Barkley, Ron Harper, Magic Johnson (who made a comeback in 1996), etc. all remarked about how the game of basketball wasn?t like it used to be and even though the league had just had what would go down as one of it?s best ever drafts in 1996. The game was in decline overall.Players didn?t respect their elders or have proper knowledge of all the aspects of basketball. This was due to corporations invading the game at a high school level through the AAU sponsorship and sneaker companies that ran summer camps.Magazines began ranking prospects as early as the 6th grade while fundamentals suffered. The endorsement deals and media coverage and huge money contracts where at a level that was something that these older players didn?t experience.Players like Allen Iverson had to endure some serious scrutiny in his rookie year in the NBA due to his style of dress, his cornrows, his crossover and his background. The NBA had recently began drafting high school players as well as many early entry candidates at the same time many veterans began retiring. Many fans became disenchanted with the NBA?s changes and stopped paying attention to basketball until Michael Jordan came out of retirement and they mysteriously began watching again when Jordan came back. These people weren?t basketball fans anyway so F*ck ?em.These same people felt that since basketball wasn?t like it once was, with the game being played as a fundamentally sound team game, that basketball was dead...even though it was still going strong and it?s still on TV three nights a week on network TV and cable. The younger players could get heated and say that the older/retired players are hating on them because it?s a new era and their getting paid now doing what they?re doing and the old school way is out but the fact remains that the game (product) isn?t what it used to be in the past before the corporations transformed the game into a shell of it?s former self.Instead of just playing basketball because they love it, people are completely aware of rankings and charts and recruiting lists. High school basketball games are aired on TV. People know more about O.J. Mayo and Greg Oden than they do about guys that are playing in the NBA right now. Players now only have to wait until their 19 to enter the draft so they play a year of college ball and THEN get paid.Now, the United States can?t even field a basketball team that can win the Gold Medal in the Basketball World Championships or the Summer Olympics...Basketball Is Dead!This is what Nas was talking about. sh*t, HE?S partly to blame for hip hop ?dying? for dumbing down his lyrics in order to move units after ?Illmatic?failed to sell like ?Ready To Die? did! Has anyone ever seen his videos for ?Street Dreams?, ?Hate Me Now?, or ?You Owe Me?? Okay, then. The thing is that Nas has OWNED UP to what he?s done...and he NEVER named any names in any of these interviews...so the question remains? Why are these dudes so damn mad for? He?s had to explain this rather simple concept about culture deteriorating due to the introduction of commerce in a field several times in interviews and instead it just results in ?Hiip Hop Isn?t Dead It Just Lives In The South? T shirts and slick comments from certain cats that really don?t want it with Nas or Jay-Z (No Dipset)...just listen to ?Money Over bullsh**?, ?You Can?t Kill Me?, ?Carry On Tradition?, or ?Hope? for proof. Before I wrap this up, is Lil? Wayne on crack? Did he just say that he?s better than Jay now? Did he really just diss Jay-Z when he used to idolize him and named his albums ?The Carter? and ?The Carter 2?? What really makes these cats think they can diss/go at established legends? (No Kay Slay) Ask Wayne he don?t want it with Hov....No!I was supposed to do another blog entirely but I couldn?t bring myself to do it after these events jumped off recently.OnePD</div>
