39. Nas feat. will.i.am - Hip Hop is Dead (2006)

So far, I've listed the exhilarating things that happened in hip-hop in the first half of the decade, exciting years for a pop fan. But midway through the decade, the thrill subsided, and routine set in. Hip-hop is now the heart of the pop world, and as such it draws all that is mediocre. The veteran rapper Nas, one of the people who brought hip-hop this far, felt that it was losing its essence and its power to change things, and decided to act. As one of the most respected artists of the style since the beginning of the nineties, he decided to utilize his influence to reawaken the slumbering creative forces, and in 2006 he drops the bomb, and releases an album and a single announcing that hip-hop is dead.

When you listen to the content of the record, you realize that that's not exactly what he's saying. Nas doesn't say that hip-hop is dead, but that it is about to die. But the declaration achieved its purpose, stirring up the shit in the hip-hop world, sparking a lively debate between those who supported and opposed of his stance. This storm has so far failed to generate the desired result, and hip-hop continues to drag. But it isn't dead yet, and strong records such as this prove that it still maintains the power to rise again.

Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead TBOHipHop.net
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