Hip-Hop music: a degraded art?

Have you ever considered Lil Wayne to be on par with Beethoven? Or do you consider Soulja Boy to be the next Mozart? Probably not, as Rap/Hip-Hop is rarely considered to be a true form of art but rather; a modern fad amongst youth. Even so, the hip-hop genre has undeniably become a juggernaut in today's vast world of music. With chart-topping songs and new artists' emerging regularly, hip-hop is considered to be one of the fastest growing genres' in the industry. Eminem's hip-hop album: The Marshall Mathers LP is even accredited to being the fastest selling album of all time. Quite a feat for any genre of music to accomplish. Although, even with the commericial success associated with the genre, two common themes that come to mind when the average individual envisions hip-hop are as follows: 'Lack of an intelligent message' and 'social/criminal corruption.' In other words, hip-hop is rarely recognized as an actual form of art but rather, a growing fad of ignorant music amongst impressionable young people. Even with all of the evidence that points to that notion being true, I simply disagree. Whole-heartedly.

To the right of this text you'll find an example video of what some people would consider to be the pure essence of rap/hip-hop music. Now, I'm not advocating hatred toward any artists, but this video seems to fit the stereotypical bill of hip-hop music being ignorant, self-indulgent and viral. From the point of view of an outsider looking in, this style of hip-hop appears to be the gist of the genre itself, as it appears on television and the radio most frequently. What the outsider doesn't understand is that hip-hop has become extremely corporatized and corrupted resulting in the vast appearance of what seem to be ignorant, self-indulgent styles. It isn't an original aspect of the genre but it is the aspect most commonly backed by corporations. So, ultimately this is what will be portrayed to audiences as 'hip-hop,' as corporations have control over what airs on tv and what music gets played on the radio. So you want your new hip-hop single played on the radio? Well then, you're going have to filter through the greedy corporate machine and it's intrests to get approved for some air-time. Corporations don't really care for art, they care for business and will almost always choose the money-making performer over the artistic genius. I may be considered a Backpacker for my own preferences but I'd simply rather listen to music with an artistic/creative vibe or at least a message. Below is an example of some of the music to be found in underground hip-hop.

I would much rather listen to an underground hip-hop album with almost no publicity as oppossed to the majority of what gets aired today. I really do enjoy a small minority of mainstream artists such as Kanye West and Mos Def, inversely, a small minority of underground artists also represent the same styles displayed by the mainstream. At the end of the day, art is in the eyes of the beholder and most of the views expressed here are merely my opinion as an individual.