I know this has been pontificated and expounded upon many times but I just had to put my two cents in. The fact is, since this is my blog post and I can write whatever I want, that’s what I am going to do. I was walking to the post office downtown today and started thinking “How can hip hop be dead? It’s bigger than EVER!”. I think most people who utter the words “hip hop is dead” are really saying “The kind of hip hop I like is gettin no play” which is probably true. Unless you are into southern rap/hip hop (FLA stand up!) your favorite artists aren’t getting too much love on a national level. But how can someone say that hip hop is dead when you got industry staples like Jay-Z, Common, Kanye, Outkast, Lil Wayne, T.I. and others making good music and still selling records. That’s just to name a few, the list could go on and on for a lot longer than my attention span will allow…

So to the point of this post, 5 reasons that hip hop is not dead. Some of these you have probably heard of and some you may not. In no particular order:

• Wale
• Charles Hamilton
• Murs
• B.O.B.
• Asher Roth

Again the list could go on…

As I started writing this, I thought to myself “Damn there’s at least 5 artists from the Tampa area that could prove my point as well”, so what the hell let’s put some of them out there. So here’s another 5 from the Tampa Bay area, again in no particular order:

• The Basiqs
• Laws
• Juice City
• Sean Gates
• F.A.M.E.

There are plenty more just from the Tampa Bay area. If you haven’t heard any of these cats check them out, hip hop ain’t dead not by a long shot…