To me HIP HOP is dead(meaning the culture including rap music and dead meaning not giving inspiration like it used to) because of EVERYBODY. This means fans, record company execs, and artist(DJ's, rappers, producers). To me this applies to most of the arts not just HIP HOP.
Everyone just wants a quick buck and said forget about the art because even though you can eat, you can't get rich because in order to do that you would have to appeal to more people and sadly the mainstream of people just follow what is happening and if what is happening is not thinking too much or something that just makes you dance than that will be done by artist to get paid BUT only a few can do this well and get paid unless you do something new and get lucky but there are very few who do this.
I blame DJ's who are lazy and don't do anything new and in fact have gotten lazy with the new DJ software like serato and traktor and think it's still only about breaking a new track when that is only one part of the equation. You can do so much now because you know the BPM, the key, you don't have to look hard for the music in crates because it's all on the computer which means quickness, you have cue points, and so much more yet all you hear is sloppy mixes or they don't mix at all.
The same for producers. You can now take old and new sounds and mix them together and still have a loud clean sound yet you have producers who are living in the '90's or the trend now which is the '80's and dance music in other words new wave disco. No one is incorporating ALL of the sounds and arrangements that came before us such as reggae, classical, soul, rock, heavy metal, electronic. We are living in a time where you can literally make a new sound just like the people did before us but faster and easier because of technology but there are two things that stop people, FEAR and KNOWLEDGE.
Most people FEAR being different and most fear taking the time to learn the KNOWLEDGE on how to work these software systems let alone listen to all the different styles of music and see how they can incorporate the styles into one so the easiest way is to rely on IMAGE and this can mean swag or keeping it real HIP HOP. Both different but still an image. We are doing and listening to music everything else is miscellaneous to this fact. It's important to categorize so you won't get robbed of money by greedy execs and they won't still your style of music like they are doing now by combining "black" music(rap and R&B) and calling them HIP HOP to save money but as the artist when you go in that studio you have to remember you are making music and being creative based on your LIFE and how what you have experienced and everything else will revolve around that not the other way around. Most people today base their life on music or rather being a star and everything revolves around that which is why they don't really have nothing to talk about but the same things that the star did before them. Nothing new or saying something in a different way just the same old thing just packaged and delivered to a younger and mostly ignorant audience because they don't listen to the music that came before them
When someone finds out how to incorporate all the styles of previous music and make it sound good, then we will see a new change until then continue to be bored like I am and only have hype of the new thing to keep you going until you master the new style and present it to the public.
Speaking of producers I was just watching Hank Shocklee on youtube speaking about Reason 5 and he is the perfect example of a producer mixing styles to bring in something new. When he did the second and third public enemy albums he would use so many samples from different types of songs and incorporate them into one and the production would come out AMAZING. Now a days the sampling laws make that hard BUT we have technology where it can still be done just not so blatant yet people just do simple loops and simple melodies when we can now learn different instruments and play them on one piece of equipment and don't have to rely on samples to recreate a sound and even if we do we can flip the sample to make it even better but man has become lazy with technology and it's not just music. People would rather text than talk on the phone. This is crazy. As a man I want to hear a women talking to me so I can hear her voice and understand what she truly means whereas typing words is lifeless and lacks that thing that makes us human, EMOTIONS.
Anyway sorry for the long post I just had this on my mind.
Hank Shocklee interview on Reason 5 patches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u92yaH-rO-M
Yall can check out more of his music and get a brand-new track for free at 
