Booker Rising on Dumb Songs

What has happened to mainstream hip hop?

I've never been a big hip hop fan, but I do have a little hip hop in my iPod. Back in the day, I could at least point to some songs that I liked that were all over the radio and video shows.

Not so today. Two of the most stupid songs out there right now have got to be "Pop, Lock & Drop It" by Huey and "This Is Why I'm Hot" by Mims. And of course, these are hit songs.

While mainstream music overall is getting dumber by the year, mainstream hip hop by far leads the pack on the stupid songs (and videos) front."Pop, Lock & Drop It" has a kiddie-sounding chorus, with the oh-so-not-original ho-ish, no-class video featuring bling and booty.

To have little girls in the Pop, Lock, & Drop It" video is particularly foul. "This Is Why I'm Hot" just has stupid repetition, and ol' boy ain't even hot.

What many folks won't admit: Common, Rhymefest, The Roots, etc. aren't massively popular not because they aren't known, but because mainstream hip hop fans - who remain disproportionately black, even if whites are the majority in sheer numbers - instead prefer to listen to crap like these two dumb songs.

These are the desired sound and images of blackness desired by fans.The trash called mainstream hip hop sinks ever lower, dragging a once-rich black American musical culture further down with it. Too often, there is a dumbed down expectation of what black American music should be.

Where is the originality? Self-respect? Musical diversity?

I must be getting old in my 36 years because we can definitely put out better mainstream music.