New trends and slang words are invented everyday in this ever changing world of hip-hop. One that I find intriguing is the term “dumbing down,” or “dumbed down” in reference to how hip-hop in its current state is being down-graded so that a younger audience can truly understand and appreciate the music. You must be kidding me.

So let me get this straight: Are we saying that all of hip-hop is stupid as in a lack of intelligence? Or are we making a point that just the “pop” type hip-hop that we hear and see through various mediums lacks intelligence? To some degree, I agree with the latter, but I believe just like with everything, there’s more that meets the eye.

Personally, I believe that some artists and decision makers are making a conscious effort to not only present dumbed down music, but to also keep our society in a dumbed down mindset as well. On an average 12 hour set on a typical top 40 urban station you will hear the same 30-40 songs played, some of them rotated 3 times within that timeframe. With the exception of some, the majority of this hip-hop music is dumbed down.

What is dumbed down music? I consider dumbed down music as music that distracts the listener from real life issues. Not only distracts but redirects the listener’s attention to insignificant things. How I look at dumbed down music is the same way I look at the local and national news that is shown in this country: I take it with a grain of salt and believe none of it. We are still involved in an illegal war, still faced with serious economic issues, violence issues, racism issues, but yet the majority of the news shown is entertainment or distraction news. From Anna Nicole’s death, a boyscout missing, Bush Sr. collapsing, that shouldn’t be front page news nor news that we see for hours at a time on the TV. Without beating a dead horse, where are the updates on our Hurricane Katrina victims?

What happened to real hip-hop; intelligent hip-hop? There isn’t anything wrong with songs that promote having fun and partying, but songs that talk about senseless murder, pimping, hoeing is dumbed down hip-hop. Where is the balance? Marvin Gaye, one of the greatest Soul singers of all time not only sang feel good songs like Sexual Healing and Lets Get It On, but also songs that made you question the system like What’s Goin’ On? Add Mercy Mercy Me and he is just one example out of many of his time that did the same. Might seem like a lame and overused argument, but the bottom line is, many artists today are one-sided, one-dimensional artists who are willing to not only dumb down there music, but dumb down themselves at the same time just to fit in and be successful.

I believe that dumbed down hip-hop is the opposite of real hip-hop. Real hip-hop is intelligent hip-hop, and real hip-hop artists and advocates are those individuals who aren’t afraid to step off the bandwagon and create their own path to greatness; those individuals who can see the fine print and question the system.

In order to improve the issue, it must start at the grass roots level, if artists don’t want to improve the condition of hip-hop, then the decision makers at the executive level will continue to have ultimate control of hip-hop’s future. Its time to stop talking about it, and be about it, real music comes from the soul.

Some believe that as long as they are selling a few MP3’s, a few CD’s and doing shows that hip-hop is alive and well. I disagree, hip-hop is still dying even if some are seeing bread and I will fight as long as I have breath in my lungs to see hip-hop well again, by staying true to the music that I produce and follow and calling out the dumb down cats in the game.

Dumbing down your music means dumbing down our communities, our educational system and way of life. Hip-hop is bigger than just your pockets, it’s the mother to the black community and I along with many other dedicated hip-hop artists are at her bedside doing all we can to bring her back to 100%.

NOTE: This article was written based upon the opinions of ScholarMan. ScholarMan does not guarantee that any statistics or references to news facts are 100% correct.

by Guest Author: ScholarMan
Copyright © 2007. C. Schmidt. All Rights Reserved.