I’m not sure why this makes me sad but the more that hip-hop becomes mainstream- not like MTV videos mainstream, but part of lots of different genres marketed toward lots of different groups- .. I feel really sad that it has evolved so far from its roots. and I feel like I don’t have a right to be sad about something like that, because a. that was inevitable, and b. that’s happened with like every form of music, not to mention entire cultures, that originated in minority groups or settings, or with rebellious connotations (at first). 

I don’t want to be prejudiced and believe that hip-hop is “only” for and by particular groups of people.. but maybe I have had that prejudice all along.

I went to a yoga class today and the woman, this older white Yogic southern-voiced who had a lot to say about Yogi stuff- was listening to Dead Prez

and it MADE ME SO UNCOMFORTABLE. and then she put on this song that was half Yogi type beats, and half rapping- and then my discomfort went away into sadness and I just felt like, this is it. hip hop isn’t just in the “process” of gentrifying like jazz and blues have, but it has happened, it’s sealed. 

but why does the idea of this music now being something by and for everyone make me sad? I guess I don’t know if it’s neccessarily more “democratic” now..

I just wonder what the next movement will be that gives hope and spirit to a lot of young people of color that then also gets robbed of its.. anti-authoritarian/ anti-the mainstream power.

that’s why I get sad.