1.) Hammer: Hip Hop artists and their listeners have changed throughout the years. In recent times an emphasis has been placed on the artist financial portfolio s. The new rebuttal to anything wack in our Hip Hop culture is “at least he got money though.” Morality, virtue, and integrity are voided from our society and it is reflected in today’s music. This doesn’t mean there is no great music or good artists out today; I’m just saying it is less importance being placed on content. More and more you hear artists call themselves CEO’s and bosses. You hear product placement, where artists are selling their rhymes to corporations for a mention of their product. You got artists who do more promoting of their “label” and artists on their label than you do of their own music.
This wasn’t how it was back in 1988 when MC Hammer released his first major label album called “Let’s get it Started.” Even though hip hop music started out as party music for the hood, it developed into an art form that dealt with political and social issues. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s which is deemed the “Golden Years” by some; you had groups like Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Geto Boys and NWA. There were other mainstream rap acts that had become popular before MC Hammer, like Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys and Kid-N-Play, but no one reached the level of success that MC Hammer did.