DJ Grain: The Past Decade As I See It

As this 1st decade of the 2000′s comes to a close hip hop has experienced many things and has taken on many different faces and the following things stand out to me:

Check for the rest of the article after the jump

-Autotune made a dramatic comeback, but became severely over used.

-There has been a major shift in the hip-hop world from the North to the South.

-CD’s sales dropped by a record amount putting the hurt on the record industry, due to the rise of internet downloading.

-The reign of BMF over Atlanta. (Never in my life have I ever seen a record label that has billboards next to major highways or seen a rap crew that could shut down a club and leave the entire of the floor covered in so much money you could not see the carpet/floor. (Their money some folks through college and helped a lot of folks pay bills)

-Skinny jeans  gained popularity in the hip hop world.

-Mohawks became a part of the urban culture.

-The internet has allowed producers and MC’s from around the world to work on entire projects without being in the same studio or even talking, except through email. (Foreign Exchange – Nicolay and Phonte)

-DJ’s have went from being able to scratch on not only vinyl, but now you can scratch using CD’s and mp3′s.

-Blogs have taken their place as a valuable marketing tool that can heavily influence the success or failure of an artist.

-America elected its first African American president Barak Obama.

-The downturn of the economy has caused job losses that have not been seen in decades.  The record labels were severely hit and most of the labels now are running with a skeleton staff.

-Beef reached an all time high (T.I. vs Lil Flip, Lil Flip vs All of Houston, Nas vs Jay-z, Young Jeezy vs Gucci Mane, 50 Cent vs Ja Rule, 50 Cent vs All of NY, and countless others)

-Within hip hop serveral genres were created. (Hyphy- West Coast & Snap Music (South))

-We lost many legends over the past decade Pimp C, Jam Master Jay, DJ AM, Grandmaster DJ Roc Raida, DJ Mr. Magic, Michael Jackson, J Dilla, Proof, James Brown, Lou Rawls, and more more.  My prayers are to all who lost a love one over the past decade, it has been a rough one.

-Wu-Tang Clan dissolved and reunited.

-Dipset is no more.

Feel free to comment on anything that I may have left off my list.

5 Predictions for 2010

1.  New York rappers will slowly begin to unite. (50 Cent has starting to reaching out to several rappers he had beef with)

2.  Record labels will continue to fail unless they completely change their business model.

3.  T.I., will regain the crown in the ATL

4.  Dr. Dre’s Detox will finally drop as well as Big Boi’s Sir Luscious Left Foot.

5.  Shyne will return to the game, and make some serious noise with a few mixtapes that will drop in 2010.

Fav MC’s from 2009

Ilyas of Tanya Morgan

Jermiside

K. Sidney

K. Sparks

Cee

Fav Producers from 2009

K. Murdock

G.C.

Brickbeats

Exile

Khyrsis

There are so many good MC’s and producer’s to choose from I could not list them all.

Final Thoughts

This has been a tough year for a lot of folks, we lost a lot of hip hop greats, our country is at war, and people are losing jobs.  I wish everyone much success and prosperity in 2010, and leave all the madness behind and look to the future.

Everyone be safe out there for New Years and for our fans around the world that are in the future Happy New Year to you.

I will holla at ya’ll in 2010 and expect things from HipNott Records, KevinNottingham.com, The Movement Fam, and myself.