What killed conscious rap?

[Edgar Erebus]

Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Brand Nubian... In late 80's and early 90's they ruled the hip-hop scene. Then they disappeared. Why did this kind of hip-hop die so suddenly, and why it didn't appear on the surface never again?

Quoting KRS-One: "Lyrical syllables interlock in my voicebox / Yet I'm still unknown like the X on Sadat..."

[the funky drunk]

aint shit killed , the reason u aint findin it no more , is coz muthafuckers stopped takin time to look for it

[P-Noid Brown]

not only that funky but when u got quazi homosexual emcees "braggin" about their possesions and what they could be doing with their time. rather than making real music, they rather rhyme symplistic words with no actually thought behind it. Music is supposed to have a message, The message now-a-days is 90% of hip-hop is party and bullshit.

[whitey]

it started turning into a business. dudes were saying something in their raps because it needed to be said. then they saw a profit could be made out of it and down sunk the ship.

[King Justice]

These lyrics seem perfect for the theme of this thread

"In extra long verses hundred bars the lim’
The percentage of the truth in the rhyme is one tenth
A solid mass of minerals, easily broke down
Hard rock MC’s ya nothin but compound
Sparked by the endless greed of CEO’s
in the videos with those questionable flows"

This is the reason the call HIM THE GENIUS

[HANZO]

soceities gettin dumber, no one wants to listen to concious rap its too complex for them. because they want to live the so-called high life with all the bling and chrome they get fooled to listening to the rap we have today. There are too many people dreaming of that life, people who cant face reality. The more they listen to this so-called rap bullshit the dumber they get.
concious rap is finished only a few will listen to it.

[diesel]

the white man (devil) destroyed hiphop because they saw it as a way blacks were becming smarter and spreading knowledge they want to keep people dumb deaf and blind thats why you have to ressurrect theyre minds

[King Justice]

soceities gettin dumber, no one wants to listen to concious rap its too complex for them. because they want to live the so-called high life with all the bling and chrome they get fooled to listening to the rap we have today. There are too many people dreaming of that life, people who cant face reality. The more they listen to this so-called rap bullshit the dumber they get.
concious rap is finished only a few will listen to it.

Yeah, as those 90% who are blind, deaf, dumb who wanna listen to tha bullshit and the small percent who know its bullshit and still listen
All of us make up part of that percentage of the enlightened people who listen to the intelligence with a conscious mind

definition of conscious Mentally perceptive or alert; awake

[Funk_Dock]

this has nuttin to do with race dont start that shit...

from my point of view (although im sure there are more reasons) i think that labels wanted artists that would appeal to the public more, so instead of mcs makin one or two commercial songs on their album which is necessary, they create an album completely focused on reachin the pop charts

then nobody took notice of conscious rap except for the true listener

[King Justice]

^ yeah very true like Wu Tang, I was readin this interview that they did wit U-God and thats the shit he was sayin hes like they wanted us to be mainstream and thats not who we are, He also said that thats why that didn't play the Clan on the radio because they was using Knowledge in their shit and they was wakin to many people up to real Hip Hop

it ain't about race

[GENERAL WISE]

When faggit punk rock music took it over.
and 50 cents "i AM A G FROM THE STREETS (Not the 2pac way{Dear Mama" image.

[MaShPG]

Ok, we've established what's wrong with Hip Hop nowadays and why it was better in the Golden Age. Can we please move on and stop making 3 threads a day realizing that Hip Hop isn't how it used to be? Quit focusing on the past and focus on the present ya'll. If you think Hip Hop is dead then leave it alone. You backpackaz need to stop talking about it and just be about it.

[brown_dogg]

People change, and hiphop changes with it. Society became more materialistic, so it was just natural for hiphop to follow along with it.

[poop one]

money.

[tajeco]

money.

that's what I was gonna say too.

RZA said something in a 1997 interview about how "the world wants to dance, so they listen to Puffy, but when people want to take a look at themselves, and think, they pop in that Wu-Tang cd." (not a direct quote). So now, since 85% of society are dumb, deaf, and blind, Wu-Tang is waaay over their heads.