Hip Hop is in a downward spiral, and has been for quite sometime now. We all know it. We can feel it. The passion. The heart and soul of our culture: the essence. All of the elements that helped to make our culture unique are rapidly becoming extinct. It seems we've replaced quality with quantity. We've replaced that which is unseen....with things that are easily attained and replaced. The value that once existed in Rap music is being exchanged with the value of money: not even close to a fair trade. Fact is, we can only blame ourselves for what will be the greatest tragedy in our generation. We are destroying our own culture: Hip Hop....from the artists who write without a true passion for the art, to the listeners who allow themselves to be brainwashed by what they hear. As listeners, we accept the insult of our own intelligence by supporting the trash that's presented to us. As artists, we're selling our souls to those who aim to control our culture-in exchange for riches and fame. We were once the answer to our own dilemma...we are now the problem. Of course, who really cares, right? It's "just music". We're all about "gettin' ours-makin' money-livin' the American dream". Yet, we stroll through life with our selfish motives without realizing- Hip Hop is the MOST influential genre of music in the world. Everything is affected by our culture. EVERYTHING. Nevertheless....it's just music.....right?. Think of the generation that will come after us: Are we leaving them anything? Do we even care about how this is affecting our community, our self respect, our own generation-and those to come? No...we don't. We live and move by this "Get Mine" mentality as if nothing else matters anymore. That's not how Hip Hop started. It was actually established to fight against that type of mentality...not to glorify it. It was created by rebels who dared to be different. It was created by those who realized they were unique for a reason, and they used Hip-Hop as a conduit-not only to express their uniqueness....but to celebrate it. It was built on rebellion-against the "status quot" of what people thought we should be. It allowed us to finally have a voice in our own communities: to speak things that would convey our thoughts, our lives, our dreams, our fears, our triumphs, our tragedies, and our emotions. They wrote from the heart. Now, we use words to fill the emptiness in our pockets. We sell words...which isn't that much different from selling cocaine. It still corrupts our lives, our culture, our communities, and our music. We are about to blow it. It seems that "Era" is non-existent. It seems all that's left is a Genre filled with dead men and lost souls- who attempt to entice us with Marketable Looks and Mystical Lyrics. It seems the "Era" is dead. However..nothing is as it seems. The "Era" is being resurrected, rejuvenated, replenished....reborn. It's something that's much needed right now. Even though it seems it's been a long time coming, (quite frankly) it couldn't have come at a better time. You are about to witness the rebirth of an Era. Together, we can reclaim what was made for us. Welcome to "The New Era". Timothy