>I wanted to be a journalist in my younger years, and that's
>what my undergraduate degree is in - so I understand where
>he's coming from as far as the research aspect and
>establishment of full, linear, substantiated timelines when it
>comes to reporting on hip-hop and understanding its context in
>2019.
>
>However, what I think it has and still suffers from is two
>fold and brings us where we are:
>
>1. Hip-hop was never expected to survive. It was thought of as
>a fad - even by black radio and media outlets who should have
>been the torchbearers, so there was no concerted effort to say
>"Hey, let's preserve this. We might need it later." History
>was being made right under people's noses, and they thought it
>might have been cool for the moment, but ultimately
>disposable.
>

Although that is true from early on there were some people in academia and even outside (Krs) trying to chronicle it. When I was at Upenn a professor named Doc Perkins tried to initiate a Hip Hop Library. Not sure what happened but we DO now have one at Harvard that Nas, 9th, Lupe and 15 all have relationships with. From what I see the current problem is that there is not someone there (like Dart) to do the meticulous dirty work of just archiving EVERYTHING.

>2. Because of that supposed disposable nature, it was
>commoditized quickly and it the thought was "How much can we
>get out of it quickly?" of course, there was an era of
>thoughtful journalism/varied musical lanes as Dart mentions,
>but outlets like MTV, BET, and now moving to blogs and the
>internet era haven't been able to strike a balance between
>making money and providing quality, contextual content. Or
>maybe it's something the market at large (especially now) just
>isn't looking for.

It is crazy to me that Viacom doesn't have easily accessed archives for MTV & BET but I am sure tapes are somewhere.

>
>Either way, great episode. I've been listening since you
>introduced it. Looking forward to more.
>

Thanks again for tuning in!