The Future of Hip Hop
Question: Where do you see hip-hop going?
Jay Smooth: I think we're looking out at a new frontier right now, as far as how anyone trying to express themselves creatively, or just deal in the realm of ideas as a journalist or a writer. How are you going to find a way to survive as an artist or creative person? I think we're all trying to figure that out. I think the Internet is going to provide ways for you to do that on a smaller scale and what a lot of us are hoping is that the era of people seeing hip-hop as a get rich quick scheme is going to fall by the wayside, and people who really have a deep commitment to creating art that connects with people are really going to be able to do more than ever on a smaller scale. You have the Seth Godin theory: as long as you have 2,000 loyal fans that's enough for you to subsist as a creative person or anyone with a public voice.
I'm hoping that, bit-by-bit, hip-hop is going to recognize that that's the way you can sustain yourself. I think a lot of things that the younger generation is doing, that we, as older hip-hop heads, look down upon, I see signs of hope in someone like Soulja Boy who musically, aesthetically, we hate; if you look at the model that he has established for how to connect directly with your audience, completely out of the mainstream and build a lasting relationship. He's far past being a one-hit wonder now. He's done it without any of the pretensions that major label rappers were offering to the public.
He doesn't have any of that gangster mythology. He's not pretending to be anything else but a regular kid who is connecting with regular kids out there through YouTube. He's built a franchise that doesn't show any signs of slowing down, much as we may not like the music. I feel like that's a model that a lot of us could look towards to know how to create art. There's no reason that this generation’s Public Enemy can't follow that Soulja Boy model and connect with people and recreate that success.
So I'm hoping that people who represent hip-hop in all the various subcultures around the world where hip-hop has blossomed and bloomed, I hope we can all see how new media gives us a chance to sustain ourselves and get ourselves out there.