50 'til Forever: Hip-Hop Has Come of Age, But Too Many of Its Stars Have Not

Hip-Hop turned 50 last week. Which was amazing! I’ve loved hip-hop music and culture since Rapper’s Delight, and I still listen to hip-hop today — new, old, and the “golden era” of the 90s/early 2000s. Because of this, I was more than excited to attend the incredible hip-hop show produced by Mass Appeal and Live Nation on Friday, headlined by Run-DMC and Nas. It was a historic night, full of amazing performances and special guests. Even though it kept all of us old heads up past our bedtimes (the show didn’t end until about 10 minutes to 2 a.m.), it was worth it. Bad knees and hips from standing for seven-and-a-half hours and all.

But for all the thrills (Kid Capri! Trina! T.I.! Lil Kim! Snoop Dogg! Crazylegs! Is that Too Short doing “Blow the Whistle?!”), there was one, pausing chill that ran through portions of the show and that was of what we’ve lost in hip-hop in recent years.

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The most despairing moment out of the incredible show at Bronx's Yankee Stadium last Friday happened when I was in line waiting to get in. I was joking with another woman around my age about what the hip-hop shows will look like for those in Gen Z when they hit their late 30s, 40s, and 50s and she said, "There won't be any. Their people keep dying."

Then, during one of the DJ sets, they played tribute to all the rappers and hip-hop artists who have died in the last 10 or so years and the alarming number of young rappers who died either just as their star was rising or after they’d “made it.” Most were killed by gun violence or drugs, which was appalling. The names Pop Smoke, Mac Miller, PnB Rock, Juice WRLD, Takeoff, Nipsey Hussle, and Young Dolph flashed by in a scroll that went on for an uncomfortable amount of time with even more names, some of whom I’d never even heard their music. Most featured in the tribute never even got to see anything close to the level of success those more established artists performing that night had achieved.

It made me pretty sad on an otherwise incredible trip down memory lane with the likes of Lil Wayne, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Ghostface, Method Man, Fat Joe, and Remy Ma.

While rappers did get killed or tragically die young when I was coming up, it was nowhere near as crazy as it is now, which is wild to say since I lived through the 90s when GOATs Biggie and Tupac died senselessly while others went to prison and, as it seems, nothing has been learned from it.

A shame.

Young rappers should get to grow old just like Rev. Run and DMC, happily performing their hits one last time for a packed crowd. And Black men, whose No. 1 killer is "homicide" for those younger than 45, should get to make it to ripe old age. And all Black people should get to celebrate each other without worrying about what dire fate will befall those they love.

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