The Atlantic Debates Hip-Hop

No, I can't believe I wrote that headline either. Still, this dialogue between Alyssa Rosenberg, Gautham Nagesh and Hua Hsu fits perfectly into our discussion yesterday. I considered jumping in myself, but thought better of it--the only hip-hop I'm listening to these days is Doom and the occasional Ghost. I'm basically done with the music for reasons I haven't yet figured out. And if you're done, you kind of give up all right to make big pronouncements about its future. Still, this line from Alyssa made the old man in me proud:

Jay-Z's still rapping, but hearing him rhyme "My president is black / My Maybach, too / And I'll be goddamned if my diamonds ain't blue" on his cover of a Young Jeezy track celebrating Obama's inauguration in the middle of an economic downturn just depressed me.

I actually love that line, but I take the point.