Neglectedsound’s Weblog

Can hip hop and commercialism go hand and hand? Will there always be this need for rebellion in hip hop? These are questions that “us” as golden era hip hop listeners have to address when we got hyped about Public Enemy criticizing Nike in “Shut Em Down” then cringed at the image of Rakim on Hennessey banners. Where is the line drawn? Well here comes another grey area on the line De La Soul the most innovative, creative never mainstream group of all time has linked with Nike’s Original R-U-N series to make an album, which is already available, for runners through Nike’s Sportmusic program. Is it something new and creative or is it tainted and other example of the mainstream taking from hip hop again to manipulate consumers? I am personally a huge De La fan so it was a little thrown off for me but if anybody can do this and stay true its De La and props to NIke for at least picking true school emcees to do this project when it could have easily went with a more today’s relevant artist. Tell me what you think about the collabo or the project..AbdulWaahid