Why Is There No “Classic” Hip Hop?

by Alan Light for MSN Music

 Let’s compare two recent sales charts in Billboard magazine. The “Top 200″ list of the week’s best-selling albums indicates that although hip-hop might not be quite as dominant a commercial force as it has been in recent years, things still look pretty healthy. Diddy, Jibbs, Ludacris and Lil Boosie (Li’ Boosie? Did I miss something?) are among the seven urban artists in the Top 25.

Turn back a few pages — or scroll a little further down the screen — and you’ll find the Pop Catalogue chart, which tracks sales of releases that have been out for at least two years. It’s not quite a typical week, because as soon as the calendar hits October, the onslaught of Christmas records starts taking over. Still, the list is mostly representative: rock icons (the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Doors), heartland favorites (Bob Seger, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd), some younger acts whose old albums are goosed by a new release (the Killers, Evanescence, Rascal Flatts).

Notice anything conspicuously absent from that Catalogue Top 25? Not one album by a hip-hop act. In fact, a closer look reveals not a single listing for a recording artist of color among these older releases. It’s a glaring distinction and reveals a longstanding split between rock and urban audiences. Rock listeners constantly look back, grounding themselves in the music’s history and core artists. Meanwhile, in practice if not in actual definition, hip-hop is about looking forward, with occasional glances to the side — trying to take the music into new directions, while keeping a clear sense of popular tastes and styles.

Consider the terminology: The radio format that plays the Beatles, the Stones, and Led Zeppelin is called “classic rock.” Classic — meaning timeless and eternal. The lunchtime or late-night radio shows that play Slick Rick, Run-D.M.C. or even Biggie Smalls, however, say that they celebrate the “old school.” Old meaning, well, old. Great, unforgettable, revolutionary, but still — old.

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