Remember hearing your favorite song and letting it take you to a happy place in your childhood, or just simply make you dance?

Or how about hearing older people saying, “you don’t know nothing about this…THIS is good music, not that crap you listen to now.”

Yea, we all hear it. And it’s sad to know that our music today will not have the same effect on our kids, nor will we be able to tell our kids “this is good music.”

Luckily, we did get to feel the wrath of quality music from the 90’s into the early 2000’s, but it pretty much stopped there. You will find a wide range of music on my iTunes.

So, I like to believe I have a good ear for classic music.

But I want to talk about the two genres that I have watched die in flames: Hip-Hop/Rap and RnB.

I’ll discuss RnB in a future column.

For now, let’s talk hip-hop. Hip-hop music has evolved into a marketable brand that has diminished the talent and art of poetic harmony.

Rappers should be lyricists, not just hook geniuses. Rap initially used its spiritual influence to educate its listeners and send a motivating message.

Today the message and the motive is getting money and sleeping with as many women possible.

Rappers are always claiming to be the best, but no one is even battling for the throne anymore.

Before album sales, the only ammunition you had to fight with was your rhymes.

Rappers like Eminem and Nas started off as battle rappers and could actually go in the ring and run laps around these new artists today.

Tupac, I’m sure, is turning in his grave.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing talents that roam the hip-hop spectrum.

I’m specifically speaking of the club-bang dominators like 2 Chains, Kevin Gates and Chief Keef.

Sure, the intellect of a rapper is supposed to make you think, but when you out right can’t understand what the heck it is the artist is saying, there’s a problem.

We’ve seen artists like Nicki Minaj and Kanye West give into the world of mainstream. Their new music isn’t considered hip-hop anymore, it’s just radio pop.

Have you listened to Kanye West’s last album? If not, you are not missing out on anything spectacular.

I blame his downward spiral on Kim Kardashian. He’s still in my Top five favorite rappers, but he’s on probation.

Hip-hop isn’t dead yet, but it is on life support waiting for the plug to be pulled by music lovers like myself.

Maybe I need to release a track and show them how the game goes. Then again, you all aren’t ready. But that will be pulling the plug and we don’t need that. But if anyone can do it, so can I. And it’s that exact cycle that is corrupting our music.