Hip hop is definitely not dead, so take that image with a grain of salt, but a lot of the trappings associated with its proliferation are passing. Yesterday I downloaded the newish Adult Swim Mixtape, ATL RMX and it is pretty, pretty, pretty good (you have to read that part Larry David style). The idea of the project is nothing new, but it’s worth thinking about briefly. The concept is simple: a big corporation pays some artists to take popular songs by other artists and remix the songs. My intrigue began because these are not typical combinations, and the final product is a total success. While El-P has been making great beats for ages, I doubt Jeezy has ever hit him up. While bloglin readers are probably well familiar with Memory Tapes I doubt Killer Mike has any Memory Tapes music on his iPod, yet here he is rapping on a dope Memory Tapes beat. The divisiveness here is not a measure of quality, but one of demographics, and surprisingly it’s being breached by a television network dedicated to animation.

In 2000, there is no way that El-P would have been remixing a Nelly song, so what happened between then and now? How is it that one of the Dukes of underground hip hop is remixing one of the Earls of world famous crack rap? Back in 2000—unbeknown to us—the divide between the underground and the mainstream, which had been building since the inception of the music industry, was beginning to crumble. The disappearance of this divide was largely due to 2 things: the proliferation of relatively inexpensive high-quality studio equipment, and the burgeoning P2P networks. Before that divide disappeared underground music and mainstream music were different in very real ways. If you made underground music you were most likely using cheaper equipment than people making mainstream music. These days, someone on your block probably has a setup comparable to Drumma Boy’s. And, you can download the newest Cam’Ron mixtape from the same megaupload server that hosts your coworkers band’s current album. Previously you’d probably have to go to 2 separate stores to buy El-P or Jeezy’s music.

Vs.

The music of the underground and the mainstream sounded different, was received by different audiences, and generally ascribed to different value systems. There were 2 distinct communities producing pop music. One of these had prominent exposure in mainstream media, and the other had prominent exposure on the College radio circuit. These markets/communities didn’t overlap at all. You’d have been hard-pressed to find a college radio station whose primary focus was top 40 tunes. And, vice-a-versa you’d be hard-pressed to find a top 40 station playing the newest Living Legends or Modest Mouse 12 inch. The division was simply a consequence of the way that the industry had developed up until that point.

That has all changed now, as the divide between mainstream and underground becomes less pronounced by the day. If you ask me, the concept of being underground or mainstream is no longer even relevant. While everyone may not have access to the same publicity, at this moment everyone has an equal capacity to create and distribute music. I’m glad, because we’re all going to be better for it. What we’re left with is a plethora of artists who are able to reach out to the public through a great deal of different outlets. Do a mixtape today, make an appearance on prime time television tomorrow, and collaborate with a regional star from a foreign Nation this weekend—the possibilities are vast, and the only limitations are the ones that artists impose on themselves. The music itself then spreads across the internet relying on many different cultural outlets that may or may not have a vested interest in the commercial success of said music. This is a pretty stark contrast in comparison to radio, as radio’s sole focus was music, and it’s sole intent was to ensure commercial success.

This Cartoon Network album just highlights how fruitful cross-market collaborations can be. Cartoon Network doesn’t put out records (they’ve dabbled in stuff like this in the past, but as a business they subsist on producing television programming), but they realize that they can brand themselves sincerely and give the public something to enjoy. We all win in the end: the artists get paid, the audience gets good music, and the companies bankrolling this stuff get to look cool. In the past stuff like this never worked, but it seems like our culture is in a better place for it now. Music ventures like this hint at how much unexplored territory is really out there—both musically, and from a business standpoint. The role of the artist has changed greatly, and it will continue to change in ways that most of us can’t imagine. I think 2010 is going to be a great year for music as we’ll begin to see a whole lot of cross-pollination that will produce some delectable strange fruits.

- Zachg