I tell my friends and students, That's why they call it the underground because it's in fact buried. But there is an incredibly rich world of hip-hop that has been literally buried. But I think that there is no question that commercial hip-hop that is dead.

He obviously doesn't think it's entirely dead, or he wouldn't continue to labor there but he is concerned about it enough to put people on notice that it is in the ICU ward. When Nas said hip-hop is dead, it was really a way of making the statement I think that I'm making. The first line of your book is 'Hip hop is not dead, but it is gravely ill.' Why do you think that? Many people would say it died a long time ago. The rapper Nas released an album several years ago titled Hip Hop Is Dead. She spoke to TIME about how radio is killing hip-hop, why artists need to take more responsibility and what the music used to be like. In her new book, The Hip Hop Wars, Rose takes on all sides, arguing that fans and detractors alike have advanced illogical, dishonest and offensive arguments about why the genre is bad and why it's great. Follow University professor Tricia Rose wants you to know that no one is right about hip-hop.

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