Welcome everyone to the HHLO.net blog in our MOLI.com
community. I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself and the site to you
all. I’m Jen, the Founder and Co-CEO of Hip Hop Lives, LLP. Exactly one year ago this week, I created this company. Why? To battle the monotony and “labelism”
of the Hip Hop sites out there. We started with no connections what-so-ever to the industry. No “ins,” no label backing and just love for the Hip Hop culture.

But on to the subject at hand, last night I was debating how to start the blog, how to kick it off with a bang. Also how to not seem more like an editorial, just a way to open up some dialog between Hip Hop fans
alike. So I thought I would start off in traditional “Jen” fashion as my friends call it, and start a great debate!

In our exclusive interview with Prodigy of Mobb Deep from behind the walls of prison, Ei8ht asked him a question about the music industry
this day and age. Prodigy replied “The way the music industry is right now yougot to expect that, their trying to destroy black music, their trying to really destroy rap music. So you got companies promoting that slogan “Hip Hop is dead” and they got puppets like Nas out there promoting that bullshit.”

It got me thinking about the state of Hip Hop. Hip Hop is very much alive, in people like you and me, (yes even me). The person who’s reading this and saying Hip Hop is dead forgets two very important things. The
first Hip Hop is not only music, it’s a culture. It encompasses everything from poetry to urban clothing to Pop Locking and art. It spans generations, oceans and ethnic barriers. Hip Hop is more than just the music and the artists that represent the culture.

Read it all…