Death is so common in hip-hop now that we don't even take time to mourn the deceased. The sudden departure of the BET Hip Hop Awards (HHA) from cable television was announced last month and it garnered nary a hashtag nor R.I.P trending topic anywhere on Elon Musk's internet. Maybe rap is feeling so revitalized, with the likes of the Clipse, Freddie Gibbs, JID and Chance the Rapper competing this year for top billing, that we no longer need awards and industry accolades to measure the culture's worth?

Or maybe rap is no longer pop enough to pay the bills?

Apparently, the show's TV ratings had been on the decline. The year after celebrating hip-hop's golden anniversary in 2023, the show's annual viewership fell off a steep cliff — down nearly 50% in 2024. The network hasn't pulled the plug

See Full Page