With a week and half of being back on track and a flu like no other (the “El Nino” or Flu weather systems, if you will), I haven’t been up for the usual blogging insight to which you, dear reader, have become accustomed.

In any case, a while ago an editor of mine sent out a query for hip-hop story pitches. Seeing as to how my email was never returned, it looks like my stories aren’t being picked up, which – based on the magazine and my ideas – isn’t unsurprising or even very disappointing. At the same time, I’m still interested in these topics for future writing, if I ever get around to it, though I see little room for the kind of long-form journalism that is of interest to me these days. Removing any pertinent publication names, I’m pasting my original email to my editor for the sake of posterity and for tracking of rejected article topics. Bon appetite.

[Editor],

I hope you are doing well. I have a couple of hip-hop ideas for stories that would be longer than a typical profile:

Hip-Hop and the State of the Aging Artist: Basically, I’m interested in looking at how “the rap game” has changed. Hip-hop is legitimately old at this point, and Jeff Chang’s review of Jay-Z’s last album (for the Nation of all publications!) highlighted the way that Jigga has become an aging business mogul, out of touch with his listening audience. Granted, hip-hop is full of artificial bravado and grandstanding, Jay-Z’s lyrical content is about being well past his 20s and enjoying the life of a middle-aged man. Looking at other artists that are still working through popular hip-hop outlets (Common, De La Soul, Ghostface, god knows how many other artists), maybe now is the time for a reanalysis of hip-hop and what “the game” is all about. Is this a genre maturing or merely a few artists getting out of touch with the lyrical conventions that are required to hook an audience? [Editor], I realize this sounds academic, but I was hoping to write this as a roundtable with a couple of writers (Hopefully Jeff Chang since he talks about this issue directly) and a handful of artists and kind of see if a new definition of what hip-hop is comes out of the discussion.

Another idea I was interested in was the role of the guest spot on hip-hop albums these days. Look at El-P’s guests, they’re ridiculous (as much as I love the album): Cat Power? Yo La Tengo? Mars Volta?? Common is recording a song with Lily Allen? Saul Williams’ next record is produced by Trent Reznor? Timbaland with Fall Out Boy? I feel like the guest artist has become the equivalent of the iTunes celebrity playlist. These guests help define who the artists is more so than chosen beats or lyrical content. I’m thinking an article talking to a few artists (El-P, Common, maybe someone like MIA?) and a few sidebars illustrating how guest spots have changed over time?

Lastly, could we look at hip-hop’s political relevance today? 15 years ago (give or take) Ice Cube called rap Black America’s CNN. And though Dead Prez and the Coup still do the Dead Prez and Coup thing, who else is advocating for social and political change? Is anyone even listening? Again, a roundtable format seems most appropriate with sidebars looking at the history of social critique in hip-hop (Hell, Grandmaster Flash just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they started this whole thing with “The Message”).
 
I realize these articles sound conceptual, but I’d be happy to make them specific, if you’re interested. I’ve been trying to actively avoid the pitch yr favorite artist thing, and these are ideas I’m genuinely interested in at the moment.

Hope everything’s going well,
Etc…