Habituality.

It's all the same, whether it's drugs or eating or shopping or sex or love or gambling. I'm talking about addiction. If "addiction" is too strong a word for you then we can use "unhealthy habits".

Everyone has some bad habits, but most of us don't let them affect the rest of our lives. That's when it becomes a problem, when we know something is no good for us yet we continue to do it anyway. That's where it goes from innocent fun to delinquency. Some examples:

Drugs: It always starts recreationally doesn't it? You're out partying with your friends so you smoke a little pot, snort a line or two, pop a couple pills. That's all well and good until you can't go to the store until you smoke a bowl. You can't finish your day without that stiff drink. You can't get out of bed until you take that Percocet just to get you going. You convince yourself that you NEED that joint to fall asleep. You really think your back hurts. You start buying beer just to wash down the coke drips.

Eating: Food is nourishment, life, energy, an absolute need. There's such an emotional tie to food. If you're happy you want to eat to celebrate. If you're sad you wanna eat to feel better. Then you get so used to eating all the time, your body thinks it's hungry just because your taste buds aren't stimulated. There's so much risk involved: heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, you name it.

Love: People get so addicted to people. I know it sounds funny but there's immense comfort in familiarity. We're hard wired with the concept of needing a partner. And that's all well and good when the other person is giving as much as their taking. But when our partner is emotionally and/or physically harming us, is it worth it? People will let other parts of their lives fall the wayside in the pursuit of loving someone and being loved. It's so bad to let your own love (which very much could be just a mask of familiarity and this intense desire to not be alone in the world) cloud what could be potentially harmful.

This begs the question: How do I overcome these obstacles? I have the fool proof plan! I know, I know, easier said than done yet it can be done!

1. Acknowledge the Problem

You need to really look at yourself and the problem and categorize it. What benefits are you gaining from these activities? What detriments? Accept that it's an issue.

2. Commit to Change

Once you've acknowledged that it IS an issue, you really need to convince yourself that fixing it is the only option. Remind yourself that you DO deserve the best life has to offer and keep telling yourself that failure is not acceptable.

3. Break the Habit

That's the hard part. It won't come easy at first but it gets easier through time. Once you know what's wrong and then convince yourself that's it time for a life change, then you have to do it. Stand your ground, refuse to be compromised, cut out the bad influence and embrace the new you. You're golden, platinum even, and every step you take can reinforce that.

Like Beanie Sigel paraphrases the old adage in his song 'Can You Feel It?': Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll still be amongst those stars.

How do you solve a problem like Hip Hop?

"If every thing's commercial, where the fuck's the show at?"

Joe Buddens from "Who Killed Hip Hop?"

"The game got cheaper, rappers is more commercially successful now but the heart's a lot weaker"

Jadakiss from "Letter to BIG"

I have a wide range of music that I love. From AC⚡DC (the original gangsters of Rock) and Led Zeppelin to Nirvana and Pearl Jam to Pantera and Megadeth to Green Day. But Hip Hop is dearest to my heart.

Take a listen to 96.5 FM or 98.9 or 100.3 or 103.9 (the so-called Hip Hop and R&B stations here in Philly) and you'll notice something, You'll notice how few songs they actually play (maybe 30 different songs all day!). You'll also notice how few of those 30 songs are actually Rap songs.

Just to clarify, Hip Hop is a culture, Rap is the music of this culture. While it's fine to call Rap music Hip Hop, saying they are different genres is ridiculous and outright incorrect. I don't care what anyone says, it's just not true.

Back to the problem at hand. What we're hearing on the radio and seeing in the videos is not Rap! If you sing the whole song, then you're not a rapper! Yeah, I'm looking at you Lil Wayne. I'm looking at you Kanye. At least T-Pain knows he's a singer.

Speaking of those guys, Autotune (or as Joe Buddens calls it "that funny voice shit") was meant to be a tool to correct the pitch of a singer when they made a minor mistake. While I'm all for doing something new and different, when everyone is doing it, it's no longer new or different. It's fucking annoying. And not creative. And repetitive. And nauseating. And again to be as clear as I can: You guys are sweating an effect that Cher brought out! She wasn't the first to use Autotune but her song "Do you Believe?" was the first to purposely crank the settings for that robotic sound. How gay is that?

"808" is short for TS-808. The TS-808 was a hardware drum synth, and has moved into the digital world as every Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) worth it's salt has a digital version of this piece. The drum sounds aren't great, I'd even say they suck. But it's a synth, so you can change the sounds in almost innumerable ways. Why on earth is everyone using the default sounds in almost every song? The default bass drum sound is so high pitched and short it's almost a snare. Honestly, I have snare drum sounds pitched deeper than the standard 808 kick! Bass sounds should thump not pop. Snares should pop. It takes all the depth of the song away if there's not any low frequencies to balance the spectrum.

The music industry is wondering why record sales are dropping. The radio is jamming us full of the same songs so we barely even know what else is out there. We get trained to not like the music that doesn't follow the formula. Why is there more Hook in a song and less Verse? Does anyone want to think about what a rapper is saying or do they just wanna dance to a stupefied chorus?

If the labels sign artists who break the mold, and actually promote them, and the radio would get some balls and play those artists, we could have a whole new feeling in the industry. And sales would start rising again.

Really, I don't care what it is your rapping about. I just want you to do it with some skill, some complex rhyme schemes, clever comparison, to the rhythm, differently than the last guy, and find a way to get it into my hands. Until then I won't be buying your albums. I'll be going to mixtapetorrent.com and downloading, freely and legally, music from artists who want to actually Rap. Then I'll go to www.LogikBombsRadio.com and listen to free streaming Hip Hop and R&B, with no commercials and all kinds of artists, from unsigned to commercial, with one common thread: Talent. Because if you have to follow the industry's formula to brainwash the masses into thinking you're good, then you aren't really, are you?