Traditionalist of Hip Hop might be putting some heat on me about this. But lets take a broad look into what has become. Popular music is essentially what Pop is. By air play, album sales as well as recently mobile downloads it is what that differentiates between popular music and the not so popular.

Hip Hop today as we know it is no longer the East Side / West Side issue. In fact it has taken a form where it stands globally and is near to infinite amount of perspective. How far has Hip Hop traveled and being embraced? It exists in almost every continent. There is Hip Hop in Ukraine, Israel, Middle East, Whole of Europe and is seriously catching on in Asia.

Pop culture is popular culture. Thus the culture of Hip Hop slowly seeped into the mainstream. It is either you realize it or you don’t. Where would Nike and Adidas be without Hip Hop? Nike is American but Adidas is German. That does tell a tale that Hip Hop does travel far and wide.

Music wise it would be hard to deny that Pop has taken Hip Hop to form some of it’s core sounds. Timbaland did it for Timberlake and so did Will I Am for the Pussycat Dolls and Fergie. There are plenty more producers that took the opportunity in Pop to infuse Hip Hop with. Who can fault that since the formula is proven to work.

To some extent I cant deny that Hip Hop is the new Pop. However look at it this way….Pop will never be the new Hip Hop. Because Hip Hop is a way of expression and not entirely based on popularity. If it ever comes to that then we may see TI on the cover of Vanity Fair dressed in couture that could make animals extinct.

This is Malaysia and the definition of Pop is too centered upon Malay songs. While good English Music no matter how good it is will never be categorized as Pop. Politics? You bet. I am happy for one thing, Hip Hop in this country will never bow down to allow Pop to poop on it’s face. It will always be rappers writing their own lyrics and getting credits for them no matter how big the Pop star they are collaborating with while Pop stars are merely popular as what the big weeds want to make them be. So Hip Hop are the Better Pop Stars because they are poets, singers and entertainers all in one go. So…what is AF again?