The Year-Ending Blog Post That You Probably Saw Coming

I started Hip Hop Isn't Dead back in 2007, partly as a means to discuss hip hop and expose people that may only be accustomed to the shit that is played on the radio, but mainly to satisfy my need to write while slowly working on by screenplays and short stories. I never anticipated the level of commentary I would receive on by posts, whether they be positive or negative, so I just want to thank every one of my two readers for looking out for the blog, and hanging in there during the unexplained hiatuses, which I cannot promise won't happen again (I'm just sayin').

I also want to give a shout to the pages listed on the side; either they are blogs with some written content that is consistently fascinating to read (like Poisonous Paragraphs, Treebeats, Wake Your Daughter Up, From Da Bricks, Hip Hop Is Read, or When They Reminisce), newer blogs that I just discovered but should make waves in the new year (Metal Lungies, Lyrics To Go, and Revamped, Refreshed, Let's Start Over, for starters), or people that just throw up random albums but were nice enough to include me on their blogrolls, so I returned the favor. Hopefully people that were bored while bootlegging their shit clicked on my link and were amused for at least a minute or two.

Special shout out to the folks at Ultimate Wu, a blog that is so packed with posts that it's almost fucking impossible to actually write a new blog telling the visitors about the Wu posts that appear here infrequently (seriously, it is a bitch to post anything over there now, but maybe that's a testament to the sheer number of Wu-Tang stuff that they have and you didn't know existed). Extra special thanks to anyone who actually clicked over to read the reviews and leave comments, either on my blog or the Wu blog, whether they were positive or of the "fuck you, your opinion means shit" variety.

I mentioned this before, but it warrants repeating: I added on the artist search engine on the side, so hopefully it'll be easier for everyone to discover that write-up on MC Paul Barman's EP that I wrote about waaaay back in the day. And while on the subject, while labeling everything I noticed that there were a LOT of write-ups that may not have ever been read from the early days (some may chalk this up to nobody really caring about the albums I critiqued, but I don't think it's possible that absolutely nobody had anything to say about the Black Star album, or the first Common CD, or even the earlier Shawn Carter discs), so be sure to click on those and enjoy if you haven't seen them before. Hopefully in the new year I'll be able to keep all of my two readers happy with the level of output. As I mentioned above, there will probably be more times when I'm not able to post anything for days at a time, so hopefully I don't lose any more readers than I already have. I would expect more of the same in 2008, meaning more reviews of CDs you either should or shouldn't listen to, accompanied by the usual smart-ass commentary. Some may question the Timbaland review that was posted before this one (as in, "What the fuck are you writing about that CD for?"), but you can't ignore the mainstream just because you feel like it; I mean, we're all exposed to this crap on a daily basis, so I believe people need help distinguishing between the good stuff and the utter shit. Hopefully, though, I'll be getting further down into the nitty gritty and pull some albums out that deserve both accolades and better record sales.

I plan on starting up some new discographies, including one for a group that, if everything goes well, should begin on January 1, 2008. I'm going to let that one be a surprise to you, but longtime readers of my blog should be able to figure it out. There are also a ton of discs that I promised I would write-up at various times throughout the year, but always conveniently found myself busy when the time came (Stillmatic comes to mind, as does the second Cormega album), so I'll be playing some catch-up as well.

Also in 2008: more italics!

Well, I'm off. Feel free to use the comments section to leave suggestions, requests, death threats, and what have you, and hopefully I'll see you two in the new year. Happy Holidays!

-Max