The state of the rap union at the 2023 BET Hip-Hop Awards

(L-R) Marley Marl, Technician the DJ, Kid Capri, Swizz Beatz, DJ Spinderella, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Fat Joe, DJ Holiday, DJ Drama, Timbaland and Kool DJ Red Alert accept award onstage during the BET Hip-Hop Awards 2023 on October 03, 2023 in Atlanta, Ga.

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The red carpet at the annual BET Hip-Hop Awards was a curious shade of green this year: money green. It was fitting for the occasion, because nothing comes close to distilling hip-hop’s evolution over the last 50 years more than the color of cash.

I made it a point to attend the taping of this year’s show, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, because I wanted to see something you can’t always discern by watching the show on TV. I wanted to see how hip-hop is living. “How you livin’?” is a question you don’t hear resonating within the culture as much as it once did. We never posed the question to peers literally back in the golden era, either. But now, 50 years in, it seems we’ve reached a point where the question is less rhetorical and more to the point: Like, Yo, how are you still alive and kickin’, my triple OG? Straight up.

According to Billboard, the music industry magazine that celebrated its own 125th anniversary in 2019, hip-hop’s popularity is on the decline in 2023. It’s far from kicking the bucket, but genre forecasters have been hand-wringing like a mug. By mid-year, the magazine noted that no rap albums or singles had topped the Billboard Hot 100 or 200 charts, respectively — something that hasn’t happened since 1993.

“Yikes, we gotta do better, hip-hop,” DJ Drama told me while walking the carpet before the show. “Country…