I grew up with hip-hop the way a lot of us did in the car, in the house, at the cookout, on the radio during that long summer stretch when school was out.
RAP City on BET, reruns of Yo MTV Raps, The Arsenal Hall Show, In Living Color, New York Undercover, and All That were in constant rotation. My fellow Millennials know what I’m talking about
The talent, the grit, the hustle, the music that has lasted decades, is something I’ve felt has been missing in the music industry for years. So when I see what is happening to this culture right now, I am annoyed as a fan for all the icons who continue to produce music in a society that doesn’t pay respect to the artists who paved the way for the younger artists of this generation.
Hip-hop was always competitive. I am not romanticizing the past to the point of pretending otherwise. LL Cool J and Canibus went at it. Jay-Z and Nas gave us two of the greatest diss records the culture has ever produced. Those battles were earned. Both artists had catalogs. Both had something to prove artistically. When they stepped to each other, the stakes were about skill. Their fan base engages. Their legacy creates heat on demand.
Look at what happened when Jay-Z headlined the 2026 Roots Picnic on May 30 in Philadelphia. The man stepped on stage, new afro, The Roots behind him, and opened with a freestyle so layered and precise that fans are still dissecting it. His first major solo set in years was historic. And what did a section of the internet do? Call him old. Tell him to retire. Suggest he had no business still being on a stage. Jay-Z contributed to building the infrastructure (like so many other rappers before him) that gave today’s artists somewhere to stand. You do not get to use their blueprint and then dismiss them when they show up.
Oakland legend Too $hort broke it down plainly in a 2025 Billboard interview, and I want you to really sit with what he said. Too $hort is one of the only MCs in history to have worked with Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, and 2Pac. And he is the only rapper to have released albums across five separate decades.
“The ageism is biased on both ends,” Too $hort told Billboard.
“The older guys think that the younger guys aren’t skilled enough to be in their game, and the younger guys are like, ‘C’mon, OG! It’s my turn.'” He measures his longevity against B.B. King and The Temptations; artists who kept showing up and kept satisfying crowds because the music was just that good. That right there is the standard this genre should be holding itself to.
Somewhere along the way, paying homage stopped being a respectful and decent thing to do. And that is the real loss here.
LL Cool J is one of the culture’s most vocal defenders against disrespect toward older rap artists. While he has been involved in legendary rap beefs (most famously with Kool Moe Dee and Canibus), he has consistently pushed back when younger generations or commentators disrespect hip-hop pioneers. When media personality DJ Akademiks referred to older rap pioneers as “dusty” due to their financial status, LL publicly scolded him.
He argued that a musician’s cultural contribution should never be measured by their current bank account. LL has emphasized that no matter how popular or relevant newer artists are, they must always show reverence to the icons who laid the foundation of the genre.
I am not saying OGs are above critique. Nobody is. But there is a canyon-wide difference between honest artistic critique and using someone’s legacy as a ladder. And I think, if we are being real with ourselves as a culture, we know which one we are watching.
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Hip-hop survived being criminalized, co-opted, commercialized, and counted out more times than I can list. What it has never had to survive before is an entire generation treating its own elders as props.
So let me say it plainly. Put some respect on them. At a time when so many of our icons are passing one after the other, it’s great to see the OGs continue to be still active in the industry. There was a time in the music industry where artists were afforded the opportunity to evolve in their creativity well into their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Now with the algorithm, quick attention spans, TikTok trends, and the changes in how we consume music, it’s hard for veteran artists to have the kind of opportunities that were afforded to them back in the day.
