An Open Letter to Lauren Hill

Dear Miss Hill,
I know that you don't know me at all, but there is something I need to say to you.I am a 22 year old white male that grew up in a small town. I have grown up in a very exciting time for music. While the record industry is diminishing, the music industry is flourishing. Artists who desire to have a career with music no longer have to be one of the very few "lucky" artists picked by the label big wigs. Artists can work hard and find their way to the mainstream via the internet. While there is something majestic about "good old days" of music, the public is now able to experience a wide variety of sounds would otherwise have gone unheard. Artists are really able to use the breadth and width of their creative minds and have it heard by people on most continents. It is a very exciting time. Although I am really sad to see the decline of the cd, I think music is thriving more than ever.

However Miss Hill, there are some people out there would don't want to make creative music. Especially in the realm of Rap and Hip-Hop. I have been a fan of Rap and Hip-Hop for a while. My first taste of the genre came with Young Mc's album "Stone Cold Rhymin." As I continued to grow I learned to love the emotion and versatility of artists such as Tupac, Bone Thugs in Harmony, Outkast (Early Stuff),Wu-Tang Clan, and other artists of that nature. While Rap has always been victimized as "rotten music" and "bad for the kids", these early artists showed me how much this music has to offer. Yet, it wasn't until the past five years that I realized just how touching Hip-Hop can be. Albums such as Mos-Def's "Black on Both Sides", Talib Kweli's "The Beautiful Struggle", The Roots "Phrenology", and most importantly Lauren Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauren Hill." These are the albums I turn to when anyone tries to say rap/Hip-Hop isn't music. Your album set a bar in music all across the board that is nearly impossible to beat and have only heard a handful of artists that can tap into what you did on that album. Yet, I am not only hear to praise you, I am here to ask you something.

Once you left music you left a big hole in the hip hop community. While other powerful female artists such as Erykah Badu are certainly amazing, they cannot fill your shoes. This is really depressing because good artists are few and far between. Most rap/hip hop that is heard by kids today are from artists that are still on a mission to soley make money. Artists such as Flo-Rida and Souja-Boy create music that is more or less worthless. Sure some people just like a good beat, but aside from that this music has little reason to exist.

While your Unplugged album is another masterpiece, you haven't done anything since and I am asking you to come back. Come back and bring good hip hop back to kids ears. By the time I have kids I don't want the hip hop industry flooded by Flo-Ridas.
We need heart, we need soul, we need you.

No matter what you choose I will support you. I just wanted to let you know how much your music means to a 22 year old white kid. Thank you

Reid Volk