Today [August 11, 2013] Marks the day that Hip-Hop Turns 40 years old! I am happy to see this day! My favorite genre of music has stood the test of time and has officially spanned 4 Decades!

Salute to DJ Kool Herc, who we all recognize as the man who originated hip-hop. His vision has turned into a multimillion dollar industry in the process of creating a few billionaires before hip-hop turns 50!

Disco, Jazz, Soul, Funk, Big Band, and Rock n’ Roll have all been fused together with poetry to create hip-hop music. For 40 years we have heard great stories of men and women who literally created something out of nothing and something within something else.

In 2013, hip-hop is still battling stigmas that its had since its conception. Some feel Rap still isn’t real music and only thugs listen to and support it and that all rap music is about drugs, murder and rape. Obviously those that really listen know its way more to it than that and it’s great to know that even 40 years later these false pretenses can’t take the music of the culture under!

Behind The Rhyme exist because I love hip-hop! It’s literally the music of my generation! This is the music I grew up on, listen to after I lost my virginity, went to prom, graduated high school and college to. I played hip-hop on the way to the hospital to see my daughter being born. It’s the music I have created. It’s the culture I want to work for. I truly live this! I hope it NEVER LEAVES!

CHEERS TO HIP-HOP! May we continue to get older, wiser, more diverse and more profitable! May it continue to change the world and the people in it. May the hate, envy and negative stereotypes leave so that it can continue to prosper and we continue to have OUR Aerosmiths, Eric Claptons, Mick Jaggers, Bob Dylans, Stevie Wonders etc. I thank guys like Quincy Jones, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Bob James, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson and James Brown who created great pieces of music that influenced hip-hop and also contributed to pushing it’s culture. Like many they may not have understood at the time but I thank them for letting the culture survive and not “pulling a Disco” on us.

Respect the OG’s man. Period. Hip-Hop is 40! That means some of the greatest rappers on EARTH are 40 plus! The Pioneers of this are in there 50’s maybe even 60’s now…THEY NEED RESPECT! NO MORE AGEISM IN HIP-HOP! We’ve already lost too many artist to have a “Motown 25” for Bad Boy and Death Row…Maybe Priority can do one or perhaps Rocafella. Let’s really have something to show the next generation, PLEASE!

Lets also respect the new cats coming up. You don’t have to love everyone and there music but give them a chance. We need more new school and different perspective if the music and culture are going to survive.

Today…let’s be nostalgic. Share a memory, write a rhyme, listen to the first 8-Track, Album, Cassette, CD or MP3 you ever bought. Tell us your favorite rapper, Who do you wish was still here? Who do you think will help carry the torch? What DJ’s are your favorite?

Whatever you do…do it for Hip-Hop! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HIP-HOP! HERE’S TO 40 MORE!