My man Mark, over at Hip Hop Hope Dealers (hiphophopedealers.com), and I worked on hip hop’s New Years resolution for 2011. This is just a short list to get things started, but there's much more that we can do to make sure hip hop continues to grow! Check it out:

Hip-Hop’s 2011 New Years Resolutions

• Rappers claim independence (i.e. Jay-Z with Roc Nation to avoid situations like Nas & Lupe)
• Show a variety of women in hip hop (Nicki Minaj had this year, now let’s get multiple perspectives)
• Increase intellectual stimulation (i.e. Lupe Fiasco’s book club)
• Make a conscious effort to apply the principles of Kwanzaa to the hip hop community
• (Facebook Suggestion) Eliminate the fictitious commercialism that hip hop has progressively adopted throughout the years and promote the personification of true, non-manufactured, unaltered hip hop in its truest form to enlighten the intellect deprived generation so they can be schooled in this art that has long since been forgotten within the facade of getting f*cked up and f*ckin’......its all love
• Make education cool
• Fans start buying music again
• Begin process of making hip hop music/culture sustainable (we need to protect what we have!)
• Kick the New Year off with some fresh, new music brought to you by Straight Outta Hip Hop and Hip Hop Hope Dealers by downloading the FREE mixtape “Commercial From Commercial” dropping tomorrow (January 1, 2011)!

Feel free to add to either list or create your own down in the comments section. The more active everybody is in building hip hop back up, the stronger it will become. Everybody have a safe New Year, and let’s get things kicked off right!

Peace.