What's your opinion on the current state of Hip-Hop music?
The hiphop culture is and will always remain beautiful as a whole, no matter what people may say. Hiphop isn't all about rap, after all. Surely MCs have been part of the culture since the early beginning, but simply because they're not doing too good definitely doesn't mean that the hiphop culture is "dying". There are still DJs, B-boys and b-girls, and graph artists spreading the love. When I go to battles and I see a few hundred bboys and bgirls all having fun, doing what they love and jammin' to some old tunes, it definitely warms my heart. Belgium is such a small country, and hiphop is definitely still present today, more than ever. So I can imagine the place of hiphop's birth and many other countries still reach out to the old days and rep the culture for the sake of being part of it.
Hiphop today definitely isn't dead, and it's not going to die in a long, long time. :)
Do you believe that the genre is dying as a whole?
"The genre"? Well, no.
In case you're actually refering to rap, I'm going to say the following; Many rap artists from way back in the day were so far ahead of their own time with their lyricism and their political views that many of those got passed on to the next generation of rap artists. Surely not to most that appear on the radio nowadays, but actually to our very own children. It's many artists' dream to become famous, but fame isn't what makes you a good singer / dancer / rapper. In Belgium alone there are at least more than a hundred bands, or individual artists in each state that never appear on the radio, but still make extraordinarily great music. With great lyrics, amazingly scratched instrumentals and all the good stuff from way back in the days. Again, I'm using Belgium as an example, but there are so many more countries that are so much bigger and have even more potentially amazing artists. And to be fairly honest, not all rap artists that appear in front of the commercial crowd are crap. Look at Macklemore, Kendrick, Joey,..
Hiphop, in my opinion, is like a Phoenix. When all signs of the end are near, it will burst into flames and it will rise as a young, tiny bird from its own ashes. Hiphop can't die. Every generation will give birth to many more legends in the making. It's up to US however, to teach that generation its values and show them the beauty of what hiphop's all about.
Who are your favorite Rappers of all time?
Nas, Biggie, N.W.A, and Tupac are all very good, and I play their tracks from time to time when I'm in a good mood and just want to kick back and relax.. But my favourite rappers of all time are definitely:
Mos Def, Lowkey, Mic Righteous, the Wu-Tang (every individual), AoTP, the Fu-Schnickens, Bliss n Eso, Eyedea, Slug and Jay-Z (the young Jay, that is. Not the one that collabs with those fake-ass popstars)