Hip hop music today, like so many genres before it, is beginning to suffer in popularity. The advent of instant music downloads courtesy of the internet has made listeners more picky about their choices, craving quality over quantity. No longer can an artist bank on a single style over and over to boost sales. These days, they need to put a little more creativity to their work to gain the support of the fans.

It used to be that to have a hit, you just needed the proper beat. Beats used to be the main ingredient in hip hop, but not anymore. Something different without deviating too much from the basic aspects of hip hop, that is what you need to draw people of today in. You now need lyrics that are not like anyone else's songs.

Likely, history is to be repeated. Peppering hip hop music today are those artists who think that all they need to be different is just to have beats mixed in with lyrics that work, even if they were done by someone else. Remixes had become popular in the late 70s into the early 80s, when die hard disco fanatics just couldn't let go of a dying art and used snatches of older recordings mixed with disco beats to make dance club hits. Some artists resorted to this old trick after being faced with the need to improve record sales and bring fans back.

It worked, for a while. But fan mood is erratic, artists riding on other's popular creations soon found a drop on their sales. Then artists like Ludicris and TI came along, they and others like them found writing their own words a better way than copying. The age of themed albums began. Following the example of groups from the early 80s, artists started creating albums centering around a single theme and writing lyrics of their own in each song. It worked out great.

Artists of today filled hip hop music with high quality songs that they write and compose on their own. With themes that range from finding love to living a charmed life, hip hop artists are reaching greater heights in popularity that is not easy to achieve in a digital world. Digital downloads run today's music world, and giving die hard fans special and exclusive tracks keep the albums selling, and the competition scrambling for more ways to come out on top. As the drive for more creative works continues, those who cannot handle it are falling by the wayside, making room for the true poets of hip hop today to rise above the rest, forging the next chapter of hip hop music today.