The whole presentations is set up a slideshow at the news magazine website, but here's Hsu's basic idea:
For most of rap's history, one-upmanship has been hip-hop's engine of change. Recently, however, beefs have lost some of their creative spark, as battles have migrated from albums and mix tapes to YouTube. Today, a rapper with wounded pride is more likely to cut a made-for-YouTube video than to bother penning a vicious rhyme. The result: videos with laughably bad production values showcasing sloppy dis tracks (or worse, no track at all). Why waste time writing music-the vocation of a musician, in theory-when you can upload a rant? YouTube has done wonders for spreading viral hip-hop dances like the Aunt Jackie and the Chicken Noodle Soup. But it's spoiling the beef.
The full show can be seen here.
