Whilst reading an article on the Rolling Stones the other day something struck me. Although the piece was well written and informative that wasn’t what made a lasting impression on me. As a devoted lover of this thing we call hip-hop, I was found asking myself a number of questions, the main one being where are our Rolling Stones?

Mick, Keith and the rest of the guys have been doing their thing since the 1960’s and can still fill any music venue of any size, and even if their most staunch fans and admirers might feel that their recent output does’nt match up to what they created in their ‘heyday’ they are still loyal fans that buy and support their music.

Okay, the truth is that rock ‘n’ roll has at least 20 years on hip-hop in terms of age, so some might argue that once hip-hop is 50 years old, you can better assess its cultural longevity and lasting impact. But even once you’ve taken that into account, I’m still stuck for an answer to the question. There’s no doubting that Jay-Z looks like a strong candidate in every sense of the word to be one of the first emcees to have a successful career that spans many decades more than those he’s already rhymed through, but with Mr Carter excepted, I still cant see the hip-hop equivalent of Rod Stewart, Metallica, or even Bruce Springsteen. Sure, it seems that nowadays hip-hop or at the very least hip-hop style is used to sell everything from toothpaste to cars to clothes to even chewing gum, but why aren’t Public Enemy and KRS ONE playing arenas that Led Zeppelin or Duran Duran can still fill without any problem? It seems to be universally accepted that hip-hop is a young man’s sport, yet it’s open to question as to how many of today’s biggest names in the game could go toe to toe with Big Daddy Kane, L.L, Rakim or Kool G Rap in their prime or even now. The music business is just that, a business, and like all businesses the most important thing is money, but couldn’t a well promoted and publicized Juice Crew or Def Squad tour make money?