Stakes Is High

Beats & Lyrics and Million Dollar Dream manage uniqueness and distinction in their quest to react and respond to a record industry driven by profit and dedicated to exploiting the genre rather than facilitating its growth. Together the two signal, locally at least, a return to the essence of hip hop as a music and a culture. It doesn't matter what facet of the Bay Area scene the true hip-hop fans ally themselves with; they're all looking for the same thing in the artists they follow and support: true dedication to the rap hustle as a means of expression in an alienating world of pop that's moving at the speed of oblivion.