Is it too early to be nostalgic for hip-hop’s mainstream awesomeness of a few years ago? Regardless of where you stand on mainstream hip-hop’s lyrics and braggadocio, recall the sense of excitement when the Neptunes were in full swing producing everybody. Outkast came out and had not only the biggest song of the decade thus far, but still made one of the most consistent hip-hop albums of the year (at least Big Boi’s half). Somewhere around there Common made that record that was all psychedelic and creepy and the slickest product of his career (anyone that gets Prince as a contributing artist on their albums is okay in my book). Even Cee-Lo had those sick solo albums before going “Crazy.”

It’s not that I’ve got something against hip-hop now, it just feels like there was a big evolutionary step taking place in the genre a few years ago and things have remained relatively stagnant since. Best of all, this evolution was taking place on mainstream radio in songs that were the harbingers for multi-platinum record sales; people had reasons to buy albums. And I don’t want to start imagining things in a different paradigm of iTunes band-artist-of-the-week-single-only affectations, but I have to wonder where the industry is going astray.

Perhaps it wasn’t even hip-hop that was making these leaps. I recall an interview I held with Jon Brion where he spoke in adoring tones for the then hit Spears single “Toxic,” and I strangely agreed with him about the magic of its chorus. It suddenly felt like an exciting time for pop, hip-hop and all sorts of awesomeness. Once jaded by their ubiquity, I was actually interested in where the *NSync solo careers would meander. And that’s not to say that this needs to be artist specific; the artists at the tops of pop and hip-hop charts were doing the kinds of things that were interesting, which is more than can be said from most of the field today.

In regards to underground hip-hop things couldn’t be worse. In the past couple of weeks, both Subtitle (Aka the tall guy that used to work at Amoeba) and Jurassic 5 have thrown in their towels. And hey, one of those artists was even good (sorry, 2na!). El-P’s sophomore album came out last week. It is exactly what I wanted out of an El-P album: it’s angry, it’s honest, and it’s confrontational. As satisfying as the record is, it’s telling that he has rounded up the entire indie-rock pantheon to support him throughout the record. In addition to his Def Jux cadre, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead features guest appearances by folks like the Mars Volta, Cat Power, and even Yo La Tengo. I like all of the aforementioned artists, but on El-P’s album? (Full disclosure: in regards to these artists, the Village Voice nailed it)

I’m not yearning for the golden era of hip-hop, or the native tongues/native sons/backpacker whatever you want to call it. I’m not even asking for another resurrection of Tupac or Biggie (though it should be pointed out that once again, one of these artists had a number one album this month). I’m asking for a breath of fresh air in the stale environment of today’s radio-played hip-hop.