After reading all these articles lately about how the recession has affected all these different industries, even down to the fashion industry, it suddenly dawned on me: how will this affect hip-hop? When I think of hip-hop, I think of guys walking around in mega-bling and rapping about designer labels, which kind of seems insensitive at a time when 8% of the population is unemployed. Being the good librarian that I am, I thought to myself, "surely there must be an article about this." Sure enough, CNN covered this story last month, when they noticed that rappers showed up at the Grammys dressed more demurely:

"I don't see concrete stuff yet, you know, but I imagine you will see more rappers doing some less-gaudy things just because it would be out of step with the audience," said Touré, an author and television personality. "The audience is struggling and striving, and then you're like, 'Look at my four diamond iced-out chains.' "

Maybe Lil Jon will have to start liquidating his grills on Ebay?