This month Kurtis Blow is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut single, "Christmas Rappin'," the first major label hip-hop release that sold nearly half a million records. But back in 1979, with the Bronx-born genre still only in its first decade, already some people were crying that hip-hop (or "rap") was over, or that it was just a fad and that it was dead. And ever since then self-appointed tastemakers have been calling its demise. As predictable as reading stories about some famous rapper getting arrested for gun possession, so too are the pieces published on the death of hip-hop—frequently linking Nas' Hip Hop Is Dead into the equation. A recent example was Sasha Frere-Jones' New Yorker article “Wrapping Up” that caused him a grip of grief and inspired a flood of reactionary blogs that disagreed with his summation that 2009 was the year that hip-hop had finally kicked the bucket.

We need not believe the hype. As we head into a new decade, hip-hop is more alive than ever; albeit more musically diverse and fragmented than it has ever been. For every Kayne, Cudi, Wayne, Drake or Clipse there are thousands of innovative hip-hop artists out there that go widely unnoticed. "Throw your hands in the air if you unsigned/ ‘cause you won’t rhyme about homicide!,” rapped Queens, NY emcee Homeboy Sandman last year on his largely slept-on Actual Factual Pterodactyl, which didn't get the type of deserved attention as, say, the just-released Clipse album Til The Casket Drops, which finds the former drug dealing duo rapping about their favorite topic, cocaine, and some other predictable topics.

In sharp contrast, the brand new Thought Balloon Mushroom Cloud from New York-based MC Paul Barman (MCPB) tackles, in a lyrically innovative way, a myriad of topics including owls, religion, sampling and circumcision. MCPB may be perceived as nerdy, but his meticulously assembled hip-hop is high in concept and originality. Describing his style as at times, "outsular rather than insular," MCPB says that on the new album, which includes such collaborators as (MF) DOOM and Michel Gondry, he delivers a "Morse code style which is long and short syllables correlating to dots and dashes whereby I say one thing that rhymes on the surface but the rhythm says another thing underneath it."

Another hip-hop artist with an admitted borderline obsessive commitment to detail is MC/DJ/producer Edan who spent two years painstakingly producing the new Echo Party, which takes the 1980s megamix style perfected by Double Dee & Steinski to new heights. After being granted access to Traffic Entertainment Group's vast back catalog, he came up with an intricate non-stop, mood shifting mix that effortlessly layers and blends old-school hip-hop, glitch-hop, dance, punk, tape echo and even some kazoo added in and all channeled through various effects. Equally skilled at melding hip-hop with other genres is quirky Montreal turntablist/producer Kid Koala who for his latest project, Kid Koala presents The Slew, along with Dynomite D, teamed up with the rhythm section of Wolfmother. On tour their aural assault included six turntables, bass, drums, keyboards and a wall of amps and big speakers. The recently released album 100% captures their unique take on the old rap/rock hybrid. Also "getting it" when it comes to melding rock and rap, something that Run DMC long ago made look easier than it actually is to pull off, is the new BlakRoc project which finds the dirty southern rock of Black Keys perfectly complimenting rapper Jim Jones, and such others as Mos Def, Q-Tip and RZA.

Earlier this year the RZA's and other Wu Tang Clan music was paid high tribute by the El Michels Affair whose Enter The 37th Chamber, under the leadership of saxophonist/organist Leon Michels and producer/engineer Jeff Silverman, expertly re-crafted some of the Clan's finest tunes all the while creating something new. Similar in concept, and a welcome new trend in hip-hop, was the recent Mr. Chop project For Pete's Sake, on which the British producer/musician—with input by Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics and others—reworked the jazz-infused tracks of legendary hip-hop producer Pete Rock.

The age-old practice of self-referencing within hip-hop is very much alive and well with artists like Jack Splash who echoes James Murphy's "Losing My Edge" music history style, to Edo G and Masta Ace who, on their new single "Little Young," masterfully mock all the rappers named Lil, Little or Young, delivering a hip-hop history lesson with parody and satire.

Beyond music, this trend is also visibly on the web comedy series Thug Life, to the U.K. hip-hop satire ensemble Goldie Lookin Chain, who are hugely popular in Britain with singles like this year's diss on the proliferation of self-deluded "iPod superstar" turntable masters, "Everybody Is A DJ." Then there is the Upright Citizen Brigade Theater's 2Pac The Musical that was staged last month at the comedy group’s Chelsea headquartes and was billed as "a parody jukebox musical that would make Tupac roll over in his grave.... if he were dead."

The production, which saw every single Pac reference received loud and clear by the packed house, proved how firmly ingrained hip-hop is in our collective psyche. Hence a band like The Roots can set up house on a late night talk show whereas 20 years ago rap artists jockeyed to get an enviable spot on The Arsenio Hall Show—once the only mainstream television outlet for the genre.

Hip-hop is so omnipresent today that it easy to take it for granted and to overlook its ever evolving, myriad of sub-genres from bass-heavy electro glitch driven rap, to experimental turntablism, to homo-hop to the endless flow of incredible international music. Biz Markie's "Biz's Beat of the Day" on the kid's TV show Yo Gabba Gabba is just one example of hip-hop being extensively used as an educational tool while new electronic technology influenced directly by the genre includes the recent DJ Hero game and the iPhone remix ready Delicious Vinyl DJ App. Simply put, hip-hop is far from dead. Maybe, just like 2Pac, it just has a lot of people fooled.