"Hip Hop Is Dead" is the first and title single taken from Nas' 2006 album of the same name.

The lyrics deal with the idea of hip-hop's death as artistically viable music, as explained below: Everybody sounds the same, commercialize the gameReminiscin' when it wasn't all businessIt forgot where it startedSo we all gather here for the dearly departedNas decries hip hop's commercialization and pledges to stay true to its origins, as in the last line of verse 1, where Nas mentions MC Shan and MC Ren, by saying "So nigga, who's your top ten, is it MC Shan is it MC Ren."

"Hip Hop Is Dead" contains samples of "Apache" performed by the Incredible Bongo Band, and their cover version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", originally performed by Iron Butterfly.

On the album, both original and edited, the lyrics have been altered to remove profanities and gun references.

The different versions of the hook are: "If hip hop should die before I wake / I'll put an extended clip inside of my AK / Roll to every station, murder the DJ / Roll to every station, murder the DJ" "If hip hop should die before I wake / I'll put/load an extended clip and body 'em all day / Roll to every station, wreck the DJ / Roll to every station, wreck the DJ" For the MTV version, "clip and body 'em" is censored, along with words like smoke, die, grindin', hittin', behind, stick-ups, and killings.