Notes on "New Year's Rockin' Eve": Where Was the Hip Hop?

So here we are, only a few hours into the New Year at the time I’m writing this, and honestly, this universally accepted symbol of fresh starts and new beginnings could not have come any sooner.  As with many a major holiday, this one has a tradition of being a nationally televised event, bookended with live musical performances and featuring, of course, the famous midnight countdown. While many people found themselves at various parties and social events, this year I took the opportunity to bring in 2017 the way a true American should: in front of a TV. I put the entertainment destiny of my night in the experienced hands of Ryan Seacrest and Co. during ABC's Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin' Eve 2017 and, in the way only live television can, it did not disappoint.