Damn... Sometimes it hurts so much to have so much in your head and there's no one to listen. Especially at a time like 3,4 in the am. It just gets so depressing to have all these thoughts in your head and theres no one to listen, no one to vent to. You're just surrounded by places you'll never go, things you'll never have and people you'll never meet. Its so maddening because I have so much to say and no one to listen...It makes me feel crazy, but I know that I'm not...Watching movies like: "Brown Sugar" and "Krush Groove" and "Fade To Black", really showed me how much I love this industry, this movement we call Hip-Hop. I love everything it stands for. In a world where everybody is in tuned to their own feelings, hip-hop made me feel accepted, made me feel like I had a voice...I love hip-hop for making me feel free, free to think what I wanted, free to be...ME!
Listening to Common, Mos Def and Talib Kweli showed me the real. Showed me there was still substance in a world that is so obsessed with "Bling Bling", "Throwin Dees on that bitch", as well as being shot 5 to 9 times. Do you remember where you were or how you felt when you first heard The Roots "Things Fall Apart"? Do you remember your first thought when you popped in Outkast's "Aquemini" and heard classics like: "Aquemini", "Return of the G", "Da Art of Storytellin pt.1 and 2"? What about Jay's "Reasonable Doubt"? Songs like "D'Evils" and "Can I Live", not just the radio cuts...But raw, classic cuts. It's a shame that we're not recognizing the realness in today's hip-hop. We tend to sidestep thought provoking MC's like: Dead Prez, Little Brother, Ghostface Killah, Madlib, while at the same time embrace Yung Joc. How did we brush off albums like Mos's "The New Danger" or "True Magic and disavow all knowledge of The Roots "The Tipping Point" and "Game Theory" while we big up undeserving artists? Now, I fall victim to it too! Listening to Lil' Boosie when I know I don't get into him. The word "lyricist" has become a dirty word in hip-hop. Now we praise punchlines and diss tracks. What happened to artists integrity? Have they forgotten all they know? Has getting shot, selling dope and getting brain and buying ice all we're accustomed to? How can Common get a XXL and barely go platinum? How did Little Brother and Lupe Fiasco be anticipated albums in 05 and 06 respectively and barely sell 300,000 units? Now we can blame bootlegging and downloading, but maybe we let BET determine our album sales. Whoever has the biggest car or baddest video girl with the biggest ass have got us shook!
Nas said that "Hip Hop is Dead", and while it may not be...we're hanging on by a slow pulse. And if we continue to go on this path where image sells then we might as well pull the plug. Have we forgotten what got us to fall in love with hip-hop in the first place? Just hearing a simple crowd call and response? Have we done this to ourselves? While this may sound like a tireless rant, or somebody drowning in nostalgia, I only say this so our hip-hop artists see that people still care...I know we cant go back but we have to evolve. As artists, writers, lyricists, performers, we have to give the people something. I think we owe it to ourselves. We've become so worried about the check that labels are taking out of album sales anyway that some has forgotten about the fans...We've become to stagnant...too complacent in Rap. Michael Jordan didn't stop after that 1st ring so why should we? Hip-Hop is a force that cannot be stopped, but we can stop ourselves. As an avid reader of XXL and VIBE, I hope they put other artists like Little Brother, Mos Def and Talib or others on the cover. I know you're trying to sell, but we can do better! I believe we can do it. I can only dream a dream...Like Common said, "We on our Jeffersons yall/ but we forgot the theme".
In closing... I could never think Hip-Hop is dead because its alive in me and somewhere deep inside, behind that jesus piece... Its still in you....
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