Still on the Pulpit

What follows is a simple commentary about the current state of the Hip-Hop culture:

The Golden Age of the Hip-Hop culture (with its focal point on the music) spanned from about 1988 to 1997 (that's 10 years, not 9).

The era began at around the time EPMD began, Eric B & Rakim returned with Follow the Leader, KRS returned with By All Means Necessary, and Run-DMC had already realeased Walk This Way (2 years prior) to become the first Hip-Hop legends. Before that, Hip-Hop music had seen alot of acts come and go. The beginning of the Golden Age had seen artists tell the world that they were here to stay.

Countless classic albums had followed over the next 10 years. Until the end of the era, the culture had been underground. Then came the deaths of Tupac & Biggie. That event had done many things to the culture, and the music within, on many levels. What ended up happening as a consequence (among others) was the major commercialization of Hip-Hop. Before that we had many sub-genres of Hip-Hop music (or rap) to choose from - battle rap, gangsta rap, political/social rap, hardcore rap, funkadelic rap, et. al. Now no more. The music industry (in addition to trying to divide the elements of Hip-Hop) has saturated airwaves and retail with the ONE thing that sells. Since '98, we've been stuck with thug rap where they dominate their content half the time with "bling." Some of it's been good over the years... but has that proven to equal more than -- what?-- a single percentage of all releases since that year?

So the diversity of sub-genres that rap used to have has diminished along with the quality of the sub-genre that keeps getting pushed because we get force fed so much of it, NOT TO MENTION the sonic range of the music production. From the end of the Golden Age, producers have tried to sound like Swizz Beatz & Mannie Fresh. Recently, the trend has moved away from Swizz and more towards Lil Jon. Raggeaton hasn't done the culture much good either.

Indeed, one of the few boons that Rap music has been receiving now is Kanye West. This isn't about jumping on his dick... I just want to make a point. With Jay-Z (another boon to rap), you have an emcee who others can imitate, though not up to his level of talent. He'll rap about jewlery, champagne and luxury cars, but at least he does it exceptionally well. The problem starts when other people take on his subject matter and image, yet they fail in execution. Then you have Kanye - he's talented AND successful, like Hov. The question isn't can you imitate him. In a way, you can - vary your lyrical content (for rappers), learn an instrument(for producers), sample some music that he and Pete Rock haven't (ditto), and know something about the music you sample from (yep). The REAL question is "do people want to imitate him?" The answer I believe is "no."

It all returns to the fact that many rappers imitate other, more talented, emcees. We know the game's immersed with mediocrity imitating Jay-Z. But if we start witnessing mediocrity imitating Kanye, how much more apparent to us would their act of imitation be? Personally, I couldn't take the rap game dominated by Slum Village and Dilla (no disrespect, but I never had much love for the group & the late producer, may he RIP). For you, imagine De La Soul blowing up the way Kanye did on the strength of their first album (if only). The music industry now wants to sell all things "daisy." Before you know it, a bunch of PM Dawn crews have hold over mainstream rap.

Through all this, I don't place the blame entirely on rappers and the rap industry. I place the blame on us... US US US! The so-called Hip-Hop community.

More than the rest of us, I really don't know what happend to the generation that birthed the culture back in the 70s. They, more than me, should be more vocal in the points I make here. They, more than me, should be more in tuned with the true problem facing the culture, and it is this: we don't OWN the music.

How come our children don't REALLY know who KRS or Rakim is? Why aren't they listening to them? Take Rock music, for example: Elvis, the Beatles, Johnny Cash... up to the present with U2, Nirvana, 9 Inch Nails, Green Day. These artists are not just artists - they are INSTITUTIONS. They will NEVER have to worry about money because new generations will grow up and buy their shit (KRS, I think, makes more money from speaking than from royalties) .

Hip-Hop has the innate power to move people the same way Rock does. What Hip-Hop doesn't have that Rock does is OWNERSHIP. Parents endow their Rock legends to their children. We, in Hip-Hop, obviously don't. The next generation will always have less of an idea of this music's potential if we don't pass Doug & Rick up to them; if that generation doesnt pass the Boot Camp up to their next; Eminem up to theirs. As sure as we feel about Eminem's legendary status, even he isn't assured those multi-millions in royalties 25 years from now.

We may have had that ownership in the past; briefly, up until around MTV Raps and before Rap City: The Basement. Withholding it from our children as we continue to do makes certain that the culture will never belong to the PEOPLE. You know who owns it? The INDUSTRY, who I don't blame for anyting, because if WE don't own it, then it might as well belong to them. They took the scratching & breaking out of the music. THEY get rich from what's left that you see and hear instead of US while real talent and diversity moves into the underground.

But all you bumping Lil Jon and his clones and Reggaeton, don't get mad. You're probably not mad to begin with. It's not like you mind letting someone ELSE tell you what rap is anyway.

2 Issues for Post #2

Two subjects for my second entry (I don't want to post twice). One is abortion and the other is the current violence in response to the cartoons from Denmark.

In regards to the voilence in response to the cartoons, we already know that there's just no excuse for it. Islam WAS a religion of peace and knowledge back in its promising beginnings as it helped to bring the Renaissance to Europe... but in modern times it has fallen into a dark age. Christianity followed a similar road. It began with a strong start, progressing Europe into better days (during the rise of the Byzantine Emp.), then fell into the Medeival period and rose again through the Reformation. Sure enough... Islam NEEDS its own Reformation. The extremeists pull the strings of this religion (15 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 were from our long-time ALLY nation of Saudi Arabia). The people of this faith are just freakin LOST from being so divided. GOD willing theyll get this Reformation, though it may take a century or two...

Second is something I want to get off my chest that explains my view on Abortion. My belief is that though the fetus is most definately alive in the biological way we know it to be, it still doesn't possess a soul until first breath. The Bible glances upon this the same way it glances upon Evolution (Gen 1:20). It doesn't proclaim it outright on both theories, but all you need to do is take a close look at a few select verses. On inspection, things start to add up.

Exodus 21:22-23 (from NIV):

"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely (or she has a miscarriage) but there is no seriously injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life..."

King James Verion...

"If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her..." and it goes on to say the same thing. The point is that the fetus is killed but the man who struck the woman only gets fined and doesn't recieve capital punishment for it. There is no capital punishment for the willful killing of a fetus. Bringing this into our world today -- our country today -- I think about the women in our poorest neighborhoods who aren't given a choice not only in this, but throughout their lives of being poor. You just can't tell her not to have sex (easier said than done). And when she has this child, but not the resources to raise that child, she won't have those people, who told her she couldnt have an abortion, to help her out. She's on her own.

I can't stand these people (who among them aren't of the religious right-wing?). And there's no need to get into the "why" other than they say they properly represent our highest moral values, but in reality they aren't anything like what they say they are.

Until next time.

It's Official (Myintrotoletuknow)

My name is Omar and here is a little bit of who i am...

I live in New York City, the upper west side of Manhattan born and raised. i'm 27 and Hip-Hop has been a part of my life since I was around 14. I have an older brother (by 6 years) with a rap collection on vinyl and he used to blast it in the house (to my mother's disdain) so i've been hearing the music on a regular basis since the late 80's when EPMD, for example, first came out. So I listen to his EPMD record, but throughout all this I don't have a connection to it. They're his records.

That all changed when I bought "The Low End Theory," by A Tribe Called Quest, on my own. I had gotten a handful of other rap albums before, but that Tribe album was the first to really open my mind to the fact that Hip-Hop was not just music. That landmark album set me up for the next - "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" by you know who. Now... I discovered Tribe when they had already made a name for themselves. But in '93, I was introduced to something with as much creative power and potential to impact the Hip-Hop culture. With the Wu-Tang Clan, I witnessed a great Hip-Hop force developing from the ground up.

And the great thing about it? I felt INVOLVED in that devlopment from that moment I witnessed its birth. From then on, I claimed the Hip-Hop culture as my own.

That's where I'm coming from. That being said, the focus of this blog doesn't fall squarely on Hip-Hop. I want to use this blog to show people how I view the world, and how I often express these views through "Hip-Hop" eyes, since Hip-Hop is the way I live my life. The issues will, of course, range. We have a "this-is-a-journal-anything-goes" type of deal as that's what defines a blog. I believe myself a private person, so I picture most of what I will say as in response to world and domestic events along with my thoughts on current issues than what goes on in my daily life, though I will have that also.

This is my first blog. I will try to make my entries once or twice a week. This blog is experimentation, "wait-and-see" and some fun. I want to develop it and watch it grow though I don't know how it will grow. We'll see.

That's it for now. Peace.