Is Hip-Hop Dead Yet, I Think I Still LOVE H.E.R.

Peace,
This is a blog that I wrote some years back on the subject.

The other night I was having a discussion with some friends recently who are all in their 30's raising children about rap music and hip-hop culture and questioning weather or not it's still relevant today or just trash.

They were saying how all the rappers today talk about is their cars, clothes, selling drugs, sex and money and that it has turned into an exploitative and corrupt music and whatever happened to hip-hop being fun and uplifting anyway? They were saying how they all liked rap growing up but now don't like their kids listening to it. So I playing the antagonist was saying that rap music is pretty much the same as it was when we were growing up (except for the uplifting part) and that rap and hip-hop has become a business and entertainment just like the movies and television and that it should be viewed as such. Plus rap started as party music anyway and the m.c. was the person that kept the party going.

(But I do feel that there are people in powerful positions that could support more original hip-hop instead of whatever sales, which I think is where some of the monotony comes from, as well as all these cornball rappers now a days ("I mean if you ain't got it, then you ain't got it mf.." -GURU).

But music of any sort shouldn't be held responsible for raising our kids anyway, I mean if a 10 yr. old is more prone to listen to their favorite rapper on how to live and handle life situations than their parents then who's really to blame? Hip-hop is a reflection of youth culture, it's loud, rebellious, and controversial and I think that's what makes it so successful.

This led me to ask the questions: As the first generation of hip-hop listeners matures then should hip-hop music mature as well? And if so then why is it not o.k. for kids today who like rap to have those same emotions we got from listening and being apart of the music? This also led me to reflect on how hip-hop has affected my life and how it has always been there with me.

My first hip-hop memory was walking through Cooper Green Projects over my cousin's house holding the first rap record put out trying my hardest to sing the words on the vinyl inside of that sky blue album cover with the colorful horn looking thing that looked like it was shooting out candy by the Sugar Hill Gang - "it goes a hip hop a hip it, a hip it to tha hip hip hop and ya don't stop a rocking..." I couldn't have been no more than 6 yrs. old at the time and like millions of other people I was hooked!

I remember walking through West End carrying cardboard "battling" in my Addadis warm up suit and suede pumas holding my first "boom box" on my shoulders (it was red and black with speakers that could adjust upward!) playing the first rap tape I ever had, The Fat Boys (don't do it, you'll just be spitting on yourself! lol). Writing my first rap (it was hella deep for a 9 yr. old, it was based off my favorite rap record at the time "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five) to the first mix tape we got from New York where I first heard: Slick Rick and Dougie Fresh (La Di Da Di), Rakim (I Ain't No Joke), Big Daddy Kane (RAW), KRS ONE (Criminal Minded), RUN D.M.C. (Sucka M.C.'s) and L.L. Cool J (Rock the Bells)!

At 11 yrs. old I was totally engrossed with hip-hop, from break dancing and rapping (my rap name was M.C. Mike C-the C stood for cool!), wearing the Kangols and gold chains (mine was fake and I got it snatched late one night walking from Fair Park-"damn Debo, my grandma gave me that chain!"), graffiti (my tag was MIKE with the E written backwards) to the slang, FRESH...now say WORD! Yep, I was a hip-hop junkie!

Then in high school when I was a hardcore prep (that was after I cut off my jheri curl!) hip-hop was there. I remember listening to ICE T's "6 in the morning" and Too $hort's "Freaky Tales" everyday after school and at the time I didn't wear tennis shoes or sweat suits or gold chains. I was wearing sports jackets; button downs, khaki's and those penny loafers where I would put a dime in the little slot. But I remember dancing like M.C. Hammer on stage at Birmingham Southern College at a high school step show with my fraternity to M.C. Lyte's "Lyte as a Rock"! I was getting freaky with the girls to Uncle Luke and the 2live Crew and when N.W.A. came out with that "Straight Outta Compton" I was with hip-hop and loving every minute of it.


In my black righteous days with the Spike Lee movies like "Do the Right Thing" (doctor, remember always do the right thing"! RIP Ozzie Davis), I was heavy into Public Enemy (Fear of a Black Planet), Brand Nubian (Alll4one), X Clan (To the East Blackwards, sissies!), ATCQ (Peoples Instinctive Travels..) an the Jungle Brothers (Done by the Forces of Nature. It's the jb's, the jb's...).

I was listening to that shit in Mod Dog's "blue car" with the radio under the seat ('cause we didn't have a radio in the car) drinking Wild Irish Rose and Thunderbird wine. That was the hip-hop in me.

In college I remember getting faded in Peck Hall listening to the Wu Tang Clan's "All So Simple" and I swear it seemed like the walls was melting in that dorm room hearing that beat ride! Black Moon (with the off beat head nod! Big up D.J. Evil D!), E-40 "Sprinkle me Mane", Spice One, and the Fab 5's "La Flem, La Flur, Eskurshka", now that's hip-hop! EPMD, Redman, DAS EFX, Big Snoop Dog, Eightball and MJG and Outkast's Playa's Ball" (I still remember Bro. J pulling out that '38 and busting in the air in that white 'lac riding down the back roads of Montevallo at 2 in the morning going to Waffle House! What up Premo!).


And even when I got my first car, a light blue 1984 Pontiac Sunbird, the first tapes I used to bump in that thing was Del's "I Wish My Brother George was Here", Ice Cube's "Amerikka's Most Wanted", UGK's "Riding Dirty" and Gang Star's "Step into the Arena".

Man I could go on forever with this, those were the days! I say let the youngstas do their thang and have fun! As long as they know what's entertainment and not reality! Long Live HIP-HOP!