by Robert Alvis
March 01, 2006
Every time the radio comes on, it’s the same thing. “What it do baby, It’s da ice man Paul Wall, I got my mouth lookin somethin like a disco ball ...”
Time to change the station.
“Rock so damn hard, you break your spleen wit it, pull up ya jeans wit it, smoke some green wit it ...”
Are you serious? Next station.
“Ford Taurus pull up everybody run, white boys jump out running wit they guns, Ford Taurus leave everybody came back, hope dem boyz didn’t find my sack ...”
That’s enough of this, where’s my Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik CD?
Enough with going dumb, enough with actors pretending to be singers, enough with producers being rappers, enough with no rhyming, no substance having, sub-par rappers.
I need a revival.
Hip-hop has fallen off so much that Common can release his fourth best album and it can be the hottest album of the past year.
Staying in Chicago, it’s also troubling that an excellent producer with average rapping skills can become the hottest star in the industry. What’s more troubling is that people think Kanye West can rap.
Since 2001, exactly zero albums have been good enough to be considered in the top 25 hip-hop albums of all time. No Ready to Die, 36 Chambers, Black on Both Sides and no Chronic 2001.
It’s not just an absence of classic albums that has cast this shadow on hip-hop, just solid work is increasingly hard to find.
I never thought I would consider Fabolous an upper echelon rapper, but after being bombarded with Bubba Sparxxx, Paul Wall, Juelz Santana, J-Kwon, Young Jeezy, Dem Franchize Boyz and even E-40’s recent efforts, I’m trying to get my hands on the Ma$e imposter’s new joints.
A quick note on the “Hyphy Movement” – it’s not a movement. Civil Rights was a movement. Going dumb is just something fun to do when you’re drunk or “thizzing.” Also, there is a difference between getting stupid and just being stupid. Yadidamean?
From the Bay Area up to Sacramento, the idea of getting hyphy has drawn awe by the audience because it is something unique to the area and has even made a splash nationally. Music such as this has a place in hip-hop. It always has. Dating back to Cash Money, No Limit, Slip and Slide, etc.
All is not lost for hungry fans starving for some verbal ruffage, there is something on the plate in the near future.
Since being named president of Def Jam, Jay-Z has signed many artists that could help revive hip-hop, most prominently The Roots, and former rival Nas.
Someone tell Black Thought to help give us another Illadelph Halflife.
Tell Mr. Jones that the world would benefit from listening to the street poetry of a man with a chipped front tooth from Queensbridge, not from the Houston man with precious gems in his mouth talk about his car in rhymes that closely resemble a 7-year-old’s language project.
With Pharoahe Monch, Ghostface, Busta Rhymes, J Dilla (Jay Dee), DMX, and The Game (who apparently saves all his best work for mixtapes) all having records either out now, or coming out soon. Hip-hop can resurrect itself.
Until then I’ll just keep flipping through the stations and reaching for the classics.
March 01, 2006
Every time the radio comes on, it’s the same thing. “What it do baby, It’s da ice man Paul Wall, I got my mouth lookin somethin like a disco ball ...”
Time to change the station.
“Rock so damn hard, you break your spleen wit it, pull up ya jeans wit it, smoke some green wit it ...”
Are you serious? Next station.
“Ford Taurus pull up everybody run, white boys jump out running wit they guns, Ford Taurus leave everybody came back, hope dem boyz didn’t find my sack ...”
That’s enough of this, where’s my Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik CD?
Enough with going dumb, enough with actors pretending to be singers, enough with producers being rappers, enough with no rhyming, no substance having, sub-par rappers.
I need a revival.
Hip-hop has fallen off so much that Common can release his fourth best album and it can be the hottest album of the past year.
Staying in Chicago, it’s also troubling that an excellent producer with average rapping skills can become the hottest star in the industry. What’s more troubling is that people think Kanye West can rap.
Since 2001, exactly zero albums have been good enough to be considered in the top 25 hip-hop albums of all time. No Ready to Die, 36 Chambers, Black on Both Sides and no Chronic 2001.
It’s not just an absence of classic albums that has cast this shadow on hip-hop, just solid work is increasingly hard to find.
I never thought I would consider Fabolous an upper echelon rapper, but after being bombarded with Bubba Sparxxx, Paul Wall, Juelz Santana, J-Kwon, Young Jeezy, Dem Franchize Boyz and even E-40’s recent efforts, I’m trying to get my hands on the Ma$e imposter’s new joints.
A quick note on the “Hyphy Movement” – it’s not a movement. Civil Rights was a movement. Going dumb is just something fun to do when you’re drunk or “thizzing.” Also, there is a difference between getting stupid and just being stupid. Yadidamean?
From the Bay Area up to Sacramento, the idea of getting hyphy has drawn awe by the audience because it is something unique to the area and has even made a splash nationally. Music such as this has a place in hip-hop. It always has. Dating back to Cash Money, No Limit, Slip and Slide, etc.
All is not lost for hungry fans starving for some verbal ruffage, there is something on the plate in the near future.
Since being named president of Def Jam, Jay-Z has signed many artists that could help revive hip-hop, most prominently The Roots, and former rival Nas.
Someone tell Black Thought to help give us another Illadelph Halflife.
Tell Mr. Jones that the world would benefit from listening to the street poetry of a man with a chipped front tooth from Queensbridge, not from the Houston man with precious gems in his mouth talk about his car in rhymes that closely resemble a 7-year-old’s language project.
With Pharoahe Monch, Ghostface, Busta Rhymes, J Dilla (Jay Dee), DMX, and The Game (who apparently saves all his best work for mixtapes) all having records either out now, or coming out soon. Hip-hop can resurrect itself.
Until then I’ll just keep flipping through the stations and reaching for the classics.
