I am a child of the eighties, which automatically makes me a fan of hip-hop. I can take it a step further and say that I’m somewhat a student of hip-hop, because I literally grew up on the stuff. Of course, I was into punk rock as well (think Dead Kennedys), but once I got into about the 7th grade and discovered Public Enemy, it was all over but the rapping.
To me, the early-80’s to the mid-90’s was the Golden Age of Hip-Hop. There was no other form of music around that sent such a shockwave into the earth as Hip-Hop did back in those days. It was, at its time, the most original, unique, and freakin’ crazy form of music on the planet.
I grew up on Public Enemy, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Special Ed, Eric B. & Rakim, Craig G., The Fat Boys, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh, Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, L.L. Cool J, Redhead Kingpin and the FBI, Beastie Boys, X-Clan, 3rd Bass, The Pharcyde, Digable Planets, Souls of Mischief, King Sun, MC Lyte, Ice T, Cypress Hill, Kool G. Rap and DJ Polo, Gang Starr, KRS-One and BDP, Common Sense (before he was just called “Common”), Leaders of the New School, Poor Righteous Teachers, Lords of the Underground, Black Moon, and tons of other incredible artists that were way ahead of their time. I remember in the early nineties when Vanilla Ice came out, I thought he sucked, and frankly I was offended at the dude for thinking he could step in with some “Diet Hip-Hop” crap and try to get over on people. I took the art of Hip-Hop very seriously, and back then, if you couldn’t come with any lyrical skills, you truly needed to step away from the mic.
Man, how things have changed since then. Nowadays you see people claiming to be “Hip-Hop” that can’t even freakin’ rhyme. It’s all about bling, pimping, rims, and stupid stuff that ain’t worth making a song about. I never thought I’d say this, but I doggone HATE this new version of Hip-Hop. I hate everything it’s about…I guess ’cause it ain’t about nothing. Compared to how Hip-Hop used to be, when I was coming up, Hip-Hop nowadays freakin’ sucks. It’s dead. It’s weird, because every time I take a look at the current Hip-Hop music scene, I almost feel a sadness. It has become a bloated, goofy parody of what it once was. Now it’s all about selling ringtones and Big Macs. It’s just a tool of corporate bigwigs who see another opportunity to cash in on a trend. And this new generation of kids just eat it up, and three-fourths of them don’t even know who Kool G. Rap is. Shoot, half of the people MAKING the music now couldn’t even tell you who Kurtis Blow is. In my mind, Hip-Hop is a casualty.
What brought all this on was something that happened to me the other day while I was in my office, typing away on my computer at my corporate job. Out of nowhere, I just started hearing Nas’s “New York State of Mind” playing in my head. I kept hearing that one part, where he was saying “The city never sleeps, full of villains and creeps…” on and on. It had been so long since I listened to that song, I decided to look up the lyrics on the Web, so I went to some generic lyrics site and typed in Nas New York State of Mind. Then I read them over. I was immediately taken back to the early 90’s, when Hip-Hop kicked some serious butt. It was actually a very nostalgic moment. Looking over those lyrics, I realized how much of a doggone genius Nas was for coming up with stuff like that. He is a true talent. Yes, the lyrics are definitely not wholesome, and I definitely don’t agree with a lot of the violence stuff and so forth, but the actual rhyming style and the way he put those words together are hard to match, no matter who you put him up against. That song and “Memory Lane” had some pretty insane rhyme patterns. It’s almost hypnotic to listen to.
I guess I just had to write this to get it out. I miss those old days, back when Hip-Hop actually meant something. Now, as I said earlier, it’s just a casualty. Oh, well…I’ll just stick to my old 80’s mix tapes.
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