I wonder how many parents are disappointed in certain aspects of their kid’s behavior despite their direct involvement in it? I wonder how many parents cursed in front of their kid but hate that their kid uses profanity, smoked in front of their kid but hate that their kid smokes, etc… Now of course you always want the best for your kid but realistically, how do you teach a lesson that you yourself haven’t learned and how do you have the gall to then hold your child accountable for a lack of wisdom you never imparted? The “kid” I’m talking about here is hip hop.
Now I don’t remember as much complaining about hip hop back in the day when I was young but then again, I’m not a kid anymore and also, there wasn’t an Internets that echoed the most miniscule of complaints from the ends of middle earth to center of the arts. There were only 3 plugs in 1991 (De La Soul) but were the hip hop universe fully interconnected back then, it may have been popular consensus that Nice and Smooth really weren’t that nice or smooth and at times, were a bit of a rickety rocket. This is not to say that they were not good entertainers. This is just to say that a developing art form in its infancy stages is void of subtext and thus, every advent within the budding genre was viewed favorably simply because it lacked precedent. In other words, there was no preexisting style to bite or bastardize and we were more forgiving. But does that mean that it was ALL good?
Artists we loved back then but probably haven’t touched their CD since “then”
- Das Efx
- Canibus
- Lost Boyz
Could it be that acknowledging the perceived flaws in modern day hip hop would mean accepting personal responsibility and our roles in why some of it is currently not to our liking? What exactly are we expecting the prevailing content of hip hop to be when every time someone asks who the greatest emcees are, “Biggie, Jay-Z and Tupac often occupy 3/5 of the slots? And what exactly was the predominant lyrical content of our beloved Mount Rushmore of hip hop? So then why are we turned off by so much talk of guns, money and b*tches when those were some of the golden era’s amendments to the hip hop constitution? Being upset at how hip hop turned out is like being upset at your own life but discounting all the decisions YOU made which led to the current conditions.
Artists we didn’t care for before but consider groundbreaking pioneers now
- 2 – Live Crew
- Cash Money / Juvenile
- Outkast
Are we allowing our emotional connection to that old shit to cloud our current sense of smell? Seems we can only smell the new shit but that old shit that has since dried up and calcified now looks like that good shit but if you really put your hands on it, you’ll soon realize, it’s just old shit. We’ve been resting on our laurels so long that the only thing remaining may be our laurels and that hasn’t really been hearty now has it?
Maybe it’s time to accept some harsh realities…”HIP…HOP… you claim Young Thug is not your child…the paternity test revealed however that YOU ARE THE FATHER!!”
- I love gangsta rap but I hate gangstas
- I love balling but I hate ballers
- I love women but I hate misogynist lyrics
- I love Kanye but I hate Kanye
- I love creativity but I hate change
- I love the golden era but I probably complained about a lot of it too
- I hate gangsta rap except when N.W.A. did it
- I hate drug rap except when Jay Z did it
- I hate lyrics that degrade women except when Tupac did it
STOP HATIN!
Sidebar: Have you ever considered what you would be listening to if there was no hip hop? Keep complaining and you’ll soon find out. Sidebar complete.