Response

Recently, on a post that I wrote about the current Alicia/Beatz scandal, follow the link to read that post and the comments on it, Dear Alicia.There was ONE particular comment that I wanted to address with an entire post. I felt, at the time that it was too much to address, there were so many ignorant assumptions and blasphemies, that I knew it would take me a while to get my thoughts together. So here I am, ready to go in on this chick. I already had some other people comment, and they did a pretty good job. Some people may wonder, why I didn't just delete the comment, however, if you read my 'side note' you will see that I don't believe in over-zealous censorship, especially when it can spark a intellectual conversation. Even though homegirl's response was just plain dumb, it also exemplifies, the racism and stupidity that is still prevalent in our society. We should use this as a point to educate her and others that think like her. She was
being honest with her thoughts; meaning that she actually believes what she wrote is true,even though she was also being cowardly too.

So with my response, even some of you who, may disagree with her response, will probably disagree with my response to her comments. I ask that you, first, try to engage in what I am writing with an open mind and also do your best to educate yourself about issues that might be foreign to you.

First, race. Race was the main point in which Anonymous(#2) decided to address. We need to understand that NO ONE, can fully comprehend race, it is too difficult a subject to decihpher. Race is a CONSTRUCTED identity. One that was INVENTED. It is not a natural concept. White European colonizers divided people up according to cranium size, and visual aspects. There is no secret that people on this earth look differently. However, who says that race means what people look like? Race in its purest definition, simply means, a group of people. A RACE of people with big feet, a RACE of obsese people, etc. Why are our minds constantly wrapped around a subject that was carelessly and recklessly invented by some of the greatest idiots of our time.

This is not to say that we should ignore that we all have some type of connection with people who look the same as us. If we look at a group of people who we have never seen before we will automatically look for fimilarity. "Oh, I'm black, so is she, yay!" We do it all the time. Also, we look for differences between ourselves and others. "I'm black, she's black, but I'm light skinned and she's dark skinned." Yes, we do that too. It all depends on the situation we're in. If we feel we are in a position of power, we will differenitiate ourselves, this is just what colonizers did, they were/are in a position of power and wanted to keep and maintain that power, by any means necessary. So, they differentiated themselves from people who they deemed were different from them. Just the same, when people feel they are NOT in a position of power, they will try to create common ground. As people who are currently NOT in a position of power, ALL minorities, we need to try to create some common ground.

As corny as it sounds, we are all the same at the most basic level. We all feel, think, etc. We need to stop trying to differentiate ourselves by visual, meaningless ways.

I cannot address the general assumptions made by the commenter, as we should all know how untrue they are. I can address, however, the foolishness of making generalized statements. In ANY way, generalized statements about ANY population are a doozy. Just like it would be dumb to say, "all black people are loud", its the same to say, "all men cheat". You don't know ALL men, you don't know ALL black people, so how can you judge or make biases on them. You don't even know a fraction of ANY population. We also need to understand that even statitics are made to be damaging to certain populations and stay in line with the status quo.

Also, it is unfair to compare one population to another. Our cultures and belief systems are most likely different and you cannot use a measuring stick for one set of people for another, your measurements won't line up.

The end.

West Coast Hip Hop: Part 2: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

For my next installment of the West Coast Hip Hop Series, I will be profiling Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Even though Bone Thugs hail from Glenville Ohio, they were discovered by Eazy-E and helped bring G-Funk and West Coast Hip hip to the forefront.

In 1997, the group was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance for their song "Tha Crossroads" from their E 1999 Eternal album. They also collaborated with Eazy-E, 2Pac, Big Pun, and The Notorious B.I.G., and were the only artsit/group to collaborate with all of them while they were still alived. The group consisted of four members: Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Bizzy Bone and Wish Bone. Their most famous single, Tha Crossroads, rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 9 weeks, sold over 17 million copies worldwide, and would later win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.


(Foe Tha Love of Money; the last video Eazy-E appeared in before his death)


(Thuggish Ruggish Bone, their first single)


(Tha Crossroads, dedicated to Eazy-E)


(If I Could Teach The World)

Dear Alicia

I used to really like you Alicia. Even though I foolishly missed out on the experience of your first album, Songs in A Minor, I have all your music from that point on. I appreciated your confidence to venture into the unknown with your music. You weren't like other singers, you had dignity, integrity and it showed in your music. You've sold millions of albums and won tons of awards with your somtimes alternative, sometimes neo-soul genre of music. I know a lot of your songs by heart, Alicia. You were a black woman that I could be proud of. As I watched you grow up musically, personally, and even fashionably; (remember those frontward braids?), I also watched you accept many awards for being the humanitarian that you were supposed to be. I said to myself, "Alicia is beautiful, inside and out." I said, "she actually cares, she knows what matters." The Alicia Keys that I admired would never be caught up in silly drama, or sing songs that could be damaging to a girl's self esteem, this Alicia was humble and educated. This Alicia was self-less and stood worlds above the people that make it harder to live in this world, you were a person that made it easy to listen to your music and not have to say "I like the music but not the person singing it". I stood up for you when other people talked shit about you. I remember when you first burst onto the music scence, it took me a minute to warm up to you but I enjoyed your braids, doo rag and jeans. You wrote your own songs and played the piano! You seemed down to earth, like a homegirl. You were a breath of fresh air from those of us tired from the same gyrating, skin baring singers we had been used to seeing. Your voice was powerful and filled with whatever emotion conveyed in the song. Your lyrics were about empowerment and staying true to yourself. I thought you were real Alicia.

Now, Alicia I find myself hating you more and more everyday. I can't see how someone who sang about Karma is now making bad karma for herself. You should have been the expert on the subject, this mistake that you have made, is a little girl's slip-up and Alicia you're supposed to be a woman. I will never understand how someone who gave all womyn everywhere hope and pride with a song like "Superwoman" can show us that someone who prided herself on being a role model can shatter images of what I good woman looks like for little girls who have no one else to look up to. I am still trying to wrap my mind around how you can help AIDS victims but yet help a man break a woman's heart. Alicia, how can you attribute to the misfortunate experience of breaking up someone's family? How can you leave a child with a broken home? And worst of all how can you show so little empahty or care about your actions and how they affect your fans and the people around you? Don't get me wrong Ms. Keys, I understand that when you're in the public eye you have to keep a persona that can sometimes be limiting. And of course, we all make mistakes. And maybe we all thought you were above making mistakes. But would it have been too much to think that you were above this? I tried to deny it at first. "Not Alicia", I said. Then I came to believe it after I saw pictures and tweets. I had put you on a pedastel that eventually proved to be too much for you to handle. I know your entitled to your privacy, but as someone who proved to a role model for millions, how can you so easily close the door on those who looked up to? I don't deny that you might be dealing with this sliently, but it sure doesn't look like it when I see pictures of you and Mr. Beats plastered on blogs, having a gay ol' time together. I also know it takes two to tango and I will even argue that Mr. Beats is more at faults than you are. He was the one in a relationship, not you. Maybe their marriage was already over, he just needed that extra push. But Alicia, why did you have to be that push? You seem to believe that you are above being the victim of a cheater's actions. Please know, that what goes around comes around, what goes up will come down, if he did it to her, its more than likely he will do it you too. I cannot tell you who to be involved with, Alicia, I just hoped that such an esteemed woman would make better, wiser choices for herself. Don't you know what you're worth Alicia? Did you sing about A Woman's Worth, but didn't have the self-esteem to know yours? I know how powerful love can be, how no matter how many times you leave, love just won't let you. I know, but please Alicia, try, try.

West Coast Hip Hop

I'm from Los Angeles, California baby!! I represent it to the fullest and love it with all my heart! In accordance with this, I will be inducting a series on the subgenre of West Cost hip hop. This first post will be a general one, about West Coast hip hop and furthermore I will start to highlight specific artists that have made an long lasting and positive impact on West Coast and its music. West Coast hip hop is generally characterized was popularized by artists such as Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. Los Angeles and Bay Area, California are main hot spots of the origin and practice of West Coast hip hop. The West Coast was the fisrt area involved in hip hop to add a voice to the ghetto and the happenings there. West Coast hip hop is political too and it was also infused with guitar ridden beats, making it infused with rock musical elements. NWA's Straight Outta Compton soldifies the West Coast place in hip hop music. With such artists belonging to the area, such as Too Short, Cypress Hill, and Ice T, West Coast hip hop is a historical powerhouse. G angsta Funk or G-Funk was also originated in the West Coast. It was a dominant sound that helped put West Coast hip hop on the map. G-funk incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of p-funk tunes, and a high portamento sine wave keyboard lead. There was also a slurred “lazy” way of rapping in order to clarify words and stay in rhythmic cadence. Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples, G-funk often utilized fewer, unaltered samples per song. G-funk often sampled Parliament of Funkadelic songs, popularized by artists like George Clinton. G-funk became the most popular subgenre of hip hop.

Womyn N Hip Hop and Rap Music

So today my friend and I were discussing womyn and, in hip hop. Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte. Just now, I was thinking about how much some people focus on the disrespect of womyn in hip hop and the lack of womyn in hip hop that we forget about the contributions that womyn have made to hip hop in the way of artistry. We need to respect not only womyn's bodies and being in hip hop but also our connection and effect on hip hop. Therefore I am going to implement one of the series I have to come. Womyn in hip hop, first up to the mic. Lauryn Hill. She's my favorite female emcee, her talent, voice, beauty, and creativity were unmatched. We need you back Lauryn!!

Lauryn's appearances on the Fugees first under-the-radar album 'Blunted on Reality'(don't you just love that title?!), was stark but decidely quiet, actually only appearing on half of the album's 18 tracks. On the Fugees follow up album, The Score, Hill had a bigger hand in what would be one of the highest selling hip hop albums, at 18 million. Lauryn won two grammy with Fugees and stood out on a number of tracks with them like 'Ready or Not' with lyrics such as "I be Nina Symone and defacating on your microphone".

However, the Lauryn we all know and loved shined on her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She received 11 nominations for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the first hip-hop album to do so. It won 5 of the 11, making Hill the first female artist to win that many. The album was about the education one receives after leaving school; the life learning process. This really resonated with me because as someone who grows up like other people we sometimes learn lessons that are not necessarily true and right, being that life is a continous learning process, we have to re-learn lessons that we once believed with such conviction. The album changed the way womyn, especially black womyn and womyn in hop hop were viewed. She was credited with bring hip hop into the mainstream with the album's mix of R&B and reggae, not unlike the Fugees previous albums. It was a heartfelt and honest documentation of love, lost, and desperation. Miseducation did what a lot of male artists in hip hop had not done yet and a lot of them would never do. Lauryn was one of the few females emcees in the 90s that didn't join in on the warfare against black womyn. The music of Miseducation was like a spoken word session between her and some of the most talented artists ever, such as D'Angelo, Carlos Santana, and Mary J. Blige. The album was a creative portrayal of what womyn could be and who we are, what we go through and the respect we deserve. She forced us to pay attention and take note with her soft and meaningful lyrics and unassuming smile.

Doo Wop (That Thing)

(Everything is Everything)

(The Sweetest Thing)

(Ex-Factor)

(I Gotta Find Peace of Mind)

Love you Lauryn!

Music of the Day

So simply put: I'm going to start putting up a musical selection of the day, preferably a music video but it may just be a link or a streaming song. Sometimes it may be a classic or a song that I think you should check out. Please let me know what yall want to see.

For today's Music of the Day selection:

Today's selection is a classic by Deap Prez: hip hop.

Drake, Mr. Carter, The Other Mr. Carter, and Mr. West

How many times have us hip-hop fans discussed whose the hottest emcees of all time or even the best rappers right now? Countless lists have been formulated since the beginning of hip hop to chronicle what fans should be listening to, who we should be listening to, what everyone else is listening to, who not to listen to, and who everyone isn’t listening to and shouldn’t be. Numerous publications, respected in hip hop and not, have put together lists like these for the purpose of everything from organization to duty. The lists we put together in conversations with other hip hop heads at home to the hair salons and barbershops, are all dictated by exposure. No one can know about you if there’s no label behind you pumping thousands of dollars to ensure your career and their pockets. If you want people to listen to you, make them think that a whole lot of other people are listening to you. This seemed to be the formula of success for every other emcee except The Original Mister Carter and his soon to be successor Drake. Anyone who knows the story of Jay-Z probably knows that he was one of the first people to start their own record label, in a time when labels were infamous for ripping off their clients. Whatever you think about their lyrical skills and their maybe over-rated hyper-hype no one can not sit up and take notice to the ruthless and uncanny ability to spark buzz like Jay-Z and the rapper formerly known as Aubrey Graham to the teenage-now-grown-up set. Anyone who follows hip hop would be foolish not to include Drake and Jay-Z on their hottest MC’s list. Both artists have been featured on the other’s records. But are these two really enemies? If not in real life, maybe in the ring of rappers and emcees? Or on the front line of lyricism? Or perhaps on the behalf of buzz? No rapper or emcee before or after Jay-Z is able to captivate as much buzz as his larger than life, rock star persona, except maybe Drake or maybe even the other Mister Carter, D’Wayne Michael Carter Jr. Drake along with Lil Wayne are poised to become Jay-Z’s successors whether he likes it or not and some people are more than ready for him to give up claim to the mic.

Drake on the other hand is just getting started and hip hop fans are itching for him to get started. He has yet to release his debut album and continues to garnish teasers with mixtapes. His most popular one, So Far Gone has garnered attention from Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne; his mentor and label boss. According to Fader.com, “On his own records, he abandons Southern double-time to push genre boundaries more like Kanye, rapping over chopped-and-filtered snatches of Coldplay, Lykke Li and Peter Bjorn & John. The differences only get starker if you compare Drake’s bio to his project-raised, tattooed and codeine-addicted mentor. Though born in Memphis, Aubrey Drake Graham was raised in Forest Hills, an affluent enclave of Toronto that is about as far in mood and geography from New Orleans as you could get without a land bridge. Before he ever considered being a rapper, Drake was a child actor, portraying athlete Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. His father, Dennis Graham, was a drummer for Jerry Lee Lewis, and he is nephew to both legendary bassist Larry Graham and Teenie Hodges—a guitarist best known for co-writing some of Al Green’s ’70s classics who’s played with everyone from Talking Heads to Cat Power. The more you know about him, in fact, the harder it seems to know exactly who Drake is. There is something almost chameleon-like about his talent. If his appeal can’t be contained to a one-liner like “Wayne protégé,” it’s only because he invites a whole series of comparisons: to Wayne’s inventiveness, Kanye’s art-school eclecticism, Jay-Z’s braggadocio and Lloyd’s post-Kelly singsong. He has the lyrical teeth to skewer you if you mistake introspection for weakness.”

In today’s hip hop game it is almost a necessity to be from an impoverished background with experience in gunplay and cocaine. The number one reason why rap battles in the mainstream ensue are because one person lies about where they are from or their background and another person calls them out on it. The glamourization of the “hood lifestyle” is on the is a huge problem and hip hop and has people everywhere wanting to be something they are not. Just look at the example of Rick Ross who raps about cocaine and guns, and yet is a former corrections officer. However, there are two examples where this is not true. Kanye and Drake, both come from middle class families where they weren’t exposed to the harsh realities of life. “Drake does not seem particularly pressed to play down the middle class and Jewish half of his biracial upbringing and frequently mentions his mother’s central role in his life.”-Fader.com One may wonder, though, if Kanye and Drake’s limitless life, transfers to limits in their lyrics. The two are known for the boisterous lyrics in which they show their bravado. One might expect for Drake and Kanye’s lyrical content to be something for the ages. Instead we get a kind of dumbing down from their educated selves and even Lil Wayne who attended college for sometime like Kayne. One might want to tap them on their shoulder and tell them that hip hop can be educated too.

Drake is not only a rapper but also, and annoyingly a crooner on most of his hooks. He has a do-it-yourself approach to his music, his production and refreshingly, his image. Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z all fall in the overrated set. Despite that, Drake has signed one of the biggest record deals ever, signing a contract with Lil Wayne’s Young Money for over a million dollars. “That deal is the end result of what has been described as one of the biggest bidding wars the music industry has seen in ages. No one party is willing to share all the details, but Atlantic Records and Interscope’s Jimmy Iovine were certainly both in the mix, and at one point, Universal Motown president Sylvia Rhone apparently threatened Drake with legal action to prevent him from going elsewhere. In the end, he signed directly to Aspire, a company co-run by his manager (and Young Money CEO) Cortez Bryant, with major label distribution through Universal Republic. Although his Wikipedia entry and various news items list his label as Cash Money/Universal Motown, Drake is quick to say, ‘I went through Universal Republic because I don’t fuck with Motown. At all.’ The details are more than academic, since the Universal affiliation is what allows Lil Wayne and Young Money to own a piece of the project. But even though Wayne has been touted as an executive producer in previous interviews, Drake indicates that putting a YM logo on the disc is more of a nod to his mentor than a structural reality. Kanye—according to the people around Drake, anyway—is so open on his talent that he is more amped to work on Drake’s project than his own, dangling the possibility that he might step in as executive producer.”-Fader.com

All four artists can be named the four hardest working emcees in show business. Their names have been on everyone’s lips for a while now in their ever sweeping takeover of the hip hop game. “‘Forever’ may be for the album or possibly a forthcoming soundtrack, a Kanye collabo in which he and Drake bring out the best in each other, elevating their respective rap games in a way that’s only happened with Drake and Wayne on tracks like “Ransom.” It’s the kind of verse that lends real credibility to his fans’ claims that Drake is the best lyricist on the set in 2009. Despite the obvious implication, he does not seem inclined to substitute one mentor for another, preferring to develop the sound for the album himself, drawing beats from his engineer, “40” Shebib, and other members of his crew, loosely known as October’s Very Own.’-Fader.com

However, one can only glimpse into the probably friendly rivarly between all of them. The recent releases of all four were some of the most anticipated and talked about. The Carter 3 versus The Blueprint 3 versus So Far Gone and 808s and Heartbreak. Hip hop breeds competition even among friends. When you feature on someone’s track you better be sure to bring your best or risk being slaughtered on your own song. Jay-Z seems to be coming in first off the heels of his latest release. The Washington Post called him “hip-hop's undisputed alpha male”, albeit in a full out diss to his newest installment of the now completed Blueprint series. Spin says that the Blueprint 3 is posied “to create a world-historical event horizon” with its release. Nothing is more prominent about Jay-Z, not even his artistry, than his skill in exuded pride, confidence, even cockiness and conceit. Any line that you could probably quote from him is for sure expressing his dire love with himself. With his sway, his teasing to bring back Versace shades, and his incessant laziness, seem to suggest that not only does he feel he is number one but that he will always be number one. Not only does he believe he is the greatest alive, he knows that he is the greatest ever; we all know those who agree. But one must wonder if he really feels he is the best why the need to constantly behave in a way that cries so desperately that the fact needs to be proven, namely to the most famous new school to come about in a while, if not ever. On “What More Can I Say, Jay-Z says, “Add that to the fact I went plat a bunch of times. Times that by my influence on pop culutre, I supposed to be number one on everybodys list, We'll see what happens when I no longer exist, Fuck this” You got the Entertainment Weekly proclaimed JV squad Drake and Kid Cudi court the youth vote. Drake, and even though Wayne has been in the game for a while now, we never quite saw him like this with CashMoney; Wale, both who have worked and been listed as proteges of Jay, and LA mixtape kings, Nipsey Hussle and Jay Rock. Is it because he is feeling at least slightly threatened? One would think it weird if he weren’t. Why? Jay is living off money it would take at least a thousand regular people to use in two lifetimes. The crown? Me think so. If a talent is able to surpass Jay what would become of him? He’s supposedly tried so many times to quit the game and as most musicians can relate to, it is his livelihood. And he wouldn’t dare think of giving up his career, the one that saved him from death or a life sentence without a fitting escape. He respects hip hop too much, or at least he says he does. But one has to wonder how can he respect it, when he has obviously gotten bored doing it. He seems to be secretly, embarrasingly, and probably shyly trying to compete with his earlier works or at least before 2006’s Kingdom Come. “There's never been a nigga this good for this long, This hood, Or this pop” The problem is he doesn’t want anyone to know it, so he remains complacent and cocky. Never letting his faithful fans get a glimpse of his vulnerabilities. If he only knew, it would bring us closer and give him what he’s been waiting for; a epic exit from the game. “On The Blueprint 3, Jay aims to rectify that by reconciling his two divergent worlds: the rode-hard history of the Brooklyn housing projects he came up in, and the yachting-
off-the-Amalfi-Coast-with-Gwyneth celebrity Narnia he inhabits today. Even if it lacks the raw power of his earlier work, the album succeeds at its larger goal — reaching maximum commercial blast radius while maintaining its street bona fides.” -EW

These days, you can’t read an article without his age being mentioned and it serves as a reminder to no one more than Jay-Z himself. No matter how much I may be tired of his assertions of being “the new Sinatra”, hip hop doesn’t tire of this recycled but never old formula from Jay. Perhaps ABCNews said it best, “Perhaps that's what rap needs to reinvigorate itself — someone to pull the genre out of its money-clothes-cars-and-girls sinkhole.” He tried to be the savior but he’s one of the reasons it needs saving. One must pause and wonder if the laziness was fueled by this obligatory last album owed to Def Jam. One would also wonder if he would sacrifice his artist integrity like that, but either way he’s and always will be wildly successful. “
After been beat out by his known worshipper, Lil Wayne for the Grammy of Best Rap Album, after performing with him, the complexity of hip hop’s biggest star is sometimes confusing. Its as if he features in their songs to soothe his ego. "Wayne's scorching, I’ll applaud him, if he keeps going, i'll pass the torch to him"
In the December 2006 issue of Complex Magazine, Lil Wayne stated “‘I'm better than [Jay-Z]... I'm 24 years old. (...) I'm 13 years deep with five albums and 10 million records sold, I don't like what he's saying about how he had to come back because hip hop's dead and we need him... What the fuck do you mean? If anything it's reborn, so he's probably having a problem with that. You left on a good note, and all of the artists were saying, 'Yo, this is Jay's house. He's the best.' Now he comes back and still thinks it's his house... It's not your house anymore, and I'm better than you"[85]. On the track "Watch What You Say to Me" Jay-Z makes an attack on Lil Wayne, rapping, "I hear you baiting me lately / I've been doing my best just to stay hater free / Still watch what you say to me / Sooner or later I take you up on your offering / Put you all in your place / Like I'm replacing your father / You're talking to the author / The architect of the Blueprint/ My DNA in your music / Motherfucker, you stupid? Watch what you say to me.". Eventually, the beef was resolved between them, and the two of them recorded tracks together like "Hello Brooklyn 2.0," "Mr. Carter," and "Swagga Like Us.’”

Allmusic's Steve Huey describes Jay-Z as a "a street hustler from the projects who rapped about what he knew—and he was very, very good at it...detailing his experiences on the streets with disarming honesty".[17] Multiple aspects of this lifestyle are explored: "Can't Knock the Hustle" details Jay-Z's hustling talent, "Cashmere Thoughts" and "Dead Presidents II" explain his financial goals and other tracks like "D'evils" and "Regrets" detail how hustling negatively affects the mind. Huey summarizes the album's subject matter saying: “He's cocky bordering on arrogant, but playful and witty, and exudes an effortless, unaffected cool throughout. And even if he's rapping about rising to the top instead of being there, his material obsessions are already apparent [...] the album's defining cut might [...] be the brief "22 Two's," which not only demonstrates Jay-Z's extraordinary talent as a pure freestyle rapper, but also preaches a subtle message through its club hostess: Bad behavior gets in the way of making money. Perhaps that's why Jay-Z waxes reflective, not enthusiastic, about the darker side of the streets.[17]”