Here's something I wrote a couple of years ago when I was feeling more nostalgic than usual. If I remember correctly, I had just finished watching "The Freshest Kids" which, by the way, is a fantastic movie. Anyhow, this movie got me all "....back in the day, blah, blah, blah...." and feeling a little sad that things weren't the same as when I was a kid. I think about it quite a bit actually especially considering the current state of Hip Hop in general. I still follow things pretty closely in regards to music but am rarely impressed with what I'm finding. This isn't to say that I'm living in the past, but I think it's harder to find really creative and fully realized raps these days. Since it's so easy to release what is made, it seems that a bunch of stuff gets put out sounding a little thin. I hear a lot of stuff that sounds like it was banged out from start to finish in a couple hours and thrown onto the net with little regard for a second or third listen. I realize that Hip Hop music thrives on situations like that but sheesh, maybe go through your little chune and tweak a couple of levels. Things seem to be divided as well. I think growing up when I did has allowed me to appreciate different types of raps for what they are because there was little distinction between actual types of rapping when I was a kid. If it was political, it was still Hip Hop. If it was funny, it was still Hip Hop. There was hard gangster and poppier stuff getting equal time simply because there was less to go around as a whole. I still try to not use any distinctions with my music other than good, bad, I like it, I don't like it, and "that would be awesome to hear in a club".
Soooooooooo.......Yeah, I'm an old man but men get old. I can always look forward to answering questions about the old stuff a few years down the road. Hopefully.
Here's the old thing I wrote.....
Hip Hop made me what I am today.
Hip Hop will always be there for me. I'll admit that I got into it during the early eighties media blitz but that was impossible to avoid. Besides, I was nine years old and loved what I saw and heard. It still moves me and motivates me well over twenty years later and if that doesn't say something about the quality of Hip Hop as an entire culture, nothing can. I actually don't think that anything needs to be said about it anymore because those who really know the time will accept Hip Hop's place in their lives as their driving force.
Hip Hop taught me the most important lessons that I have ever learned. It taught me to have confidence, to be original, to have respect and to earn respect, and to always try to keep moving forward. I didn't get any of this from anything else. That isn't to say that punk rock or whatever doesn't teach those things because I really think that it does and I love it, but Hip Hop is where I got mine. It stuck with me and by me longer than anything in my life.
I'm not a rapper, although I can kick a rhyme every once and a while and know that it's pretty fresh. I wouldn't call myself a DJ but I can mix beats and scratch a little bit. I guess you could think of my turntables as the guitar propped up in the corner. I don't play every day, but when I get in the mood I can flex. I also have a record collection that could probably make yours look like your mothers. I'm no B-Boy buy I've got some fresh moves on the dance floor and have no problem getting down if I'm really feeling it. I was a grafitti writer for a long time and I got to be pretty good at it. It got me into a shitload of trouble a ton of times but I look back at it all very fondly and always come to this question.......
Would I be the same person without Hip Hop? And the answer is no.
Most of the people I know aren't as fond of it as I am and I'm okay with that. I don't think I could be as Hip Hop as I am if I was surrounded by it 24-7. I think I would be selling myself short if I didn't try to explore other things and have new experiences outside the traditional aspects of Hip Hop. Take for instance my love of punk rock and country music. If I hadn't become such a complete nerd for rap, there's no way in hell that I would have tried to find out where all of these samples came from and spend hours in record stores looking for them only to come across Johnny Cash and love it. He was Hip Hop and Elvis was pop. Not to mention a biter. Anyhow.....from all of that came my love for jazz and funk as well. As far as punk goes....well, it was another thing that moved me emotionally and still does. It has a very similar rich history as far as a culture rising out of basically nothing due to the surroundings that it grew out of. Every Hip Hop kid that I have ever known has liked at least a little bit of punk rock and vice versa. No real Hip Hopper will clown you for liking non Hip Hop stuff because everything is Hip Hoppable.
It keeps me humble while it lets me know that I'm the fucking man. That alone drives me to do what I do with gusto because if you can't show and prove what you say you can do, you're just a chump with a big mouth. At least I have a little bit of talent that I try to cultivate and I'll be the first person to ask a question if I don't know and not be afraid of looking stupid. I'm not stupid but I certainly don't know everything and since so many things interest me, I find myself in that situation often. A good example of that is how I bought a grubby Clyde Drexler Tournament t-shirt off of my friend Chappy's back so I could cut out the piece that said "Don't be denied education" so I could hang it up on my bookcase. If you stop learning, you stop growing and when you stop growing, you start dying.
Originality is soooooo important. You can like what someone else does but if you don't put your own spin on it, you're a fucking biter. The slang I speak might make some people write me off as a dummy, but that just weeds out people I don't want to talk to. This happened to me last night. It actually happens often but last night was a good example. This dude that I was with started dogging me out because I said "baby-daddy" instead of "husband". Eveyone there knew that they were married and had a kid so big deal if I said what I said. Shit like that sets me apart and if you want to make fun of me, you'd better come correct because if you really want to get into it, I can tear your ass up and make you look like last year's bitch. Hip Hop taught me how to do that as well. I can be a funny motherfucker at your expence.
The clothes I wear may not appeal to you but I can't bring myself to wear the standard hipster uniforn of way too tight jeans and some t-shirt that says some junk on it. For the record, I'm a little too chunky for tight jeans and I have a few goofy shirts, but that's not all I've got. On the side of Hip Hop fashon, well that's just as bad for the most part. I'm not going to leave the house looking like a toddler rodeo clown who forgot to take the stickers off of his hat. You may say that that in itself is style but when everyone does it, it starts to suck really fast. A good example of fresh style in Hip Hop woud be Farnsworth Bentley and Andre Benjamin.
So I guess that's it. I love Hip Hop and Hip Hop loves me unconditionally.
It is , deep down, who I am and will always be.
And you don't stop.............
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