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Malik's
Musings
Presently, Hip-Hop is so in need of a voice, it’s almost depressing. And when you’re in depressing and desperate times, what do you do? You look back to the source to provide you with hope, right? So, where is our Neo? I suspect he’s somewhere in New York City. It’s been tried elsewhere, but the truth is no one else from any other place is going to command the attention that will begin to balance out the lyrical and conscious elements of our culture, but someone from NYC. If you need any proof at all, look no further than North Carolina’s own Little Brother, who all of 40 or so thousand people listened to bless us with the best album of 2005 (The Minstrel Show). Hot off success of their independent debut and their third member/producer who was/is viewed by many as the next great record maker, it seemed as if they were poised to make their mark. That is until higher media powers made sure their buzz would be all but stifled because of their anti-shucking and jiving stance. Hey, I’m no conspiracy theorist (well, not today, anyway), but when you’re a black rap group on a major label with a producer that just made records for Jay-Z and Destiny’s Child and you can’t get your video played on THE black video station for no other apparent reason, you tell me what that’s all about. Plain and simple, a nigga from New York wouldn’t be having that shit. He would command his voice be heard and the people in the media Mecca would make sure he wouldn’t be ignored. Yes, I know, very sad and uninspiring, but are you at all surprised? I’m not, but I still want to know where our Hip-Hop nationalist is. Where is our V from Vendetta? I fear if we don’t find him soon our music is in danger of faltering into an endless abyss of booty shaking, gangsta and snap music. Don’t mistake that as hate for those genres of rap, but man cannot live on crunk alone. Can I get a “Yeaaaaaaaah?” Balance people, that’s all I ask for and with that, there must be someone at the forefront of the “movement” (aka the most overly and incorrect used word in Hip-Hop). As it stands now, we have but maybe one or two prospects and just so we’re clear, neither of them is named Nas or Jay-Z. Nope. First of all, they’re both too old, or should I say too established to turn a tide as large as this one. And second of all they both have different agendas. Jay is a corporate guy now, which is another front Hip-Hop needs heroes on, but honestly, he hasn’t had the mentality of being the conscious voice of the people since he was swivel-hipped sidekick. That’s fine; it actually worked out better that way. As for Nas, he exemplifies just how difficult it will be to locate a complete Hip-Hop hero. He really was destined to be our Dark Knight over 12 years ago, but in an ironic twist of fate he turned out to be more like Kobe Bryant than Bill Russell. The pedigree, the incredible talent, the skill level, and in the end neither of them was built for the long haul of being the “next.” Simply too much pressure. It’s more than excelling at the craft. So where do we turn now? Where is Hip-Hop’s Superman and who will he return as? I honestly don’t know, but we’re badly in need of him. Whether you want to admit it or not, we all need him to challenge everything that the suits stand for and we could give a fuck less about. For everything we need and they could give a fuck less about. And most of all for the next generation of emcees to see as living proof that there are options other than what they hear on the radio manufactured by a machine. Presently, the closest thing we have to our savior is a guy from Chicago that would probably rather go shopping before he was ready to be a martyr. Saigon may be the only rapper in the world who is even remotely close to playing the part and shouldering this heavy burden, based on his recent television and media exposure. I fear just because he’s being touted as some sort of revolutionary that the machine is readying itself to control his momentum anyway. Hip-Hop nation, your next hero will likely come from where you and I least expect, but more than likely, he’ll still call the city that made it famous home. Hmm, I wonder what Rakim’s son is up to. Hey, don’t laugh it’s not as far fetched as say Farrakhan having a grandson who’s a D-1 basketball star prospect, is it? Hmmm, I wonder if he raps.
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All due respect
to Busta Rhymes, who just delivered possibly the album of the
summer and certainly his career, but he is not the chosen one
for this “Bring Hip-Hop” back to our
beloved Burroughs coalition. Don’t mistake anything I’m
about to tell you as just being about numbers either. Capital
is power in the music industry, without a doubt, however, that’s
not the foundation Hip-Hop was built upon, therefore can not
be used as the sole criteria when evaluating it, just because they use
it to define us. No one in recent memory has put it better than
Joe Budden when he said, “Your first week ain’t
right, they can’t fuck with him. Now if you ain’t sell
five mil, they had enough of him, let me find out Hip-Hop’s
turning Republican.” So, yeah as evidenced by ‘Pac
who was the voice of the struggle before he went diamond and
way after, this is about more than numbers, it’s about
the voice of the struggle. 