Wake up

Ever wake up with a song in your head...or a scene from your own internal movie? Just thoughts, creative ones, that you cannot seem to dispell. I did that today...woke thinking about Hip Hop-the song that was in my head could have been entitled Nostalgia, because it was a mental rhythm about the good ol' days of the artform. I read an article last week that said the sales in the industry were down, and there was no one out there who really mattered anymore. I mean I began in the beginning days of Hip Hop, an old skool head some would say, roots like Melle Mel and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambatta, Marley Marl, Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew...the list goes on and on. Cats liked to party in those days, but they also had something to say. It was clean, maybe a few "explicit lyrics" but mainly just good music. Just good music.

We have a few of those artist today, but the microphone is disrespected daily. I mean, what you talking bout? I used to want to be a rapper, straight up-but I knew I would want my parents and my aunties to be able to listen to my music. To at least acknowledge that I created it, so I knew I could not say certain things. Things that are overtly profane, mysoginistic, vulgar and derogatory towards people. Therefore when I wrote rhymes, they usually were on some revolutionary vibe or positive message sentiment. I remember my cousin who was a DJ once said "Man them ain't no rhymes, that is like a poem or something." Forshadowing I suppose, but regardless of that I do not understand who has raised some of these rappers today. Saying the most haneous things out of their mouths, and winning awards for doing so...i.e. It's So Hard Out Here For a Pimp-Oscar? That is a entry in itself.

I mean I do not want to be a hypocrite, I listen to all kinds of music and all kinds of Hip Hop. I may not buy everything, but I get hype off some stuff that falls into the category most recently described. I wouldn't play it with my mom in the car-if that explains it better. But I still do not think the essence of the genre is represented anymore. I know there are undergroud artists who are continuing the legacy left by the founders of the art...but they are seldom heard on the radio, and less known than many of their genocidal colleagues. Still, it is not all about the money or the hit song or cats like Talib Kweli would have left originality home a long time ago...to many, today as was yesterday, Hip-Hop is still voice of the people.

Mind you, some people are mad and murderous, but the vast majority are just trying to make it out here...trying to live honestly and peacefully, raising kids and working too hard. That is what gave birth to Hip-Hop, the struggle. No one wanted to be a rapper...it just was...it just became you. Not for the fortune and fame, but for the people and the message. It is so hard for a Pimp? It is so hard for a single mother with two kids, it is so hard for a brother who just got outta jail for possession with intent, it is so hard for a young woman waitressing to pay for college...these are the stories that do not make the radio-aint GHETTO enough for the hook. But these stories are Hip-Hop...put life to a thumping beat, life in the hood...Black life, Poor life, City life, Country life...to a beat, and you got it.

In essence, the music is getting a bad name. Again, I am not nor ever will hate on gangsta rap and even that which I call filth mouth-self explanatory-there is honestly a place and a time for it all. However, as we think more about the future of a people and the further development of their culture we must look closely at the work...the art, the legacy we put forth and refine it. Hip-Hop is more than the rap song, but the rap song is Hip-Hop...rearrange the vocals and master the beat and rewrite the present.