KANYE WEST’s position as the Billboard top ranked selling artist for last week isn’t a victory for narcissism, or for teaching AYN RAND’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ inside all public schools. Honestly, it was really only a victory for General Electric, since they own Universal, and Universal owns Island Records and Interscope, which own Def Jam/Rocafella and Aftermath/Shady respectively. So then again, maybe you should pull out your RAND pocket readers.
On a smaller, succinct level, the ascension of ‘YE TUDDA to the top of pop music’s pantheon might simply be the end of Hip-Hop as we know it and believe it to exist. Oh Word had a great drop and subsequent thread about the only album this year that EVERYONE has had an opinion of.
Polos, Tuition, and Jesus (Why I Believe I Can Fly)
The ‘Graduation’ album is by no means on the level of an ‘Only Built For Cuban Links’ or an ‘Illmatic’, but at this juncture in the history of the artistic movement called Hip-Hop it has become the time to celebrate it’s death with a party. A party filled with the good life, flashing lights and drunk and hot girls. I wonder if big brother BARRY BONDS will show up? He just loves glory. You can’t tell that fool nothing.
What I’m saying is that Hip-Hop no longer speaks for the poor and disenfranchised. Oh yeah, there’s dead prez, Mos Def and GAME Rebellion, but who gives a fuck about them? It wasn’t just corporate greed that killed Hip-Hop, but aspiration. Who the fuck wants to come back to the ghetto once you’ve left that place? Unless, of course, you know of a sweet limestone facade browstone townhouse in Fort Greene that someone’s little ‘ol grandma might be selling. Because I’m looking to buy right now. Fuck having street cred, I need a lot of FICO cred right now. When my kids are gamboling up and down the steps of my brownstone their iPods or whatever device the future holds for us will be filled with music from artists whose name I can’t pronounce and whose lyrics sound like chipmunks or walruses or whatever. Hopefully, when I listen to this next genre I will be able to recall some of the samples they use with the music that was the soundtrack to my life. In this way I will be able give my kids music from A Tribe Called Quest the same way that my parents gave me music from John Coltrane.
For the Hip-Hop generation, our time has passed. We had a good run and we created some great art, but it’s time for us to pass the baton. I wonder if you know what that means?
‘YE TUDDA – I Wonder
video link courtesy DAY 2 DAY
