MANTRONIX ‘Needle To The Groove’ cover by Gnome/Gemini
Did I tell you that Hip-Hop should have been diagnosed with the cancer of greed from the moment that the SugarHill Gang dropped their classic track ‘Rapper’s Delight’. If one of the members of the group had not willingly stolen GRANDMASTER CAZ’ rhymebook and brought it with him to the studio them dudes wouldn’t have had shit to say. Hip-Hop stopped being art a long time ago. It’s been dead for a long time too. All I see now are the cultural hustlers picking scraps off the carcass just like vultures. I see you out there…
When COMBAT JACK expressed himself last week I was going to let that be the end of the story since he bodied the dude who had been the lightning rod for the divisive seperatist talk. I don’t come from a place in Hip-Hop where there is a thing such as old school or new school, ’70s or ’80s baby. Where I come from there is only fresh and wack, good or bad. Don’t buy product or ideas from a seperatist. They might have on a fitted cap and a hoodie, but trust me they are only posing. They aren’t really Hip-Hop. Another thing that has killed Hip-Hop has been the people with no talent thirsty to wear the laminate that reads ‘Talent’. If any of you young dunns out there are trying to put yourself onstage please don’t put your trust in management that puts their name before yours.
Whenever I see an A & R or a manager that has a thirsty gut for the ‘Talent’ laminate I feel sorry for the artist that they are supposed to be working for. The artists needs are not going to be addressed when the A & R or the managment is doing everything other than working on the artists’ project. I watched my peoples work at Rawkus and bust their ass for the stable of musicians that were on that label. MOS, TALIB, PHAROE and the immortal BIG L had a team of people behind them that could have easily wanted to jump around on stage with a microphone they damn selves, but those cats played their position and rocked their lane. Some of y’all might know some of the names and that is my point right there. For the true backbone and support staff in the game there is no lust for fame that supersedes the desire to have the artist top billin’. If you are an A & R or an artist manager I should not know your name. Even if you have groomed dozens of artists for the big show I still should not know your name. If I know of you but don’t know of any musicians you have prepared for the grind then you are fronting. There ain’t no future in fronting.
Speaking about fronting, what it do with all the ghostwriting in the crap game? I stopped by ESKAY and picked up the Dre/Crooked I track and I thought it was weird that someone was spitting something obviously written to be performed by someone else. Crooked I didn’t even apend the verses to sound as if her were an emissary of Dre. He spit the rhymes as if HE was Dre. What the fuck is that about? I know that Dre has dudes writing for him since forever. Cube, D.O.C., Snoop even Jigga gave him a song or two, but this episode calls into question the rumors that I have heard for years that Dre doesn’t even produce his tracks.
What is real and originally created in the crap music industry now? Which is worse, biting someone’s rhymes or writing someones’ lyrics? Is it fair for those artists that create the persona and toil in background? Or does all of this go back to my point at the top of the page? Is this the lane that some folks choose for themselves or is it being assigned to them? Hip-Hop lost its way in the bright lights of big business and was run over like a deer caught dead in the headlights of a corporate Mack truck. All that’s left now is a rotting carcass for the vultures to pick away.
