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Editor’s note: Excerpted from a conversation between ERNIE PANICCIOLI and DAVEY D

As an elder, and as a man who has devoted his entire adult life to documenting Hip Hop I have to drop some science and set the record straight and if it hurts anyone’s feeling fuck them.

Let’s start with the death of Frosty Freeze. I was asked to go to his memorial by several people, my response was simple and to the point: When the brother was alive most of you motherfuckers would not give him a dollar to go see a doctor. His name and image was not even on the Rock Steady Crew website when he was alive. So going to his wake/memorial was just a chance to see old friends, wear your tired Kangol hats, Wild Style t-shirts and pose with a whole lot of broke ass, braggin’ ass motherfucking (I was the first to do this, to do that etc, etc, etc, I was the first Korean to dance in Texas or the first left handed Graf artist or the first DJ to perform in the subway station or the first emcee to get shot or the first B Boy to smoke crack or the first Albino to tag on the 7 line) lames who fail to realize that this is 2008 not 78 or 88 and if you’ve done nothing creative in the past two or three decades it means whatever you did and whatever your contribution was then, it was just a fluke or something caught by Charlie Ahearn’s or Henry’s camera which is still being shown today due to them and their hustle and not due to your particular “genius” or talent.

One of my happiest days was being asked to be part of the historic Federation For The Preservation of Hip Hop. I was hoping the true pioneers would reignite true school Hip Hop. Wow, did I get a wake up call. Every time I was on TV or Radio I shouted out the Federation, when the pioneers were on Tv especially BET they talked about their sneaker collections or took off their shits and showed their muscles or talked about some lyrical beef from 35 years ago, or big upped some wack assed clothing line, not a word about the federation.

Even Kool Herc has no CD’s and all of the music (to my knowledge) available from the rest of the pioneers profits only the bastards that put out the compilations and nothing goes to the artists. Is it any wonder the current generation of rappers and Hip Hop heads laughs at them?

There are damn few real emcees in the current crop or rappers (with the notable exception of Immortal Technique) and even fewer who know or care who came before them. Most of them think Jay Z, L’il Wayne and Puffy (Diddy) are good rappers. Most would not be able to pick out Grand Wizzard Theodore, Rakim, Vulcan or KRS1 out of a police lineup. And 99% of them have never read a book, listened to Jazz know who John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Gil Scott Heron, Richie Havens, Marcus Garvey or Crazy Horse are.

Mos Def said it best, “Hip Hop is us, if we’re violent Hip Hop is going to be violent, if we’re smoked out, Hip Hop is going to be smoked out and if we’re wack, Hip Hop is going to be wack.” As far as getting angry, nah, check back in 5 years from now and see if anyone remembers Dipset or how many members of the crew are still alive or even have ten dollars in their pockets.

In my photographic archive I can show you hundreds if not thousands of washed up, forgotten, exploited, broke, dead, rappers, DJ’s Graf Artists, B Boys and self proclaimed “artists’.

Now let’s ask the hard question then you can go back to your IPOD, Cell Phone, Video Game, Cable Show, DVD or MYSPACE:

Where is our Hip Hop Museum?
Where is our Hip Hop School?
Where is our Hip Hop Political Movement?
Where is our Hip Hop Health Insurance?
Where is our Hip Hop Emergency Fund?
Where is our Hip Hop Detox Center?
Where is our Hip Hop Building?
Where is our Hip Hop Radio Station?
Where is our Hip Hop TV Station?
Where is our Hip Hop Hospital?
Where is our Hip Hop Foster Care?
Where is our Hip Hop Anti-Gang Initiative?

If you answered any corporate-owned (Russell Simmons/ Puffy/ Industry/ Smithsonian) entity to any of these questions then your answer is null and void.

As long as we have to have “Hip Hop events” at devil owned places like Powerhouse Arena, or see 45 year old men still dressing like they are 17 yrs old, or celebrate the 35th anniversary of Wild Style or Krush Groove like they are somehow true Hip-Hop and religious events, and as long as Zulu has to fight, beg, borrow and steal to pay for their anniversary then Hip-Hop to me is just a sad joke.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Crappers, Ghetto Celebs, Social Upheaval, The Guest Room, When I Reminisce.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.