Well first I’d like to say hello and thank for stumbling across Swaggerjackin’, I realized I talk about rap a lot and about the events that take place to the point that most of my friends just give me the sign to shut up so after some thinking I decided I might as well just blog about it. I can be an opinionated asshole at times, I’m aware of that, so why not? Lets just get into it.
What in the hell is wrong with hip hop today? Or music in general for that matter. Instant gratification, lack of substance, a blinding greed up top that’s smothering the life out of the music industry? Bootleggers and thieves? More than likely all of the above. At this point it’s clear that some adjusting, some serious tweaking needs to take place. Today!
So I was surfing like usual and I happened to run across an interview that Irv Gotti did with MTV(source -http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1613247/20090603/jay_z.jhtml ) and “wow” I thought, this is exactly what’s wrong with hip hop. Eminem was recently titled the best MC in the game, I agree but I can see why others would disagree. However, this guy has made a lot of ignorant comments lately. Jay-Z and Em actually both share the title for my favorite MCs. From his statements I wonder if he’s even heard a full Eminem cd, if he had he’d clearly understand why Em was even thrown into that category. He almost seems as if he wants negativity to be out there. As if he wants you to do bad. He seems to hold on to and glorify the lack of creativity in artists today. In fact, dare I say he craves it? That’s the exact attitude that, that’s the invisible foot that’s strangling not only hip hop but the urban community. Let’s just dub it the “I want you to do bad” factor. As a matter of fact he recently made another comment.
And I quote, “I like Nas,” Gotti said in an interview. “First of all, Nas is my brother, another one of my brothers. But I personally like Nas when he’s ignorant. Whenever Nas gets political or he starts thinking or he wants to change the world, it’s good, but I personally like it more when Nas is on his QB, ignorant n*gga sh*t. When he’s on [a] ‘Made You Look’ you know when he’s on his arrogant sh*t. When Nas dumbs himself down, he’s nicer to me. I tell him that sh*t all the time. Just over a break beat. When he’s on some n*gga sh*t, he’s nicer.” (MTV)
I hate to even bring race into it but lets just imagine if that was a white boss that said the same thing. “Oh Tom, I like you more when you’re funny and do a little jig. You just seem so much nicer. I’d feel a little better if you colored your lips red as well, go ahead. Just do it, I think the sales would be through the roof.” It’s no wonder why we have so much music coming out that completely lacks substance. Not that it’s all bad, all music has it’s place, of course you’re not going to go to a club to dance to Nas’ Sly Fox, Jay-Zs’ Meet The Parents or Lupe Fiasco. Everything serves it’s place but it’s all about balance. There’s a lot of great musicians and writers out there that the industry would love if only they had a way of being heard. With that said, Irv Gotti…if you do happen to read this think about it. It’s all good to tell your life stories and rap about glory days, etc but to promote that image, isn’t that the exact opposite of what most hungry artists want? Most of them want to ‘get out’, not dwell in their situation. The whole looking for ‘street artists’ is what’s killing the industry. Why? Well because most end up being fake. I mean lets face it, right now Chris Brown has more of a record than the artists that claim to do this and that. I’ll go even further, if we compared rap sheets Lindsay Lohan should harder than 99% of the rappers out there right now. That’s funny to me and I’m sure others will laugh when they truly think about it. Let’s get real, make real music and PROGRESS. Record execs…take your foot off hip hops neck so that it can breath, grow and regain it’s stamina.