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  • » Name: A.H.L.O.T.
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Altering Popular Perception Since 1985

"Stop hatin' on Jay-Z...Dominque!"


November 20, 2007 | Tags: Jay-Z, Kanye West, stephen berrios, american gangster
THE MAN WHO WROTE THE LETTER TO KANYE IS BACK...ANOTHER OPINION FROM STEPHEN BERRIOS...

“American Gangster” < “Graduation”. Bring on the haters. Now most people won’t even finish reading this article based on the opening line, but I didn’t really want them to read this anyways. The following is a piece for true hip-hop heads, “those with no self-esteem need not apply”. (If you know that one you get a gold star in the hip-hop grade book!)

Back to the task at hand, explaining why “American Gangster” is better than “Graduation” . Before I begin I must say that I was in denial of the truth for a while, being that I’m from Chi-Town and felt “Graduation” really projected Kanye into a league of his own on an artistic level.

:::DISCLAIMER:::
Now to all the peeps out there that accused me of “Stanning” Kanye on my last piece you must realize that when I talk about artists and their art, the art is the extent of my interest in them. I used to give a fuck// now I could give a fuck less what these niggas do on a day to day basis, who they are dating, or what’s going on in their personal life. The art an artist makes is always much bigger than themselves, if they are any good that is, and the same has been true since Beethoven, Di Vinci, or The Beatles. While it is true that artists draw upon life experience to create art, people connect to art in various ways that can never be expressed in an conversation, essay, blog, song, portrait, or any forum of art. So when I say I love, no homo, Kanye or Jay’s music please don’t be so naive to think I hold some sort of feelings towards these men. I respect their art and ability to connect with the human spirit as any patron of the arts should, and no patron is not the same as the tequila for all you dumb ass Yung-Joc lovin’ niggas in the crowd. :::END DISCLAIMER:::

“Graduation” was a banger from front to back, no lies, and you instantly knew it was hot from the moment you inserted the cd or loaded it into I-Tunes, but fact of the matter is its not real. “American Gangster” is not a banger from front to back at the get go, takes a few listens to grow on you, but is very real. Now I’ve never been one to judge what is real from fake, since we fabricate so many things in our existence it’s often impossible to find a kernel of truth anywhere, but this is one of the few times I have been able to distinguish the two while knowing in the depths of my soul that I am absolutely correct.

“Graduation” is Kanye’s “Blueprint” as was made apparent before (even if you don’t agree with my analysis, for argument’s sake take my presumption at face value) and about achieving success in the rap game as Jay did on his “Blueprint”. All the songs on “Graduation” are uplifting scores that make you feel good and ponder, or “Wonder”, about what it means to achieve true liberty by using your freedom to accomplish your dreams and goals.

Now for those of you that don’t understand the fundamental difference between liberty and freedom I’ll give you a quick political philosophy lesson. Freedom is the right, or the capacity and ability, of self-determination as an expression of the individual will, while liberty is the condition in which an individual has the ability to act according to his or her own will. Basically liberty is doing whatever the fuck you want to do and freedom is what allows you to do whatever the fuck you want to do. Now without getting too boring or anal about terms I want to make it clear that the difference between the two is very important in understanding how individuals act in accordance with the Social Contract we are all subject to. Now the Social Contract, last time I swear, is the idea that we as human beings give up certain rights to the government in order to have social order, i.e. we all agree that killing human beings is off limits so we don’t have to worry about random people killing us for our groceries. (Irony? Yes!) Anyways these theories came from stuffy old white dudes that never understood what “Superman, Dat Ho” meant, but they are a fundamental building blocks of hip-hop, as hip-hop is a culture born of the United States which embodies the ideals of the Enlightenment in the high and mighty Constitution and Declaration of Independence. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” this phrase should ring a bell or two in those empty shells you call brains, if you were awake during U.S. History, and it was written by Thomas Jefferson, who also had Jungle Fever b-t-dub.

Now you can make the argument that the previous history lesson doesn’t relate to you, anything in your life, or hip-hop but you would be wrong. Now take what I just said and fast-forward to 2007 and examine track 3 of AG “American Dreamin’”. Finished with that? Let’s continue. Jay is telling his story, and the story of any child coming from the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder, from the beginning and spitting what every young person does on a daily basis, dream. He already said a “Pray”-er for the youth entering the cold world we live on track 2 so let’s examine what he was praying for. Achieving your dreams is the ultimate expression of liberty and your freedom allows you to act upon your will. See why you were wrong about the history lesson?

The same is true with “I Wonder” off of Grad. Kanye is posing the question if we really understand what it means to achieve liberty and “find your dreams”. Now while they don’t explicitly spell it out for the listener or perhaps don’t even understand the terms I borrowed from the old smelly, I mean stuffy, white dudes, this idea is impossible to escape if you are educated, raised, or live in the United States. From the moment children are able to speak and form comprehensive sentences adults pose the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This question is a direct embodiment of the “American Dream” by wanting to be able to express your freedom to achieve true liberty.

“I Wonder” is the third track from “Graduation”, no more conspiracy theories I promise, so it is relatively early on in the LP’s track listing just like “American Dreamin’”. Kanye progresses on the album and offers more positive messages through “Stronger”, “Good Life”, “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’”, “Glory”, “Homecoming”, hell the whole thing is uplifting and ends on the highest note of the album “Big Brother”. Now I recently had a conversation with a young, bright, and well dressed blogger about Jay-Z’s arrogance when it came to the track of “Big Brother”. She argued that on “106 and Park” Jay said when he heard the track he thought it was the most important song Kanye has ever made. She interpreted this as arrogance where I saw it in a different light. Consider hip-hop after we have passed, hard to do but stay with me. If historians are tracking the progression of hip-hop through its music then “Big Brother” is a very important track. From the song we find out more about Kanye’s life, how he connects to Jay-Z, and who was Jay-Z’s influence. Think of “Big Brother” as a Wikipedia article that allows the listener to branch out and go further back into time by exploring Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G.,from that point you have to look at Tupac and then you think about who their big brothers were and can travel even farther back. “I start thinking, how many souls hip-hop has affected//How many dead folks this art resurrected.” (More gold star opportunities)

So to recap “Graduation” provides us with all kind of inspirational tracks and ends on the high note of “Big Brother”. By the end of the LP the listener should be content and fulfilled with the happy ending of graduating. Kanye pulls off his goal and hypnotizes the listener with happy thoughts and feelings about making it and getting where we want to go. AG starts off in a similar fashion but has a much different progression and ending which accounts for its realness. Once the listener hits “Roc Boys” that is the high point of the story. It is the moment in “Goodfellas” when Ray Liotta hears the news that Robert DeNiro pulled off the airport heist. It is the Michael Jordan crossover jump-shot dagger against the Utah Jazz to seal the game and championship. It is the moment the high school graduate gets his acceptance letter from the university of his choice. In short it is the high point of achieving liberty in the American experience.

After all the aforementioned events things only get worse for the individuals accomplishing their dreams. In Goodfellas everyone starts to get popped off. Jordan tries a comeback with the Wizards and taints his legacy. The high school kid has to graduate then find a real job to deal with all the new costs he must endure.

Jay-Z understands the reality of life very well and shifts the tone of AG dramatically. On “Party Life” he tries to show you how he is the flyest but has to repeat himself to the girl he is trying to pursue because she won’t listen to him. He is trying so hard to buy into the facade he has put up but the hook keeps crooning the sweet melodies of the truth “When you’re blue ain’t got nothing to do//Head into the party life//If you feel low ain’t got no place to go//Head into the party life”. “Ignorant Shit” shows Jay getting pissed off at the amount of hate he and all of hip-hop is receiving from the media. “Say Hello” paints a picture of the image Jay-Z is projected as, when it couldn’t be further from the truth of the matter. He sets the record straight at the end of the track stating, “Tell’em I'll remove the curses//If you tell me our schools gon' be perfect// When Jena 6 don't exist// Tell’em that's when I'll stop saying bitch...BITCH!!!”

Next up is “Success”, the best track and most important, where Jay speaks on how achieving liberty isn’t nearly all it’s cracked up to be. “I used to give a shit, now I don't give a shit more// Truth be told, I had more fun when I was piss poor//I'm pissed off, is this what success all about?//A bunch of niggas acting like bitches with big mouths?” This sole quote does not do the song justice as the blaring organs send shivers down your spine, and Nas absolutely crushes his verse harder than Barry Bonds at Wrigley Field with the wind blowing out. The overall theme of the song, along with Armand Assante’s sampled intro, talks about the perils of success and the perils of obtaining liberty. The trick of liberty is that while everyone wants it, not everyone adheres to the rules mandating how to achieve it. (Irony? No, depression.)

“Fallin” is the final track of the story as Jay comes to the conclusion that everyone does in life, “It all falls down, I’m telling you all, it all falls down”. (No gold stars for that one, maybe silver but not gold) Sooner or later life takes a big shit on you no matter if you are dealing with legal or illegal enterprises. This is the cold hard truth that everyone is afraid of but everyone acts as if they don’t know it’s there.

Jay tries to pick up the pieces and offer manly insight on “Blue Magic”, where the “Fuck Bush” line is genius for more reasons than its surface value, and “American Gangster” but he has already let the cat out of the bag and it is impossible to go back. It’s the same concept of the classic “Cave” story by Plato or the blockbuster movie “The Matrix” , once you see the light it’s impossible to go back into the dark.

The difference in the way the stories play out on “Graduation” and “American Gangster” make AG a better piece of art. AG is real when it tells you that the world sucks and every time you pull yourself up life knocks you flat on your ass. Kanye’s ending is happy and optimistic because his character is still young in his career and thus is full of more life. Jay’s character has gone through the ups and the downs and tells the audience the truth of the matter, life sucks and the American Dream is complete and utter bullshit.

It hurts me to type those words as I like to be open-minded about the future, but I know that is nonsense I feed my brain to keep on striving. Does this mean we are all doomed? I don’t know. But it does shatter our perception of what we view success as and in turn what we view ourselves as. The pursuit of the almighty dollar is the chase that takes us to our grave. It shapes all of our dreams into cold empty boxes we are forced to open time and time again only to be met with the agonizing feeling of disappointment. The chase is also killing the culture we keep close to our hearts, and I don’t know if there is a way to save it. “Where were you the day hip-hop died?// Is it too early to mourn?// Is it too late to rise?” (Final gold star opportunity, get’em while they’re still here...)
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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