• » Name: Anthony Springer, Jr
• » Age: 25
• » Location: Sigma Land/The City of Sin
• » Member Since: 04/09/07
• » Bio: Hip Hop fan, writer, promoter of higher ed... you want to know more: blusolo1914@yahoo.com
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Mr. Springer's Neighborhood

All Things Not Hip Hop

Before I begin, let me say that none of what I'm about to say is about Hip Hop or your favorite rapper and why I can't stand his ass. So if you're one of those "what's this got to do with Hip Hop?" readers, click the back button, because the answer to that question is "NO."

Outside of watching random dudes get the shit knocked out of them on UFC, I'm not a huge sports fan (until football season). Still, I can't help but watch the ESPN morning shows while I'm getting dressed for my 9-5. I'm also not one of those cats that screams racism at any and every injustice that happens to a person of color, so I'll just label the media coverage on Barry Bonds and Adam "Pacman" Jones what it is: some bullshit.

*sidenote: why do they call that dude Pacman like he doesn't have a real name?*

Anyway, Pacman is being hung by the media and while he's certaintly had his share of fuck ups (and three or four other player's shares too), THIS time, all the criticism is unwarranted. For those of you who don't follow. Pacman is wanted for questioning by police because somebody he knew was involved in *gasp* another strip club shooting. Unlike the All Star Weekend debacle in Vegas, "Make it Rain" Jones wasn't in attendance.

Jones is already facing charges in Vegas for the All Star incident (and yes, Nevada is the M-I-crooked letter x2-I of the West for a reason), my money is that Pacman is about to do some time behind this one. But this latest incident, is nothing more than blood for the wolves. If the average man got locked up because we "knew" somebody that "did some shit," we'd all be facing time (I know I would)...

Unlike Pacman, the  Barry Bonds situation ALMOST stinks of racism...

If Barry wasn't such an asshole.

This comes down to Bonds just not being a likeable guy. The media is all too eager to throw out that "guilty until proven innocent" thing that our country supposedly prides itself on in an attempt to smear Bonds (inevitable) record  breaking season. Let's keep it 100 for a minute, I'm not God, but all signs point to Bonds being guilty, but like OJ, he just didn't get caught. Doesn't mean that he didn't do it, it just means that we need to treat him like he's innocent until we know otherwise.

Hell, the MLB players that got CAUGHT haven't undergone as much media scrutiny that Barry has. I almost feel sorry for him...

But then I'm reminded how much of an ass he is.

 

21 Comments             

If it Ain't Hip Hop... FUCK IT!!

I've been seeing a disturbing trend on this site (and other music sites as well) as of late and it needs to stop. For the record, there are days when I read the comments and feel like the majority of y'all that read really "get it."

And other times... not so much.

Unfortunately, the latter wins out more often than not.

What am I talking about you ask? It's very simple. 9/10, a story is posted about politics or *gasps* an R&B artist and some wise ass will fix his pre-pubescent fingers to type the following:

"What the fuck does this have to do with Hip Hop?!?"
"This is a music web site, we don't want to hear about ______"
"This isn't Hip Hop!"

I hate to ride the "Hip Hop is dead" Benz into blogger sunset, but if you want proof that the culture as we know it is dying, you need look no further than the above comments. I'll go out on a limb here and say that nobody that has typed one of the aforementioned has reached the age of majority. Last week, I blogged about what killed Hip Hop, and while I made some valid points, the thing that's REALLY killing Hip Hop is the lack of knowledge in the [mainstream] game today. To be fair, there are the Mos Def's, Talib's, Common's, Immortal Techniques etc. dropping science. But to be real, none of them are blaring from the average fan's ipod.

For those of you frontin, size 40 pants wearing on a 30 inch waist, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL white tee on a 5'2 frame, "I eat Hip Hop for breakfast, lunch, the afternoon snack AND dinner" Hip Hop fans whose only consumption of Hip Hop is via Viacom outlets and local radio, please, for the love of all that's good... OPEN A BOOK (but not until you finish reading the stuff on DX).

Hip Hop is so much more than music and some of y'all have either forgotten that, or been so brain washed by corporate America that you never knew life outside of 16 bars existed.

Knowing what's going on at Capital Hill AND how it effects YOU... THAT's Hip Hop
Empowering yourself and your community (whether you're in the hood or the  burbs)... THAT'S Hip Hop
an R&B singer over a break beat... yeah, THAT's Hip Hop too.

See, Hip Hop is more than music, and to limit Hip Hop to the art of 16 bars is demeaning to the culture. I hate most of the rap music that's on radio today... but I'm still Hip Hop.

Look beyond the surface before labeling something "not Hip Hop." If we are "the Hip Hop generation," everything we do, see, say and are involved in...

well, THAT'S Hip Hop (word to KRS-ONE)

36 Comments             

What Killed Hip Hop...

1.THE MUSIC VIDEO:

 I remember a time when I had no cable and the only outlet to get music was through the RADIO (some of you all are too young to remember such a time, the older readers know exactly what I'm talking about). Of course, there was The Box, and if you were lucky enough to have cable, BET had decent programming and unless you fucked with rock, MTV wasn't fucking with you outside of Yo! MTV Raps. Back when radio ruled, one could go weeks or even months without seeing the face(es) of the artist(s) on the other end of your speakers. This meant that a song actually had to be GOOD to be liked. Imagine the time that an artist had to stand only on the merits of his/her music to make it big. It didn't matter how you looked, a hit song was a hit song, which leads me to...

2. DUMB ASS HIP HOP DANCES

I said this back in Callin Out Names: Stop All the Got Damn Dancing and I'll say it again here: If your break out song has an accompanying dance move, (in the words of Craig Mack) you won't be around next year! Let history serve as our best reminder, The Tootsie Roll, The Dip, The Step Daddy, The Cha Cha Slide and so on and so on (and with the exception of the first, how many of these songs do you still here at the club?). Maybe it's a curse, maybe it's not... either way, MC 2stepSnapyafangasWalkitoutLeanwitit didn't pay attention. Dropping a dance record firmly cements you in people's minds as a gimmick, and we all know that gimmicks don't last. At one point, The Running Man and the Cabbage Patch were the hotness, NOBODY does them now unless they're reminiscing on the old school.

3. THE RAP GAME=THE DRUG GAME

The infiltration of the drug game lifestyle on rap is probably the biggest culprit. A SMART hustler gets in and gets out. Music is not a business, it's an art. Getting in and getting out means you've taken from, rather than giving to the game. However, what most of you average fans don't know is that the game will rape you before you rape the game. The emcees who claim to be getting in and getting out, are usually escorted out by the record labels and driven back to regional success.

4. DISPOSABLE MUSIC
   
There's a reason that artists like Cube, Rakim, Tribe, De La etc. still have songs that people know to this day. The game is plagued by what I call disposable music (see #2). Disposable music is that flavor of the month music, that you won't remember in another 6. Often times these  artists have one hit single, or an album full of singles instead of an album that's going to stand the test of time. Once again, Walk it Out (DJ UNK), decent song, but when the dance fades, his career is likely to go with it. Songs like Ain't No Fun... those stand the test of time (that is, unless Hip Hop gets a conscious and women start respecting themselves)

5. FREESTYLE FRIDAY

There is no single entity responsible for the decline of Black culture like BET (with the exception of shitty parenting and a lack of supervision). Somehow, BET was able to bastardize 106th and Park's Freestyle Friday. Have y'all watched that shit lately? I've seen rappers spit straight writtens (and shitty ones at that), the ones that do manage to freestyle fail to ride the beat and struggle to rhyme and the pre-teen crowd eats it up like it was Jigga on stage. My God, somebody bring the Fight Klub cats down there.

48 Comments             

T-Pain is Aight With Me...

After a co-sign from one of my favorite emcees (Phonte from Little Brother), I decided to give T-Pain's sophomore effort, Epiphany a listen. Not a thorough one, but a listen nonetheless.

(writers note: Ain't it a bitch that T-Pain is on album two, but Saigon can't even get a single on the radio)

For the record, I think that T-Pain is the 2007's slightly less talented version of Roger Troutman. The album isn't offering anything new and for the most part contributes to, what I call disposable music aka. shit you won't be listening to in six months (but that's another blog entirely).

While I'm not a huge T-Pain fan, I have to give the album a thumbs up because of a few, socially conscious songs. Like him or hate him, TP is on a roll these days. Buy You a Drank is one of my guilty pleasure songs, Bartender is going to be another hit and while not on the album, he outshined Kelz and TI on the Flirt Remix. Interwoven into the tracks about ballin on a budget, odes to a woman's six pack and talk box harmonizing are the tracks I Got It and Suicide.

I know most of you die hard Hip Hop fans have no idea what I'm talking about. In a nutshell, the two tracks are about a man and woman that end up catching the monster.

And by monster, I mean HIV (word to Eazy E)

Magic and Eazy catching the disease should've been enough for us to wake up, yet I've seen and heard more irresponsible sexual behavior on wax and in vidoes than I can count. Even though it ain't no fun if the homies can't have none, alcohol and medication don't mix. In other words, you won't be buying too many drinks if you're downing HIV cocktails to stay alive.

Word to Magic Johnson.

Suicide dives into a topic that 95% of artists today won't touch. With all this talk about being on the hotline and fucking like wild animals (word to R. Kelly), it's nice that somebody presents the other side of the game. Maybe some of these kids will listen.

T-Pain is no Teddy P., but I can appreciate him making a song like this, he might save somebody's life.

*rolls out bumping the Epiphany song dedicated to oral sex, 69*

26 Comments             

In Defense of Tyler Perry...A Response

That Tyler Perry blog had some jokes in it and while I enjoyed reading it, I have to respectfully disagree on this one.

While there are a number of folks who have issues with Black men in drag (see: just about every Black comedian who's had a TV Show), I fucks with Tyler... even though the Madea character is way over the top.

Actually, for most of us Black folk, there's a Madea in every family (I had two, R.I.P.). I have a few crazy ass relatives that I would only chill with at family functions and I'm sure most of you readers do too.

The idea that Tyler Perry's plays, movies and now his TV show, House of Payne (which had a few dry moments) can't be placed in the minstrel show category because the message is different.

Beyond Madea's over the top antics, the weed smoking and the gun popping (my grandmother's didn't smoke and their weapon of choice was the belt), the message is always one of upliftment and/or hope.

Tyler Perry is no Shakespeare and his movies definitely leave a lot to be desired, but a minstrel? Not hardly. Sticking that label to him puts him in the same category as such greats like the Ying Yang Twins, Homeboys in Outerspace and about 98% of the other rappers out now.

Love it or hate it, I challenge you to find something negative in the overall message of any Tyler Perry production.

If it's a choice of BET or TP... I'm fucking with the latter.

20 Comments             

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