• » Name: William E. Ketchum III
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• » 10 People Who Have Me Excited About Hip Hop. #2 - Rik Cordero
• » 10 People Who Have Me Excited About Hip Hop. #1 - B.o.B.
• » "To Trick Or Not To Trick?": A Debate
• » Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs [#1: Method Man]
• » Byron Hurt Presents "Barack & Curtis: Manhood, Power & Respect"

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Speech Is My Hammer...

"To Trick Or Not To Trick?": A Debate

Originally posted on my new homepage, SpeechIsMyHammer.com.

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Below is a conversation I had with one of my best friends, about the rejuvenated phrase, “It ain’t trickin’ if you got it.” Shout outs to my homegirl for letting me post the conversation, despite the anonymity and the exclusion of certain pieces of information.

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Future Wife, Seriously. (9:44:39 PM): But see, it aint trickin if you got it

Ketchums (9:45:02 PM): nah, it’s trickin if you got it. because you’ve got to have it to trick.

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:45:07 PM): lol u know, honestly

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:45:08 PM): I STILL do not even know what that phrase means. I just heard it twice on 106 & Park today, so I used it. lol and of course, I’ve used it before then

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:45:30 PM): and no, I don’t regularly watch 106 & Park

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:45:34 PM): I was watching it to see someone I knew, that’s all

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:45:38 PM): but yes, I digress, the point is

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:45:41 PM): what does that mean, anyway

Ketchums (9:45:52 PM): lol, well you know what trickin’ is, right

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:46:27 PM): lol no, actually, I do not.

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:46:34 PM): *waits to be educated*

Ketchums (9:46:42 PM): a trick is a prostitute’s client. so the verb “trick” is used, actually, as both the customer and the the prostitute’s actions. the woman is usually referred to as “turning tricks,” while, if a dude is “trickin,” he’s wasting money to get a woman to sleep with him. the term isn’t limited to deliberate prostitution though - if a guy is just paying her way to a woman’s heart, so to speak, it’s often considered trickin also. like if he’s deliberately using his money - and nothing else, or minimizing his own qualities - to get the woman in bed, he’s tricking

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:50:27 PM): hmm, let me take a sec to get that

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:50:37 PM): If I am paying a prostitute to sleep with me, I am considered to be ‘trickin’, because it basically means I’m allowing myself to pay for sex. so I’m losing money on sex, assuming money is more valuable than sex

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:50:50 PM): I see.

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:50:55 PM): lol this conversation is hilarious, btw

Ketchums (9:52:35 PM): correct. and on both ends they lose - a woman, ideally, is supposed to value her body to where sex with her is a privilege, not something that can be bought. and sex is an issue of conquest with guys, so if a guy has to spend his hard-earned cash for sex, that implies that his game/looks/etc. aren’t enough

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:53:04 PM): I see!

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:53:06 PM): Then again, some dudes are just too busy to pursue

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:53:19 PM): however, I suppose if a man were hot enough, women would be throwing themselves at him, etc. there are some guys who say they don’t want the emotional drama, so they just pay for it. though, interesting, I see

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:53:30 PM): Well the guys I date spend money on me, though I don’t think they see it as trickin

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:53:38 PM): well, the (person who bought me an extremely expensive object) probably did. which is unfortunate; I still intend to pay him back. I haven’t yet, but I want to because, I just think that was too bad…I think he got it largely because he wanted me to like him, or he thought it was buying him brownie points

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:54:27 PM): however, I tend to date affluent men, and they way they spend money is not a big deal to them. even the young guys I’ve dated have been affluent; again, the money has not been an issue. which, I suppose, is what folks mean when they say, “it aint trickin if you got it.” because, if you aren’t losing anything by spending, it is not trickin

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:55:37 PM): ur not doing it because u think u have to; ur doing it because u enjoy the thrill of being a man who can do that, u probably like the power that conveys, or the edge u get by knowing u can spoil your woman

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:55:56 PM): i do find the power dynamics in relationships to be really interesting, though

Ketchums (9:56:13 PM): “ Future Wife, Seriously. ” (9:55:37 PM): ur not doing it because u think u have to; ur doing it because u enjoy the thrill of being a man who can do that, u probably like the power that conveys, or the edge u get by knowing u can spoil your woman

 

 

^^trickin’

Ketchums (9:57:02 PM): and it’s trickin’ if you’ve got it - because you’ve got to have it to trick. I can’t trick you out if I’m absolutely broke

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:57:12 PM): no no, what I’m saying is if your family owns peasants and entire villages, and you have several properties, and u basically help save people’s lives for a living, as just an example

Future Wife, Seriously. (9:57:38 PM): and u don’t really have trouble getting women…women like u, want u, etc. but u find one who u really like, and u spend money on her because u just enjoy spoiling her, u like the way that feels, then, how is that tricking? because u don’t need to do that

Ketchums (9:58:02 PM): nononono. to me, if a guy *genuinely* just wants to spend money on someone for no reason, then it’s not trickin’; but you will rarely, rarely, rarely find a guy who’s spending money on one specific woman like that who isn’t looking to get her in bed

Future Wife, Seriously. (10:00:09 PM): I agree. But use (my current bf), as an example, because the above example was about (my current bf). he likes spoiling me, but he doesn’t “need” to do it, in general.

Future Wife, Seriously. (10:01:41 PM): But if I am honest, there is this interesting exchange of sex and money in relationships. There was one time, when we went out to this really nice restaurant and I was all over him, basically, and he refused to let me pay for anything. even though I kept trying, all day. and he goes, well you can just pay me back later

Future Wife, Seriously. (10:11:10 PM): and it was a joke, but frankly, there is this really interesting exchange. not just with him, but in general, with men and women

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Thoughts?

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Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs [#1: Method Man]

It's Monday, and as promised, here's number one of the Lowered Expectations list: Method Man. Only one or two people suggested Meth when I've been putting together my list, so it'll be interesting to see what people think of this. It's a pretty long entry, but I felt that it was necessary since he was at the top of the list. Oh yeah - and just to show you guys my appreciation for the comments/discussion (and to avoid accusations that I'm avoiding conversation), I've also included Honorable Mentions and Non-Honorable Mentions, with my reasoning for not including them. Some you'll agree with, some you'll disagree with, and some I really don't have answers to. Either way, enjoy.

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The Potential: Method Man had every single ingredient necessary to succeed. He was a standout member of the Wu-Tang Clan-which isn't only one of the best groups of all time in terms of product and concept, but was one of those entities that really took over shit in all areas in its prime. Don't forget, the Wu had GOAT personalities/talents like Ghostface, ODB and GZA as well (it seems obvious, but it's one of those things that's easy to forget when you don't really break it down). He had a Top 5 producer (RZA) on his side, plus a crew of other immensely talented Wu-Tang producers to handle the beats. The Wu had the music, the clothing line, video games, the graphic novels; all that shit. Youngsters: think Roc-A-Fella and G-Unit combined in their primes, but like five and eight years earlier, respectively. RZA may have been the mastermind, but Method Man was the face.

Tangible assets aside, Method Man was an emcee's emcee as well. He had imaginative lyrics, and his rough, patented flow will forever be considered one of hip-hop's most distinctive. When he's rhyming alongside Redman or his fellow Wu-Tang members, his verses were always standouts. He's also always had the bonafide charisma of a celebrity: he's stupidly funny, and that's translated everywhere from album skits to TV (well, maybe not always on TV) and movie roles. Dude even had his own comic book released this year! And I won't even get into his live shows; you'd really have to be there to understand.

What I think is most important here is that all of these assets and talents, he had the advantage of a time frame when the game was ready for him to capitalize on it. He had everything there for him at the time when East Coast rap-both lyrically and production-wise-was at its peak, when the Wu was leading the way, and when his acting career was prominent enough to give his rapping career the attention that it was set to deserve. Method Man had the tools and the talent to be a Top 5-10 emcee in rap history, period.

 

The Disappointment: The problem is, Meth's solo career didn't match his solo potential. His Tical debut was dope: not as good as it should've been, but it was really dope. Some would say that it was overshadowed by all of the other albums that came out in 1994 (Illmatic, Ready To Die, Resurrection, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Hard To Earn), and despite Meth's buzz being what it was, that's an excuse I'm willing to live with. After all, Nas, Biggie, Common, and Outkast are still considered as all-time greats over a decade later. But in many circles, Tical is still considered a classic album.

Last year's 4:21...The Day After was dope, but it's literally the album that he should've made nearly a decade ago to follow up Tical: top shelf rhymes, top shelf production (RZA, Erick Sermon, Mathematics, one of the few Scott Storch beats that are actually tolerable), and a couple of radio-friendly singles. Instead, Meth released Tical 2000: Judgement Day and Tical 0. The former was a conceptual triple-question mark that you wanted to appreciate because of its goal but was too bad for you to justify, making the points where he actually did succeed that much more frustrating. and the latter was simply one of those albums on which you can't believe something so bad came from such a great emcee. When a talent like that has two consecutive solos that are that bad, fans wonder why they even had faith in dude in the first place. Maybe I have to give these two albums another listen, but I remember being pissed when I first heard ‘em. Not even as pissed as I was confused. A young Ketchums was actually second-guessing himself: "This is an album by Method Man, so why am I not feeling this?"

But similar to Lowered Expectations Entry No. 5, Fabolous, he'd be a completely different emcee once he's not on a song by himself. On Wu-Tang albums, he'd snap. He had a song with Mary J Blige that defines what Hip Hop is to some people. Dude made Limp Bizkit tolerable, for fuck's sake. Some would argue that he's one of the only emcees to hold his own--even outshine (?)--both Biggie and Pac on their own songs. "Comin' to spread the butter lyrics over harmony grits?/...I spit on your grave then I grab my Charles Dickens?" Yup. Only other guest emcee on that album. Rarely do you see an emcee out for justice/...Johnny Blaze, out to get loot like Johnny Cash? Yeah. Am I the only one disappointed by the fact that Method Man's best album was Blackout!, his duo album with Redman? He's like that kid who gets caught stealing at the grocery store, apologizes and promises that he'll never steal again...then he won't try stealing anything else if he knows somebody is watching, but when he doesn't know anyone's watching, he'll try again, just to get caught again. Sure, you're fine when you're around others-hell, you're a spotlight performer. But if you can't make it happen on your own, what's the point?

Different people have given me different reasoning behind Meth's disappointment. One of them (shoutout to Sanam) said that he just lost his inspiration because of the death of a close family member (don't remember which one), and because his label wasn't supporting him. I say that Def Jam was supporting him before his last album, and that even though it's unfortunate that he lost his relative, that the legends of this shit use tragedies like that and translate it into emotive music (see: Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" or "You Must Love Me," Nas' "Dance" or "One Love," scores of Pac songs). My homie said that Meth decided to focus on his acting career. I agree, but the least he could've done was not release anything at all instead of putting out two wack albums in the meantime. Like I said earlier, he had everything necessary to be a Top 5-10 of all time: and at the end of the day, for whatever reason, he's not there.

He'll always be one of the most unforgettable personalities in rap history, but he's my most disappointing emcee of all time.

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Honorable Mention: LOX (EDITED FOR CLARITY: mildly disappointing, but both Styles and Jadakiss have had hit singles to push their solos, they've sold decently, and considering their A) years lost with Bad Boy fuckery, and B) their usually gutter music once they got released, part of me feels that they've gotten reasonable success with the bullshit they've had to go through to get there) ... Mobb Deep (they've already got several classics under their belt that people will never forget; they've only had one wack album, and even Blood Money wasn't as bad as people made it out to be) ... Kurupt (I honestly don't know dude's catalog well enough to contribute to this, but I know dude's disappointing considering how much of a monster he was on everything that I have heard) ... Ras Kass (talented as hell, but I never really got into his material, so I can't call it) ... Mos Def (not sure why, but to me, I'm not as disappointed in his career as I should be. Black On Both Sides is perfect, as is Black Star, and I actually liked the direction he took with New Danger, I'd give it 3.5 out of 5; that leaves him with only one wack album. Unlike Meth, his music was always against the grain anyway, cuz his solo career started to boom in the late 90s/early 2000s, when rap was changnig for the worst) ... Lauryn Hill (I honestly have no explanation to why she's not on this list. A nigga forgot.

 

Non-Honorable Mentions: Papoose (I respect the work ethic and the conceptual intent, but that nigga's delivery was always ass), Cassidy (for an emcee who came in as a battle rapper in the 2000s, a disappointing debut, a great sophomore and a questionable third LP isn't surprising), Snoop Dogg (dude's still making great music and sticking to his niche to this day), Dr. Dre (*snickers* @ the suggestion of someone who's had a classic with damn near every album he's released)

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Byron Hurt Presents "Barack & Curtis: Manhood, Power & Respect"

Don't worry, guys. No. 1 of the "Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs" list is coming early next week. And you guys are still going to hate me for who it is. But I want to send you guys off into the weekend with some knowledge. This is an example of actually addressing/intellectualizing hip-hop without it being forced, and this is the kind of work I'd love to get into later in my career.

 

 

Filmmaker/activist Byron Hurt is most known for “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” his 2007 documentary that investigates gender roles in hip-hop culture and rap music. What I liked about that project is that it really got into the issue without being preachy, and most importantly, it asked the right questions to the right people. I’ve always kept an eye out for his work ever since.

Above is Barack & Curtis, his mini-doc that he released via YouTube this morning. Click here to see his inspiration behind the project, but the film examines perceptions of black masculinity by way of two of the country’s most powerful black men: presidential hopeful Barack Obama and rapper/actor/mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. While I wish it was longer than 10 minutes, this piece definitely gets the point across, and I’m impressed with how deftly the concept was executed. Enjoy. | BHurt.com

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Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs [#2: DMX]

JYoung the General is my ace and my cohost for Cultural Vibe, our weekly hip-hop radio show at Michigan State University's IMPACT 89 FM. I asked him who I should include in my Five Most Disappointing MCs list, and DMX was the first name he listed. I gawked at him, and gave him the same argument that everyone will say in the comments: "Dude made classic albums! Dude ran the rap game at one point!" But after hearing his argument, I realized that all of his accomplishments early on just made it worse.

I wasn't playin' when I said y'all would hate me for this one.

JYoung, you take it from here.

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The Potential:  1998 was a great year for Earl Simmons, better known to heads everywhere as the one and only DMX. Some cats go their whole careers without one classic album under their belt. DMX had two in a year.  It's Dark and Hell is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood were both fresh breaths of air in the game, and X was able to make his combination of ferocious delivery and potent lyricism crossover in a way that a lot of similar acts never made click. It still amazes me to this day that "Get At Me Dog" at one point in time could be a lead-off song and not only be dope, but successful commercially. [Ketchums' Note: Like the last three emcees listed, check how X has so many essential ingredients: the trademark voice/scowl; the balance between heartfelt, introspective rhymes and hardnosed gangsterisms. Plus, he had production from Swizz Beatz. He had everything! OK, I'm done.]

Then there's his squad. DMX's breakout year paved the way for Ruff Ryders to emerge, clearing the fast lane for Eve and The L.O.X.-all four of which are great emcees in their own rights. Those artists in turn put on two of the supposed blue chips of their era, Jae Hood (say what you want, he was a top 10 prospect just five years ago) and Cassidy. The point here is not only had X done his thing, but he had provided what was seemingly a hip-hop legacy in the making.

Oh and the last thing, let's not forget that despite Jigga being the crown jewel of Def Jam for the last decade, X was more popular than Jay if you take into account record sales and video play. Not too many living rappers can say that.

The Disappointment: The Difference ten years makes. The unfortunate reality is that while Jay, Diddy, Nelly, 50 Cent, and any rapper who's mega-stardom was on par with X's  from the '97-'03 era became fixtures in yearly Forbes Top 10 lists; X, quite frankly, became a cokehead.

You really can't take anything away from what X did when he was popular, because it was a hell of a run. But his fall from grace is just as epic as the road he took to the top. There's absolutely no reason why DMX shouldn't be securing mergers with top labels, selling out shows like he did years ago, dropping more classic gems, and putting on some prized Ruff Ryders prodigy the same way Jay did Kanye. DMX had the potential to be more than just popular, and at the end of the day when the major players in hip-hop all have their next power meeting, DMX will be meeting with John Q. Law to plead not-guilty to the next of his weekly arrests.  [1]

With no memorable albums since Grand Champ (and even that's highly debated) and Ruff Ryders nothing more than a mere footnote in the "Remember When" file, it's more than just what X didn't do, and more about what he's not doing. What he's not doing is winning.

[1] Just bolded that for emphasis, since all you commenters mention is the Forbes list comment. Do you fools read blogs, or do you just skim through it?

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Lowered Expectations: Hip-Hop's Five Most Disappointing MCs [#3: Memphis Bleek]

When me and Meka were chopping it up about this list, I was back and forth about how much of a shoo-in Memphis Bleek would be for it. I wondered, how dope was Bleek in the first place? But then I thought about how successful others were under the Roc, remembered the calibur of their production, laughed at a few Roc-A-Scenes, and checked out Meka's argument in this blog, and I couldn't front. Like Meka said, Bleek "invented new ways of losing." Enjoy.

Commenter: What's up w/you and Meka, man, are y'all OK man?

Meka: I'll take it from here, Ketch, damn.

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The Potential: Back in 1996, a little-known rapper album known as Jay-Z dropped his solo debut Reasonable Doubt. A mixture of street-savvy lyrics, poignant reflection and hard-hitting instrumentals courtesy of some of the top beat maestros of that era, the album, while not an overtly commercial success - was a critical darling and a backpacker's wet dream. What many people didn't know then, however, was that it was originally planned to be Jay's only album, as he wanted to take on an executive approach to the fledgling Roc-A-Fella Records.

Upon finding a young Malik Cox rhyming in his old Marcy playgrounds, Jay-Z decided to groom the young spitter as the heir to the throne, landing him a pair of impressive guest spots on Reasonable Doubt (Nevermind that Bleek's lyrics were written for him).

After the Notorious B.I.G.'s tragic passing, Jay-Z reluctantly carried the torch of his Brooklynite brethren's legacy, releasing his third album, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life to praise and, more importantly, platinum sales, which in turn increased Memphis Bleek's own buzz from his scene-stealing introductory verse. Thus when his own solo debut, Coming Of Age, rolled around, it was met with the same hype a kid named Nasir had when his first album was released five years prior. During my very first trip to New York I witnessed that hype first-hand, as every bootlegger on every corner from Brooklyn to Harlem prominently displayed a variety of Memphis Bleek mixtapes, while every boom box and sound system loudly brayed out his songs.

We should have already been suspicious of a guy who a) had the rap forename of a Tennessee city, which was just silly considering he was born and raised in Bed-Stuy and b) had "bleak" as his surname (which he spelled incorrectly!), but we didn't care because the Roc couldn't do no wrong... right?

 

The Disappointment: Boy, were we ever wrong. Not only was Coming of Age a bigger letdown than Crystal Pepsi, Ryan Leaf and the Atari Jaguar combined, it was the recipient of a harsh 2 1/2 mics in the then-respectable The Source, effectively killing... scratch that, eviscerating, any and all kind of hype he had left. Jay, after realizing his plans to retire knee-deep in the hymen of Beyoncé had gone horribly astray, is forced to return to rap, dropping verses throughout Memphis' later aural assaults to unsuccessfully keep his protégé from drowning under a sea of negative backlash, as well as having to do tours just so Bleek can earn a decent living as his hypeman. Roc-A-Fella co-d Damon Dash, after bearing witness to the epic fail that is Memphis Bleek unleashed upon his record label, stops peddling Air Force One knock-offs and top-shelf bum wines to sign his BFF Cam'Ron (who also was heading in the direction of a Kwamé Brown level of hype bankruptcy) to Roc-A-Fella, whom he then promotes to Vice President of the label, only for Jay to veto the idea, thus beginning the infamous irreparable rift between the two longtime friends, ending in Jay-Z being promoted to president of Def Jam, usurping the Roc-A-Fella and Roc-A-Wear brands and leaving Dame with nothing more than his insulin shots and ugly, clear Pro-Keds to make a living off of.

Or something like that.

These days Memphis Bleek continues to Rick-Roll whomever's in earshot via God(dess)-awful mixtapes, and still threatening to violate the laws of ASCAP by promising to release The Process, in between picking up rib tips for Jay (as seen in the Backstage movie) and pushing off Garnier conditioning products.

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