• » Name: Meka Soul
• » Location: Los Angeles, CA
• » Member Since: 04/09/07
• » Bio: Providing clarity in hip-hop since 1981.
• » Contact Me:
• » Syndicate: RSS

• » Misogyny Rap Is The Past, Present & Future
• » Meka Soul’s Bangingest Women, Take 2
• » Old Heads, Please Sit Down
• » The Vastness Of The Internets And Its Attached Fagitry
• » Nas: WTF?!

	April 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30
« Mar					May »

• » Get A Bar!
• » Dah Shyt
• » 2 Dope Boyz
• » Dallas Penn
• » Plastic Squirtguns

Slap-Boxing With Jesus

Hip-Hop Does Not Care About The Roots

True story: while I was in the security check-in line at the airport last month, some tiny homo thug looking ass ninja was standing directly behind me. I had a feeling I knew who it was but wasn’t quite sure, not to mention I really didn’t give a shit about the bumbaclaat anyways. A side note to all aspiring rappers out there: it’s pretty quasi-homosexual when you’re draped up in chains galore but are still flying coach on American Airlines, where those chintzy bidges charge three dollars a pop for a fucking chocolate bar. Motherfucks American Airlines.

Anyways, apparently it seemed I was the only one who recognized the hump as most of the people in the airport shrugged off this diminutive Yenta Claus. All except this tweenage girl (or, according to the mad, mad world of Robert Sylvester, ripe for the picking), who ran up on duke as if he was a superstar.

It turned out this chump was none other than current Bow Wow nemesis Yung Berg. While I assume (or hope) that a substantial amount of people that fit my age bracket would ignore duke the same I did (or perhaps get real gully and crack his cranium with a cinder block), the pre-teen who got an autograph could have possibly done the same to, say, The Roots’ Black Thought if the rap world and hipster-hop brigade would get off of their high horse and allow the group to breathe.

Then again, The Roots have always been somewhat of an anomaly – or a precursor to the backpack rap Rawkus used to roll heavy with in their prime – in hip-hop. And outside of that mid- to late-nineties chewstick renaissance they were never really a good fit in rap to begin with, which is why I understood where they were going with “Birthday Girl:” rap fans don’t give a shit about them unless they were backing up Grandpa Simpson at some concert, so they tried to get that indie rock guap. Shit, if the Gym Class Heroes (who actually bit their style to begin with) can do it, why can’t they?

Unfortunately, that crabs-in-a-barrel mentality that envelops “true school, keep it real” hip-hop heads (many of whom also flood the Okayplayer message boards with their faux holier-than-thou sense of bitchassness) refused to let The Roots do so [1], eventually forcing the song out of the album with the “sell out” catcalls. I mean, I may do my part to prevent an artist from selling records by repeatedly looting them for their music semi-anonymously over the Internets, but at least I can’t force them to not make music.

A guy can only dream, though.

Can you really blame The Roots though? How awful is it when a Grammy-winning act can’t even get the same support a shitbag rapper like Rocko can get from the same label [2]? Maybe it’s time for ?uestlove and Co. to give a collective “fuck you” the same way Radiohead and Prince did and just drop music without caring about their fans, because it’s quite obvious their fans don’t give three shits about them.

[1] And yes, I know the song was pretty corny to begin with. But Curtis started yodeling like his old nemesis Jeffrey, and he went on to sell nine brazillion copies.

[2] And I still haven’t head any of his shit to this day. iPods > Clear Channel and Viacom.

Comments             

50 cent • bet • common • crooked i • dope • ghostface • hip hop • jay z • jay-z • kanye west • lil wayne • little brother • mixtape • music • nas • nino bless • phonte • racism • rap • stimuli • talib kweli • termanology • ugk • videos • west coast