Essay No. 5 - It's All How You Look At It

I want everyone to take a moment and envision this picture.....

You are standing in a theater, looking at the stage where there are 10 supermodels standing in a line. Each model looks hotter than the next and you have to decide if you can work with what is in front of you. I would assume most of you would be excited and agree that you had a wonderful lineup with all top-notch options.

Now imagine that 90 average looking people are scattered throughout the lineup, now does the group look appealing? I'm assuming that even with the 10 fine-ass honeys in there that most people wouldn't take the time to find them, they would simply see the massive amount of average people and just dismiss the whole crowd.

So what is the point of all of this? What does a lineup of supermodels have to do with hip hop? Think about it this way....


Hip hop has evolved so much in the past few decades that sometimes we forget that there are still incredible artists out there offering up some incredible plates for us to feast on. These plates are just getting harder to find.

See the people that focus on the golden era forget that at that time hip hop was still a very small culture that was growing slowly. The talent pool was overflowing with nothing but quality acts. These acts made hip hop potent among its fans and poisonous among its haters. Every Tuesday that a new rap album was released it was another quality effort from a reputable group, or a new artist breaking the mold with something exciting and fresh. Along with Heavy D we had "nuttin' but love" for the music. There were no real flaws. Finding a good artist in the hip hop game was easy, the lineup was basically perfect.

Fast forward to 2007 and you have a slew of artists that are terrible. The talent isn't there, the intensity isn't there, the flow isn't there, the drive isn't there. In a lineup of today's artists it can seem almost impossible to find any real talent. This is where the metaphor from above comes in. Back in the golden era anyone walking in the room that appreciated hip hop would take one look at the scene and fall in love, just like looking at a row of 10 gorgeous models. However now one might look at the lineup, or large group, or rap acts and at first glance see nothing worth giving a second look. It is easy to dismiss hip hop now because the quality acts are few and far between. It's harder to pick out a talented group so it's easier to just walk away and dismiss them all. Plenty of people have no time look for a needle in a haystack, a diamond in the ruff, or the likes. The previously easy task of seeking out greatness has been clouded by so many useless auditions that it's better for some to just walk away and leave rap alone. But fortunately for the true fans, the good artists have that "can't leave rap alone, the game needs me" attitude.

The problem is of course that many people don't have the time to seek out those "can't leave rap alone" artists and instead they just dismiss hip hop as being "dead". Well it's not dead and with the right attitude and dedication we can bring it up to a level higher than it once was, after all the purpose of any culture is to grow and expand into something greater.

So let's all work together in sifting through the enormous group of decent artists to find that diamond in the ruff, that special artist or group that has something real to offer this culture. For example, and this is only an opinion, Kidz in The Hall are a newer group that have not gotten much press and are basically being ignored by the hip hop community. They have released an album that for anyone that listens to it, brings back that 90s vibe everyone is itching to hear again. They even revamped the Souls of Mischief classic to create "06 'Til....." and lyrically knocked out Jay-Z in a "who-works-the-sample-better" battle over what most people know as the "Show Me What You Got" beat. This is only one example of the incredible talent that is passing by many hip hop fans, or once hip hop fans who have gotten tired of seeing so much garbage in the culture.

Everybody needs to wake up and realize that there are still talented hip hop acts with a lot to offer the world, we just need to find them in the midst of all the untalented novelties that are flooding the hip hop market.

With that said I encourage everyone to seek out a group or artist that you have not heard but have heard about with positive reviews. Whether it be Kidz In The Hall, Joell Ortiz, Saigon, or any other artist you find on your own. Even newer contributions from Nas and Jay-Z are worth more than just a casual listen. Also a lot of people seem to be ignoring the artists of yesteryear dropping new soon-to-be classics (Public Enemy, Keith Murray, and Boot Camp Clik are among some of these).

Just because the game is corrupted and filled with embarrassments does not mean that hip hop is dead, it simply means that good hip hop is harder to find but with a little effort you will not be disappointed with what you discover......