Look I don’t want to comment about what happened to hip-hop in the US because we all know that there are a million and one things to blame for the way our beloved hip-hop is and sound.
I would rather talk about what f***ed hip-hop in Jozi (well, I’m not too how hip-hop is in other parts of the country). But in Jozi it was:
1. the words “BATTLE & FREESTYLE” it gave far too many wack rappers props, which lead to big headed rappers with chicken brains thinking they are God’s gift to the mic.
2. Company Flow, Cannibal Ox, RubberRoom, who else, er any way, those f***ers came with that they wack beats, senseless lyrics (space out), bullshit a** flow and gave local cat the right to rap bullshit and call it science, all of a Sunday local beatmakers started taking any sound from keyboard added a kick and called that underground sound or hardcore.
3. KRS One’s line “A dope MC is a dope with or without a record deal all can see” that made local mc’s think it’s wrong to have a an album out and to have a recording deal (look at what happened to Mizchief-after “Fashionable”, Amu- after his collabo with Zola and Skwatta Kamp-when they signed to Gallo).
4. the fact that too many cats call themselves mc’s or rappers and most of them don’t even know the difference between a verse and a song.
5. the fact that cast like DJ Blaze and Bionic Mr. Bigga, Amu (yes AMU- because let’s face it a lot of u Jozi battlecats started rapping cause they wanted top diss him, if not to be like him), don’t get the recognition, respect, and the money they deserve.
6. the day the rappers got the idea they can outrap or outcla** New York – eg 5 out of 10 Jozi cats bought Wu-Forever, thought the Clansmen were Gods of the rap game, then studied all the lyrics, mastered the flow (especially Ghost Face’s), formed groups with more than five members, bit a few lines and made them their own, recited them to about 20 other Wu-like rappers, got a few props, auditioned on Rap Activity Jam and went on to get the most votes, then began thinking they rap better than Wu and that Wu’s wack- that´s when they dick rode Co Flow.
Penny Lebyane - I remember when she was the Social Butterfly on City Press and she reported on a Dead Prez concert in Botswana. She mentioned in the article how she wasn´t really into hip-hop and was just there to check the people out, now she is rap´s biggest fan
pls understand im not defending Penny cause I’m not sure about her sudden love for hip-hop, maybe something after that concert sparked her interest in hip-hop but what we should concentrate on is that both her and Zack are giving hip-hop a chance, let’s not take this 4 granted like we took Rap Activity. I agree they might be in it 4 the money or whateva but rappers need to stop complaining about jumping on the hip-hop bandwagon and take this opportunity to use metro, Penny, Zack and any other form of media to get exposure.
Please note you might not need the exposure but the hip-hop culture needs it so we can start using our rhyming skills to put food our tables.
[ This message was edited by: khoi on 08-10-2003 04:37 ]
[ This message was edited by: khoi on 08-10-2003 05:13 ]
