Troubled Times

You know we're in troubled times when a youngster has to ask himself "if I want do Hip Hop music, do I have to be a criminal too?" These are truly, strange & troubled times. Apparently what was one of the most progressive forms of music, is now one of the most self-destructive & pretentious forms of music. With thanks for its present state going partly to us the listener, for letting it get this far, but mostly to mainstream commercial Hip Hop, & the major recording labels that peddle it. Now Hip Hop has become something one might compare to wrestling. In todays Hip Hop, a good percentage of the artist are alot like characters, or even more like caricatures of popular stereotypes. In today's hiphop a person's "realness" is gaged by their rapsheet or how colorful there street rep supposedly is. Their relevance is measured by how much money they flaunt or claim to have. Skills, which use to be the barometer by which an MC was once judged by, is now almost forgotten. I will go as far as to say that in my opinion, the bar has dropped so low that most young Hip Hop fans today haven't really been exposed to a lot of genuinely skillful artists. It seems like only yesterday that Hip Hop was about music & expression, that crime, violence & music were separate entities. Not that crime & violence weren't a subject that hit close to home, cause Hip Hop is street music, but it wasn't a requirement that every artist had to be involved in that lifestyle. At one point, there were many different groups & solo artists, each one contributing something new & creative to the culture. We had groups like NWA but we also had Public Enemy, DeLaSoul, Main Source, Tribe Called Quest, Redman, Cypress Hills, Rakim, Kool G Rap, KRS1, Pharcyde, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, etc.. Hiphop these days, in the popular sense has been reduced to 1 general image, & is more like a podium for displaying how violent & ignorant artists could possibly be. The sad thing is some of these individuals will take pride in this or will regurgitated the same sorry ass excuse "I'm just talking about life in the hood". Now in reality, any intelligent person that wants the truth, can easily see through this bullshit. One example, u don't hear these artists speaking in narrative but rather in the first person. Another example is, if they're just reporting what happens in the ghettos of America, then why embody the topic. A lot of these so called gangstas, aren't really gangstas, they're regular dudes, but this is what's popular, so this is what they bring to the table. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against gangsta rap, I like some of it.....lol alot! Shit Meng if ur living it , rep it, but don't rep it, cause you're a wanna be, cause u wish u lived like that, I can't respect that. So you see, its not an issue with gangsta music, its issue with the over saturation of it & its effect on the sheep within the community. Honestly we need it as much as we need "backpack rap, political rap, commercial rap, emo rap....??, comedy rap, saran rap.......
Anyways, thats enough for now, this is Skila saying "live now, sleep later!"

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