"It's not the 90's anymore..."

This is the response given by morons (and otherwise intelligent people under universal mind control) anytime the current state of what's supposed to be hip-hop music is discussed. It was also said to me by someone I know and love, as well as occasionally make music with, once I gave some auto-tuned product the inevitable thumbs down. It seems that the public at large has been induced into a hive mind mentality, the methods of which have yet to be discovered. Yet, in a select few (myself included), the method did not take, therefore our independent thoughts and knowledge is referred to as "hating".

Hip-hop and R&B are the only genres of music that seemingly age in reverse. In the beginning of hip-hop the beats were simpler, and the rhyme schemes, while still at an intelligent level, were less complex. As time went on, the Rakims, Big Daddy Kanes, KRS's, LLs, and Kool G Raps came with more complex flow techniques, thus elevating the music to new heights. Ignorance, materialism, and hedonism, while still present, were kept to a minimum. There was a variety of music that ran the gamut of partying, bragging, teaching, to just plain ol' MCing to show skills. There were less skilled rappers out there, of course but most of the time they were weeded out, forcing them to find other employment at Fed Ex, UPS, McDonalds, and K-Mart(and rightfully so). In fact, a big problem that came about in the late '80s to the 90's was that there were so many talented artists that all of them couldn't sell records...

R&B music has declined in a much slower fashion, given it's longer existence. However, the time frame is around the same. Before artists had to have talent, actually be able to sing without technological assistance, and their appearance mattered less. The music was much more subtle as opposed to today's in your face, overtly immoral content. For example, let's take Smokey Robinson's song "Crusin'". Now as adults, we know that this song is pretty much about getting down in the bedroom area. But as kids hearing the song, we may have thought that he was talking about actually drivng around in the car with his girl. Today a non-singing R&B clown would just come right out and name the song "Bonin'", or something to that effect. The subtlety is missing from R&B and therefore reducing the days of innocence of today's children. Also, too much emphasis is put on appearance these days. No matter how a chick's voice sounds, it she looks good, then let's get her into the studio. Cassie, Rihanna(especially), and Ciara are all examples of how a non-singing chick can get over in today's industry. Even those with singing talent, such as Beyonce(who is not the best singer in the world), have terrible material only given a pass due to the gyrating, near butt-naked visuals that accompany it.

Returning to hip-hop, somewhere along the line, skills became secondary and image became more important. I tend to blame Puffy(Diddy, or whatever other idiotic moniker he goes by now, due to the fact that he was an R&B cat masquerading as a B-Boy the whole time) Remember the movie "Notorious" (which he helped produce)? What did he say when someone told him about Biggie? "Does he have sex appeal..." (read: is he sexy?......mmmmm) this has bled into hip-hop and R&B to it's detriment.

Also, once southern rappers became a factor in the game, they operated on a false sense of unity, which gave even the most garbage MC's a co-sign just because they came from some hicktown below the Mason-Dixon. This is not to say that all southern rappers suck (though most do), however it had their elite co-mingling with fifth string rappers and helping the non-skilled touch the charts via collaborations and the like. The elevation in vocabulary MC's gained has now regressed, because people (Read: minorities)don't read (as ignorantly stated by the idiotic Kanye West), don't want to be taught, and just want to have a good time....Mammy!!!

Now we enter the auto-tune era. Back in the days you couldn't even sound REMOTELY alike, for fear of being called a "biter"(a hip-hop term for plagerism). I remember Das EFX being miffed at Lords Of The Underground for having a similar style and they did not sound alike at all!! Today it's fashionable to follow suit and do what everyone else does... thus auto-tune, screwing down vocals, and Yankee rappers spitting with country accents to wack imitation southern beats...

Also to blame are the Jay-Zs and Nas's for being of the few remaining aspects of our era, yet succumbing to today's trends. Jay-Z for one, refuses to call Primo, Ski (his original producer),or anyone of that caliber for his releases. Nas is the same way: No Primo, Large Professor (his original producer and mentor), Pete Rock, etc. And keep in mind, these are all viable producers to this day! Instead who do they call? Polow the Don (trash beats), Timbaland (washed up), Pharrell (he sux, I don't care what you guys say..), and the like. Their excuse is they want to expand, and do something different, and they are succeding by leaving real music and making hot garbage. Blueprint 3 is garbage and you all know it!! Special shout out to Jay-Z for his tenure at Def Jam, completing the horrible transformation of it into an R&B label as opposed to its legacy of being the premier hip-hop label that it once was....

Additionally, sometimes things don't work out, marriage for instance. Unfortunately, sometimes divorce is necessary. R&B has become a jealous, smothering wife to hip hop and it's time for a divorce. We can still do the occasional booty call (sampling) but as far as being exclusively together, that's run it's course. It's not you R&B, it's me (hip-hop, LOL!) This way we can maintain our separate identities and progress forward. The following things are NOT hip-hop contrary to popular belief: Lauryn Hill's album, Mary J. Blige, Andre 3000's Love Below (which was never played in my Speakerboxx..homoerotic garbage, look at the cover! LOL), Ne-Yo, Beyonce, etc.... If you go to On Demand and try to see hip-hop vids, you will see, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Beyonce, etc. This has to stop!! Immediately!!!

Hip-hop is the culture of which the musical representation is: Rap music!! The difference is that hip-hop is the culture and rap is the music. Hip-hop entails graffiti, b-boying (breakdancing), MCing/rapping, and DJing. So when you're talking about hip-hop in relation to music, you are talking about rap music, not R&B, or any hybrid of the two beyond sampling. Don't be fooled by false definitions that blur the lines! So the difference between music is Good Music and Garbage Music, not Hip-Hop Vs. Rap (sorry Kris, but you're wrong)...

In conclusion, these days we have rappers who can't rhyme, singers who can't sing, electronic voice assistance, artists who make trash music with the wrong producers, record companies who put out garbage and when it doesn't sell blame it on downloading, dilution of the true product, and 100 football fields of wack MC's who are rich and famous...

You are correct, it's not the '90's anymore.....

DLP1212

A great man once said "Just because I hate you, don't make you a player..." Freddie Foxx aka Bumpy Knuckles