'Too Many Emcees...

…take the word Emcee lightly.'

  

Greetings… 

Now musically speaking, I’m a HipHop head. As I’ve grown, my musical tastes have also aged & due to the declining state of this music & the culture (yea, I said it!) I find that HipHop now takes up roughly 30% of my music, as opposed to the 75% it used to take up! Now some may say that’s a good thing & I wouldn’t disagree completely. In order to appreciate any music, you should experience as much different genres as possible. Then you can truly appreciate your favourite sounds without having a closed off opinion…

  

So, today I’m going to deal with my favourite section of HipHop. The Emcee! More importantly, The Emcee vs. The Rapper. If you’re reading this blog, I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining the difference… HipHop is NOT rap. End of… But there is a real gulf between the Emcee’s of old (read Golden Era) & today’s budding mic technicians. The main reason why I & most of my peers stopped listening to & buying a lot of HipHop is simple. We stopped relating to it. Back in the 90’s we were blessed with a nice mix of styles & opinions. I could listen to the gangster lyrics of G Rap alongside the teachings of KRS.  For each couple of jump up records we had at least one conscious banger from Tribe or the ultimate duo Gangstarr (RIP G).  Balance was important back then because we were still enjoying everything HipHop as a culture gave to us.

  

Now I’m not like a lot of old school/golden era fans. I can see the skill in a Lil Wayne track like Milli or the slick lines in a Fabolous (I think that’s how he spells it!) joint. I still make my female friends laugh when I accuse them of committing Shoe-a-cide! My problem is the ones that are constantly being played without no real talent or skill at all. Now I do not expect the next rapper to come out of Young Money to be nearly as tight as Pharoahe Monche… not gonna happen. But as a fan, I still want to be able to hear more than just the same 3 subjects in the whole song. Emcees are not just good at wordplay or maybe have a slick delivery. They’re not just cool sounding voices… they’re supposed to be all of these things. And more…

  

In my world, an Emcee was a mouthpiece for me & my peeps. We could relate to Strobelight Honey & it was done with a certain amount of humour, honesty & skill. We felt Common’s truth throughout almost every album he ever put out. The Heiro Crew always brought it…. Black Thought & The Roots are masters of that balance… Even down to the likes of west coast giants NWA gave me something to think about as well as just nod my head to. These guys were thousands of miles away but I could still appreciate their truth. Their reality.

 So fast forward to 2 thousand & now & ask me how many rappers on the radio spitting shit you can actual relate to? I cannot relate to Black & Yellow. I just can’t! But I can relate to a few Drake tracks. I can feel the honesty in Chipmunks latest radio joint. Unfortunately they are small pickings on the global front… We’re stuck with Rap being played constantly on the radio by DJ’s who need to keep their job so they play what everyone else is playing. Everyone else is playing what MTV is showing so the youngers being influenced by Rappers who have only listened to the surface level of Rap music & can only go by what they know… which ain't much… A copy of a copy will lead to the quality being depleted constantly.

  

Thankfully, we still have a few Emcees out there still willing to fly the flag for real HipHop. Here’s a sample of some current HipHop without the radio friendly fluffy bits!

HipHop’s not dead, she’s just on vacation… Jean Grae.

Jean Grae + The Roots

 The Roots, Mos Def, Jay Electronica 

 Pharoahe Monch