Once upon a time the art form known as Hip-Hop flourished in a magical world known as New York City. It was filled with creativity, memorable performers, and a crowd of listeners that would follow it to the ends of the earth.
Nowadays, Hip-Hop still fills the air in New York along with screeching police sirens, and the screams of guys hanging outside of your apartment building while they simultaneously argue about sports and holler at teenage girls walking by. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that some of the luster has gone out of Hip-Hop from NYC.
Before it seemed like other regions of the nation could only watch from a far, as New York-bred artists ruled the genre with an iron fist, but back in the early 90’s something strange happened. New York packed its bags and moved 3,000 miles West of the Big Apple. And from there it underwent plastic surgery trading in baggy jeans for khakis, and New York fitted caps for Locs.
The good people of New York worked feverishly to regain what was once theirs, but it was to no avail. It was painfully obvious that Hip-Hop wanted to have some fun in the sun. So when it came time for Hip-Hop to pack up and head out on another road trip, most people bet the farm that it was headed back to where it was born. But to the chagrin of those certain individuals, Hip-Hop planted its roots deep down South, and has been a permanent resident ever since.
Now a lot of people have their own conspiracy theories of why Hip-Hop hasn’t fully returned up North, and one of them is that artists from up North rarely stick together (which is quite true). It seems like artists from up North are more concerned about being number one, rather than actually making good music. And last time I checked, being number involved making good music also. If you want to break it down some more, I would be glad to help you out.
When it comes to Southern artists, they all sti ck together and hop on each other projects, the same with MC’s from out West. But meanwhile back on the East Coast, a lot of artists are still for themselves. It’s like they have a “me against the world” mentality. I can’t speak for everybody though, because you do have a handful of New York MC’s opening the doors for their own but it might be too little too late.
People always tend to judge the amount of creativity coming out of the South. They say things like Southern acts are way too simple, or they just rely on beats, or what have you, but their formula has been working for quite sometime now. And that’s exactly why you see collaborations from Lil’ Wayne and Ja Rule, to Fabolous and Young Jeezy. There’s a simple saying that goes along with that, and it goes a little something like this: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” And this right here is in no way intended to bash New York MC’s by any means, because there are still a lot of talented artists coming out of the Empire State, and it will be that way for a long time to come. But folks just have to face the facts. New York had Hip-Hop in the headlock for almost three decades, and churned out acts like KRS-One,Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G. Rap, Nas, Jay-Z and so on and so forth. Now its time to share the wealth with people who haven’t been on the forefront at all.
So for all those people shouting things like; “We need to bring New York back!” They need to look outside of their apartment window and smell the trash on streets right with knuckle-headed kids smoking weed on the fire escapes. Because New York hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s right before your eyes.
Source-sixshot.com
Nowadays, Hip-Hop still fills the air in New York along with screeching police sirens, and the screams of guys hanging outside of your apartment building while they simultaneously argue about sports and holler at teenage girls walking by. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that some of the luster has gone out of Hip-Hop from NYC.
Before it seemed like other regions of the nation could only watch from a far, as New York-bred artists ruled the genre with an iron fist, but back in the early 90’s something strange happened. New York packed its bags and moved 3,000 miles West of the Big Apple. And from there it underwent plastic surgery trading in baggy jeans for khakis, and New York fitted caps for Locs.
The good people of New York worked feverishly to regain what was once theirs, but it was to no avail. It was painfully obvious that Hip-Hop wanted to have some fun in the sun. So when it came time for Hip-Hop to pack up and head out on another road trip, most people bet the farm that it was headed back to where it was born. But to the chagrin of those certain individuals, Hip-Hop planted its roots deep down South, and has been a permanent resident ever since.
Now a lot of people have their own conspiracy theories of why Hip-Hop hasn’t fully returned up North, and one of them is that artists from up North rarely stick together (which is quite true). It seems like artists from up North are more concerned about being number one, rather than actually making good music. And last time I checked, being number involved making good music also. If you want to break it down some more, I would be glad to help you out.
When it comes to Southern artists, they all sti ck together and hop on each other projects, the same with MC’s from out West. But meanwhile back on the East Coast, a lot of artists are still for themselves. It’s like they have a “me against the world” mentality. I can’t speak for everybody though, because you do have a handful of New York MC’s opening the doors for their own but it might be too little too late.
People always tend to judge the amount of creativity coming out of the South. They say things like Southern acts are way too simple, or they just rely on beats, or what have you, but their formula has been working for quite sometime now. And that’s exactly why you see collaborations from Lil’ Wayne and Ja Rule, to Fabolous and Young Jeezy. There’s a simple saying that goes along with that, and it goes a little something like this: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” And this right here is in no way intended to bash New York MC’s by any means, because there are still a lot of talented artists coming out of the Empire State, and it will be that way for a long time to come. But folks just have to face the facts. New York had Hip-Hop in the headlock for almost three decades, and churned out acts like KRS-One,Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G. Rap, Nas, Jay-Z and so on and so forth. Now its time to share the wealth with people who haven’t been on the forefront at all.
So for all those people shouting things like; “We need to bring New York back!” They need to look outside of their apartment window and smell the trash on streets right with knuckle-headed kids smoking weed on the fire escapes. Because New York hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s right before your eyes.
Source-sixshot.com
