Leadership Part 2: Rap is a Headless Genius

My arms were killing me yesterday from an old injury that I sustained in my teenage. Sorry that I wasn't here to help control hip hop a bit better... I'm healing well. Time to get real with this blog ting!

Please don't mind the occasional grammatical error or precariously written sentence, as this is more emotional than intellectual. But if you know anything about MLJ, you know that the body is the mind is the soul is the body, and back again! Everything is everything, as said by the Nyahbinghi Rastafarians of Jamaica, and Brand Nubian too of course.

But who remembers the albums of random pioneer rap groups from 1994? Barely anybody. It's like we're running blindly on an invisible path to nowhere when we forget where in God's name we came from. My friend recently re-iterated an argument so stupidly obvious that it's nauseating that it even has to be uttered... but it does.

IN ROCK, IF YOU WERE TO SAY "FUCK THE BEATLES/THE ROLLING STONES/JIMI HENDRIX/JIM MORRISON/LITTLE RICHARD/ELVIS/IKE TURNER/BUDDY HOLLY AND/OR KURT KOBAIN" you'd be chased out the culture so fast your Converse kicks would be lying in the dust.

In 2007, why in God's name can some kid say "I'm hip hop, yo! Who want what?! You don't want no problems. Real talk, I'm hip hop to the bone gristle, son!!!" as they give you cut-eye from under their New Era Toronto Blue Jays cap, and zip up their fake Bape colorful cartoon hoodie as they go to sell some drugs or drink some cheap alcohol. (Not that these other activities necessarily mean they are inherently bad people, it's just the mentality that is the primary problem of it all... :)

Why can a kid say that, then, when you ask him "Who is Chuck D?" or "Do you have a album from Big Daddy Kane?" or "aaay, isn't Rakim really droppin some futuristic knowledge, God?" or "Do you remember when KRS-One dropped 'Edutainment'?" or "Yo man, EPMD's third album was fucking unreal, right?" or even "Do you remember when Redman rocked 'Hardcore' in 92?", they can give you the blankest, most ignorant, most unaware, most hollow-headed non-response in the world... THEN GO BACK TO PROCLAIMING THEMSELF 100% HIP HOP WHILE THEY SELF-DESTRUCT THEMSELVES AND THE CULTURE SIMULTANEOUSLY!

Wow, rap is outta control.

let's teach some history before we start releasing verdicts, mmmmkay?

k.

Chuck D. (in the middle, holding the ghetto blaster)

Rakim Allah

KRS-One (Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone)

EPMD (Erick and Parrish Makin' Dollars)

Redman (Reggie Noble)

now what's going on? what in God's name happened to rap between Chuck D saying "Bring the Noise!" and all the god-awful noise that has been brought by unfocused fools like the Ying Yang Twins and D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz?!

Let's look at the leaders of the new school (Busta Rhymes will be not be celebrated in this list!)

And in the spirit of blogging being somewhat brief, I'll keep it somewhat succinct. It is Friday. You need to have fun tonight after you do the knowledge ;)

Nas - King of New York? Yes! King of Hip Hop. Ummm... probably, yes to that too! King of Earth? When he stops smoking dem breakfast blunts, he could be that. But where did he go wrong? It was probably the weed. Slowing him down from making music as relentlessly as Jay-Z was before Jiggaman became President "Def Jam's Red Button Pusher" Carter. Nas sees everything in the hood... even when he's on a yacht in the Mediterranean, like he says on his culture-shocking LP: Hip Hop is Dead. He is the leader of the new school whenever he wants to be. But stupid kids bring up Nastradamus and 'You Owe Me' and say dumb shit like "hypocrite" while ignoring the IMMENSE jewels that Nas sprinkles on everything he spits on. It's insane how much the new generation isn't paying attention to Nas like they should. Then you hear stupid shit like Southern artists complaining about Nas's "Hip hop is Dead" philosophy cause no rappers today sound like they have I.Q.'s above 31. T.I. allegedly disrespecting "Nas's Egyptian Philosophy raps" and Young Jeezy ACTUALLY disrespecting Nas's chart-topping record sales AND Monie Love were just too much to take. Maybe we HAVE lost a whole generation of Black men. (Didn't you get the memo? It's on the internet somewhere. Read it and get back to me :) And I think that Nas will help resurrect those lost souls.

The kids may ignore him right now, but I bet his next album will be phenomenal.

Common - kinda spacey, not as aggressive as he needs to be, and not as coveted as he used to be, even if Kanye is making all his beats

Jay-Z - Runs Def Jam. Runs rap. Runs America (if it's not George Dubya.) Runs away from responsibility. Runs from making any controversial, political, essential, insightful statements. I won't forget about his Water For Africa World Tour with Kofi Annan and I will not forget that he grew up totally on Kingdom Come and didn't say the word 'crack' once on it, but I will not ignore the fact that he continues to not be a leader to the hip hop community in any way that is not economic. Jay-Z hasn't taught me very much, as much as I know the lyrics to tons of his songs. Nas taught me many things. That's why Jay-Z will always be a Stan to Nas, and will never acheive the mythological status Nas has.

Kanye West - Ego keeps him from being supreme, and his ego keeps him from being boring. He's gifted as anything and driven as hell, but he's annoying as fuck.

Lil Wayne - I don't know if he stole a chunk of Gillie da Kid's ghostwriting brain or not, but he couldn't lead the Black American community to the promised land if the path was paved with diamond-plated platinum. He occasionally says something pretty politically relevant, and that AMAZING song 'Georgia Bush' is truly incredible, but his moments of mental maturity are too few and far between for anyone to consider this guy a potential replacement for Big Daddy Kane, much less CHUCK D.

Wayne DID say: "put a motherfucker on ice like the Maple Leafs/ that's a hockey team and I ain't on no hockey team/ but 'm a champion, where the hell's my Rocky Theme?/ something something something about Apollo Creed" then he brilliantly breathes: "I'm a monster, every day is Halloween!"

Ghetto genius. But not leadership legendaryness. You never know.

Fabolous - Witty ass mofo that never dropped a heavy jewel in his life. Except when he takes off his ice to have sex with one of his hot video gyals. 3 albums deep and not one full song of wisdom. Boo-urns.

T.I./T.I.P. - Kids follow him, but only cause he says he's the Jay-Z of the South. Total exaggeration and ludicrous (Luda! He's not a leader either but he should be by now) thinking, but hey, whatever makes you money, right?

WRONG.

T-Pain - Ha ha, this is the joke of all jokes. If this man were to represent the youth's North American culture, they would be all drinking like wife abusing alcoholics while wasting their money on foolish, hollow investments and smoking their heads off without any concept of personal priority or family values and community care or cultural connection... wait:

*gasp*

OMG!!!! T-PAIN IS THE LEADER OF THE NEW SCHOOL and THE NEW LEADER OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY!!! Your children are being controlled by this man:

I'm just kidding.

Lead yourself to your dreams, and love everyone you meet along the way.

that's what I'm gonna do, starting NOW :)

Love, Marshall Lesane Jackson

(my pseudonym^^^ is a combination of the names of 3 powerful rap leaders from the past and present. If you don't know who they are, take time this weekend to do your homework, and I will see you on Monday.)

I LOVE YOU!

create a wonderful weekend.

Oh, and I love feedback! Don't be shy, tell me what you think of anything I've written... good or bad, it all comes from the same place...

practice peace!

Love, Me