Let Me Introduce Myself

The following was said to a very special friend & mentor who I appreciate and value in this culture of ours; everyone the lovely, talented, & Scrabble master...Miss Jean Grae *applause* (excerpt from @JeanGreasy message): I'm officially enlisted into the Hip Hop Army! Let’s Bring Hip-Hop Back. It is way too much good music out here to settle for bullshit!! I appreciate and love this thing called Hip-Hop so now it's the fans turn to help!

My word has always been bond! This is a value and characteristic I picked up when I was a young buck on them streets of North Philly! Like many, we grew up in a single-parent home and being the knuckle head I am, I was in them streets at the age of 13. To make a long story short, if it wasn’t for Hip-Hop I would be either in jail, dead, or living in mommy’s basement not doing shit. HIP-HOP SAVED MY LIFE figuratively and literally! Hip-Hop gave me an outlet for all that energy. Instead of fighting & robbing, I was breakdancing; instead of selling drugs, I was mixing and making pause tapes with a turntable and a tape-deck; instead of flunking out of school, I studied my lessons, learned words, definitions, and meanings so I could try and be a thorough MC (didn’t conquer that one though LOL). And how did this happen you say; well the old heads mentored me. There were people (fellas & ladies) that believed in this when it was just a fad...now look at it! Multi-million dollar business. Now in 2011 heading for 2012, we got to do better! The underground, pureness should be mainstream and that garbage should go exactly where it needs to be...Pop. I believe we called it “Hip-Pop.” I’m cool with another genre as long as we come out on TOP!

Let’s start by mentoring our youth! I’m not exactly sure when it changed but when it did, we had the corny, lame ass, sorry artist in Billboards telling us what Hip-Hop is; like Hip-Hop transcended into that garbage. It was the patients running the asylum. Well FUCK THAT! I’m speaking up and I’m bringing an Army with me! There’s a lot of chatter about a particular white female MC using the N-Word! In regards to socially and political correctness, well this is an argument/debate for another time; however, As far as Hip-Hop concerns, let this one go because we failed! We had Hip-Hop dictated to us so the garbage out there is what people like this is getting! Don’t be naive, when that word is used in them ‘radio songs’ what you think, they skip over that part? The problem ain’t them using that word (still talking Hip-Hop, stay with me guys); the problem is that we haven’t educated fans on what HIP-HOP is! Them shorties don’t know or haven’t heard the likes of Jean Grae, Mos Def, Talib Kweli (except for songs like Hot Thing in such but that fire Talib...whoa!), Pharoahe Monch, X-Clan, Jeru da Damaja, Gangstar, KRS-ONE, Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D, Queen Latifah (Flavor Unit Queen La) and this list is eternal so I hope you get the point! These girls and guys alike want to get on the mic, then let’s school them first. Let Hip-Hop sort’em out! If they garbage, it’ll get out.

We can start immediately by doing two things: 1) Let’s educate the masses on the elements of Hip-Hop! For those just tuning in, these are: Break Dancing (Breakin), The MC (Emceein), The DJ (DeeJayin), Graffiti, Language & Fashion! I promise if we would have done this years ago, the skinny jean fad wouldn’t be plaguing us now! And 2) let’s start letting REAL DJs pick hot music again! Not talking radio personalities with a programming list but REAL DJs on the block making real mix tapes with cutting, scratching, blending, juggling, etc...Big up DJ Scratch for blessing the world with Mixmaster Weekend (July 30th) with some of the finest Lady DJs killing the 1’s & 2’s (for my old heads, THE WHEELS OF STEEL)! These ladies represented lovely...SALUTE!

To my underground artists out there (and I use the term ‘underground’ loosely), keep doing what you doing. I got you! We got you! Keep trying to get that money so your brand can grow but give back because we are out here and we need you! Together we can weed out the frauds and the phony! My new MANTRA is SALUTE 2 REAL HIP-HOP; HIP-HOP NEVER STOPS (and no there won’t be any “take that, take that”...ok, maybe one) Take that...

To close, I would like to quote Busta Rhymes from Twitter, “We ain’t dumbing down shit NO MORE!”...from the immortal words of Jean Grae, “SCRABBLEBEOTCH”

Salute

Philly2AZ aka Philly aka Mr. Who is That aka Mr. I’m a punch the next skinny jean wearer in the Face...

UNO