Please feel free to listen to my music while you read. Thanks and I hope you enjoy!
I don't write rhymes much anymore for recording because I stopped being willing to say meaningful things to people who don't care and non-meaningful things to people that do. Sometimes I think about picking up a pen again until I remember that things are even worse now than they were 25 years ago when purposeful, sincere lyrics first began to disappear from mainstream Hiphop. Now people care even less about quality and the trend is to emotionally say nothing words over sparse beats to people who really don't care about what you're saying anyway.
About 20 years ago I realized that my purpose in Hiphop was to explore its nature, its true usefulness beyond ego, fame, props etc. I started interviewing emcees, dj's and producers and trying to flesh out how their art contributed to their psychospiritual growth; that way at the very least I could expose its true benefit to the practitioner and fan alike and hopefully intentionally contribute to someone's personal development.
I'm consistently disappointed with 2 bar/switch topic rhymes that try to sound witty that don't amount to anything by the end of the track. I think most fans are dupes who care little about the process or the origins of the music they're listening to and that even some of the people we call "legends" know very little about what Hiphop is or isn't. They tell the public under analyzed ideas like "Migos is the next evolution in Hiphop" without understanding the difference between newness and development. They rationalize spreading ignorance. They reduce the magic and influence of music on the impressionable. They chastise Trump, racism and the poverty in their communities while selling conspicuous consumption, materialism and substance abuse.
Cultivating the energy of Hiphop has become restricted to going to shows, battles and performances that even when put on by artists I love, come off as dry reminders of a time when people were less interested in partying and more interested in gathering and sharing who they were in order to feel felt and learn from each other. Now it seems like its all for money, fame, props etc.; entry level values that Hiphoppers have sought since 73'. Freestyling aka spontaneous authentic discourse hardly exists anymore and when it does its treated as a joke. People don't see the value of relaxing in groundlessness anymore. Being on the spot with nothing but the naked mind has been replaced with needing to not appear vulnerable and weak so a written rhyme takes the place of trusting innate awareness. Hiphop is referred to as "the game" and everyone wants to play because anyone can now emcee, dj and produce and seemingly make money at it.
How have we grown in terms of our cultural values, embrace of feminine energy, emotional expression, social and spiritual interconnectedness in the last 46 years? Have we learned to go beyond the ego or have mainstream and underground artists (including dj's and bboys…graf writers have always been at the vanguard in my opinion) just found new ways of ego validation through materialism, intellect and faux spiritual transcendence? How are we cultivating love? This is not to take away from the necessity of allowing the natural journey that artists and humans go through in finding themselves, nor to dismiss the artists and fans that clearly are using their gifts in the best way that they know how. They exist and should be lauded for their genuine contributions whether or not they manifest pain or enlightenment. My issue is with those that propagate mindlessness year after year and find pleasure in their gains on the backs of those that suffer, as well as those of us with life experience who do little to advance the cause of humanity by directly challenging themselves and others to do better.
The silver lining in everything that Iv'e said is that Hiphop isn't something that can be manipulated, controlled, co-opted, made better or made worse. Hiphop is not a thing. It has no real existence anywhere. The truth is that how we manifest the experience of Hiphop comes from how we directly or indirectly experience our bodies and minds. When we cultivate ego we will express through the 4 elements self-centeredness, aggression, impulsivity and ignorance. When we transcend ego we cultivate compassion, genuineness, fearlessness, gentleness, insight and wisdom.
As Mos Def said in the intro to 1999's Black on Both Sides, "Listen—people be askin' me all the time
"Yo Mos, what's gettin' ready to happen with hip-hop?"
(Where do you think hip-hop is goin'?)
I tell em, "You know what's gonna happen with hip-hop?
Whatever's happening with us"
If we smoked out, hip-hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin' alright, hip-hop is gonna be doin' alright
People talk about hip-hop like it's some giant livin' in the hillside
Comin' down to visit the townspeople
We are hip-hop
Me, you, everybody, we are hip-hop
So hip-hop is going where we going
So the next time you ask yourself where hip-hop is going
Ask yourself: where am I going? How am I doing?
Till you get a clear idea".
When you rest deeply within your own being and contemplate your motivation for what you're doing in life you'll find your relationship with Hiphop and manifest it accordingly.
May we all treat this sacred way as such.