Perfect music is the absence of music, Perfect
people is the absence of human kind, both are the absence of the
Music Business………
Many of us in the so called culture of hip hop
are being faced with the threat of war and destruction. The war that I speak
of is so much closer to us than Iraq, Israel or any of those places that deal
with that element on a daily basis and in a greater magnitude than we could
ever tolerate.
We are facing a war in Hip Hop. I’m not talking
about the corny ass battles that rappers get into that fertilize their dying
egos, or the battles that djs get into that made technique turntables the train
ticket to many production deals, or the battles between break dancers that have
now been renamed "choreographers" that no longer hit the floor. Lastly
I’m not talking about the battles between the graffiti artists that are now
the hip hop publications that sells it’s cover to the highest bidder and has
more advertising pages than hip hop information and no tags.
I am talking about the war between Hip Hop &
The Corporate Structure.
Many people, artists especially are probably
saying, "this is not a war, this has helped to expand the music world wide
as well as give many artist a greater financial income," etc. etc. Yea
yea I know all that jazz but unlike many clouded by the tangible bating that
has been displayed before us all, the war is not being fought by both sides,
it’s only being fought by the corporate structure. I guess that would make it
not a war in that respect, but an ambush. The method of strategy is and has
always been to buy them out then stomp them out.
How many joint venture deals have been lost and
as part of a contractual agreement, the CEO of the label has to leave the deal
without the artist he came to the table with? Where is the investment of the
corporate structure when everything they spend is recoupable before you see
a red cen?
I know that everyone and their mama knows about
advances, so I won’t remix that song again, but bigger than all of that, take
notice to the attitude that the corporate structure has helped to create in
the minds of the artists they sign.
Getting a record deal is now more about cop
and blow then creating and developing the writing, production and performing
abilities of the artist that comes through the door with rough edges. In that
respect, where is Barry Gordy when you need him?
Hip hop music is a raw form of beats and rhythmic
poetry that has been like many music art forms before it, sliced & diced
into sub-titles in order to create in the mindset of the artist, that he is
somehow not like the rest. Just one of the many forms of Divide & Conquer
used to weaken the infrastructure of hip hop music. Let’s face it, nothing sharpens
sight like envy.
That is the perception. To create the idea in
the mind of a rapper that he is a star or a mega star and is on the level of
the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, which would create envy and jealousy from
the less fortunate artist, which in turn creates the "eyes on the prize"
mentality in alot of little n##### in the hood that realize that crack is more
risky then rap.
Sounds like an ambush to me. Not convinced yet?
Ok. Let’s look at the set up and undertone of Hip Hop Music from it’s beginning.
The music has always reflected in some way shape
or form, the goings on in the hood. Emcees spit about what they see or hear
going on in their surroundings in the inner-city. In turn, that message is spread
between neighborhood through tapes and live shows, meanwhile totally in infant
form and oblivious to it’s power. This music in the likeness of jazz and the
original rock & roll was about culture.
Culture is everything. Culture is the way we
dress, the way we carry our heads, the way we walk, the way we communicate.
Wearing the disguise of culture, many have been sent to internally destroy a
culture. How do we know who is really with us and who is not? The budgets are
very high these days and many of us come from poverty, so we all want to earn
enough money to pay off mamas house, drive a better car and wear better clothes.
So the cards are placed before you, pick one and don’t let me see it.
OK, put it back into the deck and I will shuffle
the deck and in 10 seconds, I am gonna pull your card.
The path of silence leads to the pit of deception
and being deceived is what is being done to the hip hop culture. I mean, let’s
look at what is currently happening in our circle.
Hip hop music has crossed boundaries in great
magnitude far beyond any other music. It has lured the white teenager as well
as every other culture into a total emulation of the African American personality.
White kids especially because of their rebellious attitudes have become lovers
of hip hop music based on it’s original firey, direct message, like the rock
and roll previously adored by them in the 80’s with Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne,
Van Halen, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden just to name a few.
Hip hop was responsible for the homicides of
many of those groups, or was that what we were made to think? Well let’s look
at it like this, how can hip hop really be credited for destroying rock music
when many, if not all of the groups previously named still sell out major arenas
around the world, are still very relevant to major award shows, hosting, presenting,
performing etc? Many of these groups still control their merchandise sales and
ticket prices. The clincher is that these groups range now in age range of late
30’s, 40’s and in the case of the legendary Rolling Stones 50’s & 60 years
old.
Now, let’s look at Hip Hop.
Unlike rock music, hip hop has a wider cultural
range of listeners. It’s effects are expressed even deeper as you can see, not
only in the dress code but also in the language and ideas of the individual.
In the late 70’s and early 80’s when hip hop was green and had not reached a
major audience, it was confined to the ghetto and never believed to be even
considered music.
During the birth of MTV to see a black face on
their network was equivalent to seeing a black face on an album cover in the
50’s and 60’s. Slim to no chance. Yet it did not stop the movement. Hip hop
was not allowed radio air time like the music before it, but still never lost
it’s momentum in the streets. I mean why would anyone want to hear tales of
the ghetto other than those of the ghetto? It’s kinda like asking why would
the slave master attribute royalty to those he kidnapped from royalty? That
is another subject, but still relevant.
The word "perception," which is a noun
means, "the act of perceiving," which a derivative of the word precept,
also a noun, which means "a recognizable mental impression." The mental
impression of hip hop was that it would have no longevity and that seed has
been more effectively planted into the minds of the people who created the music.
This is evident when we hear people that buy
the music, make the music, play the music or have any involvement with the music
say that a song that is a year old, is just basically an old song. This is also
the same in the life span or the perception of the life span of the actual artist
in hip hop. Unlike the rock star, he will never see a stage at 45-50 years old
and be taken serious. Cop and Blow.
That leads me to the word "motive,"
a noun that means "the sense of need, desire, fear etc, that prompts an
individual to act." What is the motive of a major label signing an act
that they previously would not have signed, or the motive of MTV playing the
video of an artist they refused to play before?
The fear was that if the corporate structure
did not get control of this new fresh rebellious sound called hip hop, it would
truley become the demise of American music. The corporate structure put the
plan in motion and handed out more then we already had, which seemed to be alot.
Like the ritz cracker to the starving man, we ate it. At the same time, the
corporate structure is setting up it’s growth within their market of popular
music and pipelines to create a bigger platform to slaughter the art form.
In the same respect still unable to stop the
music from filtering into the minds of white American kids, they will destroy
many of their own in the war between hip hop and the corporate structure. It’s
always been the savage mentality of the corporate structure. Have you ever heard
the commercials that say, "we are an
equal opportunity employer, we hire all minorities and women?" This includes
the women that are married to the men that make up the corporate structure.
The hungry animal will eat their own for sake of survival.
Hip Hop is about us being on the same page with
one another for the sake of expanding our music into power for us. No race,
no creed, no time for no b#######.
I’m hip hop And you’re not!
