Chuck D's Thoughts On Modern Day Hip-Hop!

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I was reading an old copy of Hip Hop Connection and found this article by Chuck D which I thought was really dope. So today I have gone to the trouble of typing up the entire thing for you guys to peep, so here we go.

Chuck D

In the US Michael Jordan's comeback in basketball is big news. Last month I was fortunate to have been invited to the game as my neighbour, Los Angeles Dodger Marquis Grissom, doled out tickets to his baseball playing team-mates, friends and wives to check out MJs Washington Wizards vs the hometown Atlanta Hawks. Sitting in a rented stretch limo, I was among big ballers for real - black ball players in America's pastime - an impressive yet shrinking fraternity. These cats make more cheese at a minimum than the best of the best in the rapgame, and a couple of the younger players with us were on the fringe edges of the bling era with some jewellery that the whole Cash Money click with No Limit combined would've envied.

The topic of inner game politics ensued in the car as they compared the ways that most black players get 'played', as in shifting of positions in the line-up and on the field, salary negotiations, communication and general upward management acceptance problems etc. I told them that they were blessed and I wish that rap and hip-hop had 10% of the organisation that the world of sport presented. I also stated that their issues were earthly normal and they should feel blessed, as I simply compared it to a situation in which a friend of Havoc from Mobb Deep was reputed to have shot another friend over Chinese food. In the sports world maybe only Dennis Rodman comes close to the unorganised, almost weekly illogic, havoc (no pun intended) and madness of the rhymeworld. And the reasons for much of these adolescent actions and accusations can be connected to the severe lack of a rites of passage management system.

In sports, especially in the US, it is impossible to compete on the highest level without at least the completion of a high school program. It is there where future players get their basic understanding and fundamentals of the game they're trying to play in. The emphasis taught by their coaches treads on the discipline needed to perform over the long haul - in other words a career. For an artform the aspect of free expression helps create it in the first place, and that's what immediately makes it different from sport. However, when it borders a community interaction and is fuelled by a commercial-driven financial commitment from corporations, some sense of order must be maintained for the culture of it to move forward, to make its accomplishments unreachable and amazing to the casual fanatic, as with the line between athlete and public. It's the training and the passing of the torches of the trade that makes the cycle of the form mature and elevate, making the fanbase continue their 'diggin into the scene' well beyond the scope of their infantile understanding of it.

When we look at the music that have preceded rap/hip-hop like jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, folk, reggae, rock n roll you had to learn and earn your chops through everybody and everything else. This took place beyond the record marketing dominance of the artist. The cat has to perform and play to the point of no half steppin', in the words of Big Daddy Kane. Had to prove themselves to the public and their peers to be. A record was only the introduction to the world public as an artist, and in the past a 'rookie' had best to try to pick up knowledge from a 'vet' to avoid making many of the same mistakes that created speed bumps and failures in the genre.

The great Smokey Robinson often retails the story of playing his first Apollo gig and being helped out with bandcharts arranged by the great Ray Charles, who happened to be backstage at the same time preparing for his show. This unofficial mentoring fell outside of record company duties, but even then companies such as Motown, Stax, Atlantic, etc found it beneficial to have their artists hone their stage and even writing crafts within the rites of the 'chitlin circuit passage'. This was a national underground network of black cities and venues that every entertainer of black note did to start their buzz. This network even supported hip-hop in its early days - as I remember a host of venues, promoters and radio stations that promoted funk bands only ten years prior. Before video the only illusion was the record jacket itself, thus performance and public relations were paramount.

I've always equated the aspect of an artists to cover for primary artistic zones to getting an all round fundamental training in sport. Music, Objective, Visuals, and Entertainment - the MOVE theory, essential to moving forward in any music career. The music is what it is, an artistic right to be whatever it needs to be. The objective of the artist needs to be clear on just what point of view the artists represents. Not every artist can come from the same point of view, whether it's good or bad diversity always bodes well for the art. The visuals are an area that's aided by the video era whereas the recognisable aspects should be used as a tool and fuel for the foundation of career. The last, entertainment, is the factor, based on performing that art and those records. The understanding of these basics was passed from cat to cat during tours and such like.

In the beginning of my career in 1987 I sat and watched and took notes from performances by LL Cool J, Whodini, Run-DMC, and Doug E Fresh. I was given tips by cats like Doug and Ecstacy from probably the most tightly performing yet underrated outfit in the rapgame. In 1988 we were rookies no longer and cemented those four essential elements. It didn't happen overnight. And thus I became a coach of sorts for peeps like A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Queen Latifah, 2 Pac, etc - it was my artistic duty to spread the teachings of the form. As the 1990s emerged, as well as the world of video to hip-hop, the area of artist development deferred to the MTV/BET universe. Couple that with the disappearance of the raptour (which in turn was the money maker for management companies which also vanished for the sake of inner production crews), young artists were now served head to head directly with the bean counting mentality of the lawyers and accountants who now ran the record business.

So since 1993 we've had all kinds of accepted, endorsed, and financed misdirection of young cats sanctioned by the rapgame itself. As the twisted soaking of it into mainstream young American culture has led to bad news being the best news for a rapper. And more often than not a rapper's background is not only devoid of the higher educational opportunities here and abroad, but completely lacking of the discipline and pecking order rank and file of sports. A player can't just come from nowhere overnight, whereas a rhymer can luck into a recording deal with three half azz verses and catch a few million kids 14 and under who might be just as impressed that this cat on TV spends as much time in court as in the studio. In sport the game is bigger than the sum of its parts, the perseverance above any individual achievement. The rapgame must be upheld as well.

Respect for those that do the game well - the independent and inter-dependent cats who toil for the passion of rap and hip-hop - should be measured fairly with the upward chance for opportunity and reward that the majors have reserved for that broad distribution. When the respect for the art of hip-hop comes from within it will also emerge from beyond, and force the companies to understand you can't purchase a culture, you can only borrow it. If this doesn't change rhymers in 2002 will be ordering and fighting over a lotta Chinese food.  

[Jome]

as I simply compared it to a situation in which a friend of Havoc from Mobb Deep was reputed to have shot another friend over Chinese food. In the sports world maybe only Dennis Rodman comes close to the unorganised, almost weekly illogic, havoc (no pun intended) and madness of the rhymeworld.

LoL, crazy shit..