9th Wonder Speaks the Truth

[Dave Shining]

Its a long read but I agree with a lot of what is said here. 9th posted this on the Okayplayer forums.



Wow......I've sat back and watch everyone either bash or praise Jay-Z in some form or fashion, as far as his new song, direction for the album, etc. etc......
Well, I thought I'd wait until everyone got out their "opinions" about the song and their take on his career direction before I start sheddin' some "truth" to the matter.....

Hopefully, and I stress hopefully this would help change some minds about the perception of who exactly Jay-Z is as an artist and most importantly, an emcee.....

So, before I begin let me preface this spill by saying, if you are a closeminded, new wave, I just learned about hip-hop last week cat, this post is not for you. There are a million and a half posts that you can reply to on OKP other than this one that will suit your needs......


Here goes....

I first heard about Jay-Z back in the summer of 1996. The first joint I heard was "Dead Presidents". I heard that joint, Wu-Wear, Fakin Jax, and Semi-Automatic in the same damn day(what a day). Luckily, I was blessed to witness hip-hop BEFORE the overground, underground split/big bang of 1996, when rap was rap, no matter if you talked about money, drugs, hoes, mics, trees, sidewalks, shoelaces, WHATEVER. As long as you beats was dope, and you could ride a beat, you made it, which even this day, CATS STILL CANNOT DO IT. Backpackers was called backpackers because they wore backpacks like Black Moon. Most of the time, you didn't wanna find out what was in cat's backpacks........(weed, guns, crack, whatever....anybody that can remember, can I get a witness???)

Anyways, Jay dropped Reasonable Doubt, and *****s went CRAZY. It was a dope album amongst the Ironman's, Atliens, Stakes is High's, BRandLife's, Illadelph'sand whatever else came out in the fall of 1996. That's when dope **** dropped every week. The record stores KEPT cats BROKE, buying 3 to 4 CD's at a time. Then, the underground/overground bull**** started, and through EVERYBODY for a loop.

Even me. I got caught up in the bull****. First it was called Shiny suits vs. Real hip-hop or some other bull****. Then it changed from Commercial vs. Underground.

Commercial vs. Underground.

Wow.

That is some of the biggest BULL**** ever invented. I don't know who started this ****, but it killed hip-hop. Nevertheless, I fell into the **** like everybody else. I took sides, like everybody else. I took the "underground" side. I became a post 1996 backpacker....not a cat who wore a backpack with illegal substances in it.....****, I didn't wear a backpack at all, unless it was for class.

Needless to say, between 1996 and 2003 Jay-Z dropped 7 more joints, from In My Lifetime, to BP2. I began to feed into the "underground" way of life even more. If you talked about money, girls, sex, clubs, jewelry, I HATED YOU, no matter what.
No matter if your beat was dope, you rhymed ON BEAT, the song made you dance(hell, that's 85% of rap music BEFORE '86).....na, **** ALL THAT, you were commercial, and I hated you.

If you anything opposite of that, you were "REAL" or "UNDERGROUND", and I followed you to the end of the earth, like the Soundbombing's and all those joints they sold on hiphopsite.com and sandboxautomatic.com. Every night, me and fellow OKP bang97xxx would be on line looking for the new "underground" ****.....

Until....

The release of FANTASTIC VOL. 2....


****ED ME UP.

All of the things that I hated soooooo much about subject matter in lyrics, good ol' Jay Dee, Baatin, and T3 talked about in EVERY SONG. They called women *****es and hoes, they talked about the going to the club, and might I add, they talked about women being *****es and hoes.....

Over dope beats....

WAS I THE ONLY ONE TO CATCH THAT?

A couple of people did, but there were soooooo many cats that didn't for some strange reason. In the midst of this under/over bull****, here's a group that did both. They had hooks, they rode beats, they weren't preachy, they just HAD FUN on the songs and that's it.

It made you feel good.

Everybody else was either in the club ALL Night, or freedom fighting for Mumia...

Then came Neo-Soul.

JESUS CHRIST.

That's a WHOLE 'NOTHER POST right there.

Talk about some industry made up ****. Some of the rappers that okp cats praise for doing that quote en quote type of hip-hop HATE THAT TERM....I MEAN....SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE EMCEES......

Oh yeah CONSCIOUS RAP? These SAME EMCEES HATE THAT TERM TOO...

I know what you mean....its shocking like a muthphucka. We feed into the under/over split that the industry created just like the 12 year old's feed into 106 and park. When I first heard one of FAVORITE artist say "**** that neo-soul conscious rap ****", I was floored. I was like, "but aren't you neo-soul and conscious, AND underground might I add???"

Nope, sure wasn't....

Anyway, so then ?uest puts up a post called, The smartest backpacker(see OKP archives), and that made me curious on how divided the music world was....was it some made up ****, or was it actually true???

Made up like a mutha****er.

I fell for it like a dummy. Growing up in 1982-1996 age of hip-hop, I should of known better.

Shortly after, the Listening was born.

One cat on here said that it was same underground/neo-soul/conscious/mainstream **** he hears all the time....

I told Tay, okay.....we are on to something....


STOP TRYIN TO CATEGORIZE RAP MUSIC.......THERE SHOULD BE ONLY 2 CATEGORIES.....WACK AS **** and DOPE AS ****.

No matter WHAT you talk about. Cats say that Jay-Z talks about the same thing every record. Okay, what the **** does TRIBE talk about differently from record to record? What about Gangstarr??? What about Black Moon? WHAT ABOUT THE ROOTS???

If you are FREEING MUMIA on your first record, then chances are you will be doing it on EVERY RECORD YOU PUT OUT.

Redman makes a reference to WEED ON EVERY RECORD.....

So what changes???

The beats of the record changes the complexity of the album, YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE, NO MATTER WHAT.

You mind a TOPIC here and there to elaborate on, BUT THIS IS RAP MUSIC...

PUBLIC ENEMY TALKED ABOUT OVERTHROWING THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IN SOME SHAPE, FORM, OR FASHION, ON EVERY RECORD.

Jay grew up in Marcy. That man knows about street life. He has expanded on certain topics here and there, but DAMN, I DON'T WANNA HEAR JAY TALK ABOUT ANY OF THAT **** POST '96 BACKPACKERS DEEM TO BE REAL.

Sorry.

Just like I don't wanna hear THE ROOTS TALK ABOUT CARS, although I know they own some fat whips......but I guess some OKP's think that they don't 'cause they are REAL HIP-HOPPERS.

Anyways, let's fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.....


So I'm find myself sitting in Baseline Studios, NYC, in front of the "devil"....let OKP tell it, playing beats.....


I played 29 beats.....he listened to every one.

HE DID.

Not an A&R, not an assistant, not his manager....

Jay-Z DID.

Every beat.

I went to several quote en quote "underground, keepin it real labels" and the A&R's was like, "yeah man, I'm gonna go through these and pick out some for(fill in your favorite "real emcee")

Not Jay....

Probably Rap's richest, most power figure to date took the time out to listened to a new producer who got a couple of shots in mags hear and there.

An hour.
29 beats.
At least 2 minutes to every beat.

After which, he asked me, "damn man, what's your story?"

I gave him a quick run down of where I was from and so forth and who my group was. Young Guru already had the Listening, had it the first day it came out, but never let Jay hear it. So did Kanye.

A couple of days later, we recorded. ONE SONG.

He took 4 takes on what some so called "skilled" cats take 4 days to do......

WITH NO PAPER.....IT IS NOT A MYTH......

HE ATTACKS THE MICROPHONE LIKE HE IS PERFORMING....

I have been in some studios with cats that cannot do that WITH PAPER.

That is some hard **** to do, to come up with a rhyme in your head, and spit it like you knew it for years......

DAMMIT PEOPLE LISTEN!!!!!!!

Will the songs make it, who knows.....

All I know is the game, t.v., and the industry has ****ed up the minds of this new generation of hip-hop fans.

There are dope cats that OKP's bash on the regular just because they get radio play, and praise the ones that don't....


WHAT THE **** IS EVERYBODY GONNA DO WHEN THE MUSIC OKP PRAISE BECOMES MAINSTREAM.....if the industry sees that a Little Brother, or a Five Dees, or a J-Rawls, or a Aesop Rock can sell millions, that WILL be Mainstream hip-hop. Then, EVERY MAJOR LABEL WILL TRY THEIR DAMNNEST TO FIND A COPY CAT.

So, before you label somebody the rap antichrist, or say somebody is not doing it for the culture, check yourself....

Jay gave me shot...

some of your favorite rappers didn't

on the real....

WAKE THE **** UP OKAYPLAYER....


Oh yeah, I rocked the **** out of my Okayplayer shirt at baseline. Jay said...."damn, I was just on there this morning".


Aight, everybody take turns bashing me across the head....

LOL!!!!!
PEACE!!!!

[PLANT]

I think I read this before somewhere...

But for real, 9th Wonder makes alotta sense.

[white Boy]

yea i dont think this is new, but its a good read

[Lord Funk]

Didn't see it before, so props to Reignmaker for posting it and PROPS to 9th Wonder for talking nothing but real talk.

That ... shit, I want to call it 'essay' ... should be required reading for all hip-hop listeners. The first part made me real nostalgic for the mid-90s era he talks about.

Great read.

[Don Breezio]

Just another reason i feel that 9th wonder is the greatest producer out today.

[[Stoned]Jesus H. Christ[Wheat]]

Didn't see it before, so props to Reignmaker for posting it and PROPS to 9th Wonder for talking nothing but real talk.

Great read.

[OpTiCaL]

Didn't see it before, so props to Reignmaker for posting it and PROPS to 9th Wonder for talking nothing but real talk.

Great read.

Oh Yes

[AxleF]

Never read this until now but its great reading.  I can totally relate and now that I think about it, I did fall into that mind state (sort of) back in 94 - 95 without even noticing.  Its easy to get caught up in that mind state when the industry's pushin so hard.  Nice read.  

[N-Sane Brain]

That's a very good read, props for the link. He said some good shit, I'm glad he got Jigga's back on this issue, because I hate people claimin' Hova to be a fake-ass commercial rapper. He definitely isn't...

[Darksider]

yea i dont think this is new, but its a good read

[B.O.X.]

i been saying this shit for years,happy someone else realized it,fucc what anybody says it's all rap,from hammer,to jay'z,to melle mel,to company flow,it's all hip hop,it's just some underground nerd muthafuccas try to take over it,fucc them fo real,some of them gay muthafuccas think your wacc if you like so called commercial and underground artist ex. if you like hammer and canibus  your wacc hahaha stupid shit,only nigga's that can say what hip hop is is the niggas that made it,not no damn fan,big up to kool herc,grand wizard theodore,grandmaster flash,cold crush yell