No more rappers
We don’t need more rappers. Hip Hop is bigger than rap. There are too many rappers in general, but especially in America. We don’t need any more rappers.
We need more million-dollar graffiti artists. We need more B-boys and B-girls to blow up and more real deejays with skillz, integrity, creativity and knowledge; deejays that overstand Real Hip Hop.
The culture of Hip Hop is so much bigger than rappers playin dress up just like some kind of thugged-out school girls. Rappers need to stop rappin and get back into the culture of Hip Hop and what it’s really all about. It’s about peace love unity and safely having fun. It’s about originality, concept and skillz. It’s about self-creation. It’s about the perceptual ability to change subjects and objects to fit the characteristics of your inner being. It’s about being real to yourself and free of the tricknology of the street. Rappers need to stop rappin and start emceein. An emcee can move the crowd from the inside out. Rappers can mostly move your attention from yourself to them.
“The emcee expresses through rhyme what is already on your mind, whereas the rapper tells you all about his or her self.” (GOHH, 2nd Ovr – Refintions pg.117)
How many rappers have the listener’s well-being in mind when they write rhymes? A rapper is consumed totally with how they feel and their own benefit from expressing their craft. They are not concerned about what the listener will gain from the experience of hearing them rap, outside of boosting their own self-esteem. This is the downside of rap. It has become too selfish and self-centered.
This is not an intrinsic aspect of Hip Hop though. This is the influence of the mainstream. Hip Hop lyricism has gone from those who had confidence in their innate talent, determination and sincere effort, into those who feel comfortable enough to fake it til they make it. Rap has gone from justifiable confidence to unjustifiable arrogance and willful ignorance. It is the same as Americans claiming greatness for what their ancestors have done and then proclaim we’re #1!
Kurt Nice
Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE’s National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
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Kurt Nice aka Kurtiss Jackson is a behind the scenes pioneer in the Hip Hop Kulture, creating the first nationally distributed video mix tape series, Shades of Hip Hop, in the late 1990s. Since touring the country with the Stop the Violence Movement and the Temple of Hip Hop as KRS-ONE's National Marketing Director, Kurt Nice has been a constant commentator on conscious Hip Hop and its relevance to the new rap music of today, through radio and cable appearances. contact Kurt at info@hiphoplives.net
