What's going on kiddies?! Good to have you back with me and all my opinionated-ness (for all of you English majors, I did that on purpose) for another week. I wonder how everybody liked the first official weekend of the NFL regular season? Although my people lost (Cowboy Nation always and forever), it was still an exciting time and awesome to have football back in full swing. This week I'll be examine three different subjects. The first one will be the somewhat downward spiral of hip-hop fashion. The second subject will be the huge firestorm involving Grammy Award-winning artist Cee-Lo Green over a very controversial tweet. The third subject involves the curtain being pulled down into the mystery of the identity of underground sensation Your Old Droog. Let's start shall we??
I could've done an entire piece on this first one. Fashion has been as big of a piece of hip-hop culture as anything else. From the emerging popularity of Adidas due to Run-DMC to Cam'ron bringing the color pink to the overly macho hip-hop audience, fashion and style sense has been very integral in hip-hop. Although like any other trend, most phases came and went. In the eighties, we had the previously mentioned popularity Adidas, the gold rope chains that Eric B & Rakim and LL Cool J introduced, and the fisherman hats that LL and EPMD made contagious. Let's also not forget about the hairstyles such as the notorious lean high-top fade (Kwame, anyone??). The ladies had the huge bamboo earrings and some of the most regretful hairstyles in our culture, yet still fun and nostalgic to look at and reminisce about.
Once the nineties hit, we became even more innovative. I was guilty of fads like the proverbial 'Hammer Pants', the afro-centric Cross Colors, and sneakers such as British Knights and the Reebok Pumps. The culture also got introduced to more Black owned clothing companies such as Karl Kani and the guys behind Fubu. However, we still got behind popular brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Polo, and Nike to put hip-hop spins on clothing traditionally designed for White consumers. For the ladies, names like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vatton, and Versace were made extremely popular by the likes of Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown, a far cry from prior b-girls like MC Lyte, Bahamadia, and Yo-Yo who were more about lyrics rather than promoting clothing and accessory brands that didn't enhance or uplift us as a culture.
However, once the new millennium emerged, we no longer wanted to make statements to make sense, we started, well, started looking stupid for the purpose of wanting to be "different". It was circa 2003 that Cam'ron introduced pink into hip-hop. He was literally draped in a pink Range Rover, pink Nikes, pink doo-rags, and just everything pink. The next time we saw him, he was draped in purple. Critics were pointing out that it was mainly to promote his Purple Haze album (his last truly dope album), but a lot of cats weren't really up on it too much.
Now we have truly hit our worst moment with Kanye West being in a skirt. The image of him in a skirt and leggings and sneakers at a Hurricane Katrina concert in December of 2012 still haunts people to this day. We thought that this period would be over with and never duplicated. I wish I was right. There have been pics and images of people in skirts, leggings, and the like and they truthfully think they're doing something big or breaking new ground. There are fashion trends that make statements, and then there are trends that make us as a culture look very stupid and attention-needy.
We've seemingly started to take from cultures such as Goth and Grunge and tried to put hip-hop spins on them, and for the most part, they fail. We need to geo back to being trendsetters and innovators that make sense and that defines us as true thinkers instead of spoofs and side shows. For those that like to dress in skirts, leggings, and anything else overtly feminine, STOP IT!!! At one time, hip-hop was among the most feared, yet intriguing, cultures and genres in the world, now with hip-hop going commercial and eventually corporate, we're sincerely non-threatening in this current day in age. Let's not add looking like idiots on purpose for the sake of being "different".
Next up, the most heated backlash of this past week came from Grammy Award winner and Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo. Cee-Lo went on Twitter and made very insensitive remarks about the subject of rape. This coming on the heels of his no contest plea of being accused of slipping ecstasy into a woman's drink and then waking up in bed with him with no recollection of events. Here's an excerpt of what he tweeted, before he deleted it.
Is it disgraceful and tasteless? Completely. I'm completely about the first amendment and freedom of speech. However, if you're famous and a celebrity, EVERYTHING you do and say gets scrutinized to the tenth power. He apologized for his tweet but the fallout started to spread. His sitcom "The Good Life" got cancelled by TBS and he has been dropped from benefit shows due to his comments. If I'm Cee-Lo, I would lay low for a while and let the fire settle. Comments like that will make him lose the majority of his female audience, maybe even all of them. I'm a fan of ol' Shuga Lo, but this was a big mistake. Here's to hoping he can recover from this situation and making new music, whether it's with Gnarls Barkley, the Goodie Mo boys, or solo.
Now, we have the unlocked mystery of arguably the most talked about underground artist in the game right now, Your Old Droog. Earlier this year, this young cat dropped an EP that was quite heralded but one thing stood out more than anything: how much this kid sounded like Nas. The EP showcased the SUPERB lyricism of this guy but very quickly the Internet was buzzing about the identity of him. His EP, in fact, is in my top ten or fifteen of hip-hop releases so far this year. Multiple theories suggested this was really Nas, and many actually made lots of sense. Some actually claimed they met him and suggested he was a Russian, twenty-something Brooklynite. Finally, last Wednesday he the curtain dropped, and after spitting some razors for the already hyped up crowd, he finally walks on stage and in comes this tall, lanky, caucasian complexioned young emcee that proceeded to kill the audience with outstanding bars that mirror greats like Rakim, Eminem, Jay, Big, and the aforementioned Nas. He even performed "Free Turkey", which actually uses the same sample Nas used for the track "One Love". We haven't had this much hysteria over the identity of an emcee since the early days of MF DOOM, but it sure was fun. The question is: now that we know the official identity of Your Old Droog, will he still be as checked for as his enigmatic nature beforehand? Only time will tell but one thing is for sure: this dude is a BEAST. Here's a freestyle from Your Old Droog that he dropped last week. You be the judge of the future of this up-and-comer. In my opinion, he won't be underground for long.
Finally, before I get out of here for today, this is the cut of the week. This comes from west coast lyrical phenom Ras Kass and he's joined by fellow monster lyricists Pharoahe Monch and Dilated Peoples' Rakaa Iriscience over a RIDICULOUS beat from hip-hop's newest prodigious beatmaker, Apollo Brown. The track is called "H20" and is from Kass & Brown's upcoming album, Blasphemy, coming in October. If this track is ANY indication of what's to come, this album will be nothing short of a new benchmark for Kass. Anywho, peep this track and will get at you guys and gals next week.
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