9th Wonder: a new hero to add to the list

Wassup people? As always, I hope you're living the champagne wishes and caviar dreams. I know I'm supposed to be making this the post that listed my soundtrack of my life, but that project is ongoing (hey it's hard taking 4400 songs and whittling them down to 12) so know that the work is going into it, especially now that I know that I have exactly 16 days left to enjoy my summer before it's back to the pursuit of the great and powerful Oz aka the PhD. 

Anyway, you all know my love-hate relationship with hip hop; the constant fights and degradation on both our parts and then the inevitable makeup session when a pivotal album drops or I listen to a hidden gem that goes below the radar and I happen to find it surfing the net. Well, a few months ago, I had heard that 9th wonder was dropping an album with Buckshot and since he's probably my top 3 favorite DJ's, I knew I had to cop it. While waiting for the release date (with artists I like, I support, no bootlegging for those puttin' in the work) I looked up any buzz on the album. I came across this interview they both did:

http://ldntimes10.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/9th-wonder-buckshot-interview-formula-done/

Now the whole article was very good but some points stood out to me that showed why I have so much respect for 9th. First, it was the explanation of the term "adult contemporary hip-hop". So well put, I couldn't have put it better. To think that hip hop is now 35 years old and has been going on longer than I've been alive is both inspiring and humbling. To know that 35 years ago this summer, Cool Herc DJ'ed his first block party and invented the 2 turntable break beat almost brings a tear to the eye. Little did Clive Campbell know that from simply wanting to play the break beats longer, he would give birth to b-boying, DJ'ing, graffing, and Emcee'n. Now think of those people at that party, if they ranged in age from 15-25, they now range from range from from 50-65! That's right, those who experienced the birth of hip hop are grandparents and even great-grandparents. This implies that there is a generation of 30 and 40 somethings out there still making music after all these years. In this day and age of 106 and Park and Rap city, this generation is neglected, assumed to just give up on hip hop and settle down to contemporary R&B and oldies. How sad, because even as I write this, there are those who are writing up their mortgage checks and their kids' private school tuition checks to Grandmaster Flash, UTFO, Tribe, Nas, Dr. Dre, Blackstar and Common, hoping for artists who are still making music they can relate to, not throwing D's on it or bangin' in a white T. (I'm a grown a** man, what do I need to that that for?) Like 9th said, there is a market for it, it's growing and  it has more money than this new generation. If you listen to radio you have Oldies, Classical, 70's and 80's, contemporary pop and R&B, and "urban". But where is the adult contemporary hip hop?

Another good point that 9th made was about today's generation and lack of respect. Now, we've always known from the beginning of creation that the successive generations spend so much time defining and distinguishing themselves from the previous that they don't acknowledge all that their forefathers DID do for them. 9Th teaches a hip hop class at NC Central U. (go Eagles) He mentions Busta Rhymes and the kids respond "he's old". Sad, he's old and yet better than 95% of anybody who dropped anything in the last 5 years. 9th points out that this generation has a short attention span, more than 5 words in a lyric, they tune you out. They are not the generation that heard, "Slip the juice, I gotta enough to go around..." God, that gives me goosebumps just reading that lyric!!!

These are the kids who are hittin' up "this is why I'm hot", a nursery rhyme to old heads, I hear today's rhymes and I feel like I'm in kindergarten learning how to rhyme words. Our generation was the one that tried to determine how fast could you rhyme and still do it clearly, even when Jigga dropped that was his MO. Check his early stuff with Jazz-O. This generation can't name the 9 members of Wu-Tang and are dropping the class in the first few days because it's one that's been force fed everything through the internet. They don't have that joy of hitting up the record store on a release date or digging through crates to find gems. We didn't have internet in those days; we had our legs and word of mouth. Yo MTV raps came on once a week on Saturday for half an hour; during the greatest time of hip hop no less! 

I'm thankful for 9th and his efforts as well as my boy Ernest Minor (the Rev) and others who are making these classes a reality in institutes of higher learning across our country. They are my heroes. What can the rest of us do? Pay homage to the history and realize that it is a MAJOR aspect of black history and needs to be treated as such. It is the voice of at least three generations and hopefully more to come. I can't wait until the day my future offspring start digging through my crates....."Slip the juice, I gotta enough to go around.....I want a girl with extensions in her hair, bamboo earrings at least two pair.....Bonita Applebum, you gotta put me on..." This is our history, each one teach one.... I'm out.....

S.o.t. P. : "Juice (Know the Ledge)" Eric B. and Rakim