Notes on Hip Hop

(repost of recent email):
I think that there's this authenticity trap that I fall in to, wherein I like to say that I was down with whoever at whatever time. Yeah, I had the Black Moon "Enta Da Stage" joint when it was blowin' up blocks in BKLYN. I look at our UofC years and think that there was so much original hip hop at the time, that I was cool b/c I listened to Digable Planets and GangStarr (or whatever)...then I'm out at a show and see some kids who were born in the late 80's talking about how fucking Ludacris or Eminem were on some pioneer shit, and I'm like WTF??!! I mean, I'm even a little ambivalent about Jay-Z--it's like he was the best rapper and the most popular rapper in the world when he went out (I feel kinda corny actually saying that--part of it is having lived in NYC, you see the direct street impact from somebody like him in his moment).

Anyhow, I get how invested we are in this argument when I get together with Brady and Novy and Arun around a few beers and try and decide the most important hip hop albums ever--what a fucking night! Gets back to the question of what hip hop is--I prefer KRS-One's more ecumenical, inclusive approach--there's a long and deep richness to be mined. But then there's the bullshit repugnant, repetitive taste of ass that is on every city's Hot 97 and MTV--I mean, it that's hip hop...?

There's something about hip hop that we all want to own, perhaps because for many of us it was a transformative music that appeared at an inflection point in our lives (high school)...who can forget pumping your fist to PE driving in your mom's car on the way to pick some piece of 11th grade ass up? Or waiting for Tower Records to open so you could cop the first copy of "Fear of a Black Planet"? Some kernel of that stays in you, and so much about who you are from that point on in life is somehow invested in the music you were listening to right then. I ran in to Chuck D. on an airplane about 6 years ago. All I said to him was "Thank you." That's all that needed to be said.