In Response to Dr. Lawyer Indian Chief

I really enjoyed Dr. Lawyer Indian Chief's (of FreeDarko) guest post on Straight Bangin’ on the state of hip-hop last week. Joey had asked him to come up with his favorite rap albums of the century (this century) and he only came up with six (Ghostface’s Supreme Clientele, Prodigy’s Return of the Mac, MF Doom’s Operation Doomsday, Dre’s 2001, Sacred Hoop’s Sleep Over and El-P’s Fantastic Damage). Dr. LIC laid out his argument with six bullet points as to “Why Hip-Hop Sucks in 2009,” during which he takes aim at seemingly every major player in rap from the late 90s/early aughts. (Quick point of order: I might use "hip-hop" and "rap" interchangeably here because I think we're arguing about the same thing. I DO understand that each word carries an individual meaning and connotation and I know what those meanings and connotations are, so please don't kill me for that.)

"1) White girls are the new black males" (Dr. LIC argues that rappers used to try to impress black guys and other rappers to enhance their "cred" but are now trying to earn the affections of white women)

Not exactly sure why this is (is it simple economics that white girls drive the market-->get white dudes to buy stuff/white people = 80% of America = buying public?), but it is. This whole steez has led to pointless Feist-sampling/MIA-jocking/Lady GaGa-collab’ing/KANYE STATING THAT HE KNOWS WHO PETER BJORN AND JOHN AND ANIMAL COLLECTIVE IS SO THAT HIPSTERS ARE LIKE WOW THAT IS SO SURPRISING...

I agree with the basic premise of this argument, but I'm not convinced that there's a gender component to this. However, as rap has become a sub-genre of pop over the last 10-12 years, it's white fanbase has grown and as a result, the music has changed with the groups of people listening to. Whether you want to tip-toe around the race aspect and talk about it in terms of suburbia vs. the inner-city is up to you, but rap music is different than it was in the mid 90s and even further from its state in the late 80s and it's a direct result of those consuming the music.

"2) Soulquarianism" (Dr. LIC argues that J Dilla's production style and sound begat the softening up of rap)

Can you hear the difference between Buhloone Mind State and Stakes Is High? Between Midnight Marauders and Beats, Rhymes, and Life? Between Resurrection/One Day It Will All Make Sense and Like Water for Chocolate? Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde and Labcabincalifornia? The difference in sonics you hear in each of these cases can be summed up in a word, “rawness.” Note, these are all good albums, but those in the former group are all time classics, and those in the latter group simply don’t rate in that category. The stank flute from “Pack the Pipe,” the Chicago despair of “Hungry,” the downright spookiness of “8 Million Stories.” By 1996, those type of songs were gone, replaced with Jay Dee’s brand of boom-bap neo-soul.

I love Dilla, and while the premise of the argument (that Dilla's style led to an evolution in rap) is sound, I disagree that this was a bad thing. Genres are ever evolving and changing and it's truly personal preference as to which era is better than the other. Whether you favor Paid in Full or Ready to Die is reliant on a number of factors, probably most important is which one the listener heard during their formative years. As such, while there is a noticeable difference in sound between all the albums Dr. LIC lists, I'm not sure sure I'd favor the former group over the latter. But again, it's like wine, everybody's auditory palate is different.

He also takes a dump on the Roots:

Nothing better encapsulates the de-raw-ification of rap than what happened to the Roots following Illadelph Halflife. First of all, ?uestlove turned into some cult-leaderish untrustworthy tastemaker converting his weird trustafarian/Nuyorican army to worship the Sweet-and-lo/Native Tonguian stylings of Little Brother and crap neo-soul like Floetry. Then, his band started sucking, too. Less Malik B and less Hub meant more stringy-soft backgrounds, more hot-air braggadocio from Black Thought, a slew of indistinguishable songs about rap, Philly, Philly rap, hip-hop, love-lyfe, etc. I seriously feel like the Roots let us down. Because of the live-band gimmick, they were our best opportunity to solidify 1994-caliber rap into the mainstream forever. Instead, they became hip-hop Phish, and ?uestlove whined a lot (comprising, in many ways, the predecessor to Kanye). I remember a few years ago talking to the editor-in-chief of a very popular music magazine, and he told me how ?uestlove was hating on their rag for only covering super-mainstream artists or super-underground artists. Ironically, that perfectly exemplifies the route that the Roots dug themselves into: middle. of. the. road.

After reading and re-reading and re-re-reading this, there's not much of an argument to make in opposition. Some of the Roots later stuff has been enjoyable, but there's no doubt that their best/most listenable/most creative/whatever-measure-you-want-to-use-work is their earlier stuff, and I'm not a "walked up hill both ways" back in the day kind of guy. What Dr. LIC leaves out is that the Roots have cemented their fate in joining Jimmy Fallon's show as the house band. Sure, they get to do some fun stuff like the Zack Morris/Zack Attack thing last week or the "I'm On a Boat" performance with the Lonely Island, but it will be surprising if they'll be able to keep up the schedule with Fallon's show, touring and recording. Maybe that's what they want: a solid, fun daily gig that pays well and allows them to enjoy the perks of their fame. Or maybe they're all looking to settle down and stop touring so much and only work in the studio. But there's no doubt that something is going to suffer even further, be it their epically long tours or the quality of their studio work.

"3) Stupidity is rewarded" ("White music is generally rewarded the smarter it is, black music is generally rewarded the dumber it is.")

I made this list in a rather arbitrary fashion, but this is probably reason #1. To sum it up in a sentence: The hipster media loves to tout black artists like OJ Da Juiceman, Max B, Young Jeezy, and (gulp) Soulja Boy* while simultaneously engaging in ancestor worship toward Animal Collective, Radiohead, and Arcade Fire. This phenomenon is well-documented, though it is commonly misattributed to hipster obsession with irony (and liking dumb hawdcore crunktastic music = irony in this case).

There's no doubt that this is true. I suffered through far too much Rick Ross and DJ Khaled during my senior year of college, often at the hands of my co-editor Heavy D, to think otherwise.

I think it goes beyond irony though, because if you ask any of these cheerleaders to say why they like that type of music, they will give you a very clear response that will commonly include something about swag, presence, charisma, or braggadocio. These are codewords; I’ll let you fill in the rest....

It's unclear what he's getting at here. Thoughts?

To use a movie metaphor, you can think about OJ Da Juiceman et al. as Old School and Wedding Crashers, while AnCo and the like are Brokeback Mountain, Atonement, and The Queen. Both get love from the critics, but at the end of the day, which camp is getting invited to the Oscars?

I have nothing else to add, other than this is a great analogy.

"4) The Michael Moore-ification of political rap" (Pretty self-explanatory)

I don't like over the top (as in, calling out politicians by name) political rap and I think most people find it contrived, so I don't think this really matters. I will say this: in my mind, political rap strikes a chord when the rapper talks about an issue at the human level (like a lyrical version of The Wire...it always comes back to The Wire); saying "Fuck Bush" at the end of a song is the opposite of discussing something at the human level. NWA's rapping about dealing with the police is much more relevant, in my mind, then somebody dumping all over Geoge W. Bush.

"5) Jay-Z and Nas’s snoozing lowered everyone’s GOAT standards" (Again, self-explanatory)

...it still stuns me how anyone who got started listening to Reasonable Doubt and Illmatic can still proclaim these guys co-GOATs or anything near that caliber. These guys are in the same phase of their careers as Iverson, Garnett, Duncan. The impact they had when they first came into the league just puts their present work to shame.

That’s not really the point though. The point is that Jay and Nas became de facto kingz after Biggie died, for no real reason other than there was a throne to fill...As someone who admittedly got into rap in 1991 and *just* missed out on “88” (i.e. the period that “88” symbolized), it shocks me to think of a time when Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Chuck D, LL Cool J, and KRS-One were all at the top of their game simultaneously. Now those are names worth arguing over.

THIS is the argument. The rap downturn began when Jay-Z and Nas were crowned; I love a lot of their work, but with what they've done in recent years, I don't think they can be part of the discussion for GOAT with true fans of the medium, just as film buffs scoffed at Gladiator's Oscar victory in 2001, while the rest of us marveled at how bad ass the fight scenes were/are.

To me, the most apt basketball comparison to the period right after Biggie's death would be the NBA in November 1993. Jordan had just retired (for the first time) on the eve of the season and no one knew who was going to be the face of the league. Magic and Bird had been out for a couple years and Jordan was the sole king for the previous few years, having won three straight titles with the Bulls. No one person took the crown after Jordan left and as a result, the league marketed Hakeem, Ewing and David Robinson (and Barkley for a time) with the same fervor they had marketed Jordan. Ultimately, Hakeem won the two titles but he wasn't truly the king of the league, at least not in the eyes of the league's fans; there wasn't a true king during that two season period. Not only did no one take the crown, but no one was deserving of the crown. Jordan returned out of shape for the end of the 94-95 season but took back what was rightfully his in 95-96.

Now imagine if Jordan hadn't come back? Who would we remember as the dominant presence in the league between the 93 Bulls and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers? Personally, I don't think we'd remember anyone because a) there wasn't a worthy candidate; and b) no one went out and grabbed it. People wanted there to be a king, so Jay-Z and Nas went out and grabbed it, and as a result, they'll be remembered as the greatest of their time. But as much as I love Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt and as much as I enjoy "Ether" and The Grey Album every time I hear them, the biggest misconception about the dominance of Jay and Nas from 99-03 is that their presence during that period means they're in the conversation as GOAT.

These days we can’t accept an empty throne, so we have been stepping over each for the past few years trying to give the “crown” to people like Cam’ron, the Game, and Weezy. And seriously, I love Lil’ Wayne, but I once tried to tally the number of instances on The Carter III where dude makes an “I’m the shit”/actual pooping pun, and I lost track. The guy is great, Top 30 all time, sure. But, like I said, let’s have some standards.

Couldn't agree more...if you don't like basketball, sorry for another analogy, but imagine if LeBron, Kobe, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul lost all their ability after another visit by the aliens from SpaceJam, desperate for another chance to be Monstars. Would we crown Dwight Howard or Carmelo Anthony king? We didn't crown Hakeem in the mid 90s and he won two titles, so I don't think so. And if that's the case, then why are all these other rappers in the discussion? Why can't we just wait it out? Something good will come (I hope).

"6) Lack of samples" (Also self-explanatory)

I hadn't noticed this, so I'll have to keep an ear out. (Not working in favor of this argument: the biggest song of last year's beat was a Daft Punk sample played over and over again with a pretty simple drum beat behind it.)


There's one HUGE thing I think Dr. LIC didn't discuss: the changes in the music industry. Today, no one needs to make a great full album because they can make the same amount releasing singles at a much lower cost. That is, if everyone is only going to download the tracks they love on iTunes (or steal it), then from the perspective of an artist focused on monetizing, why wold you take the time to go through and make your entire album fantastic when you're going to do the same numbers selling singles? (Note, I don't agree with this, BUT, I understand that someone trying to make loot would think this way.) With all the online promotional tools available, you only really need one big track to put you into the upper echelon, so some, not all, artists focus on making the hits they need to get to that level and don't develop an entire album, or, in some cases, their skills for that matter.

Anyways, been thinking about that for a little while and wanted to respond to it...well done Dr. LIC.

And because I listened to ODB's Return to the 36 Chambers on repeat while writing this, here's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya

(After editing this piece, it occurs to me that guys like me and Dr. LIC are presenting the same type of view point that guys like Mike Lupica and Mitch Albom share every Sunday on the Sports Reporters, only about hip-hop. Fuck...I hate those guys.)