Keeping it real???
Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 2:38PM Its amusing people who think keeping it real is what THEY think is real. Who are they to determine what "real" is? I respect anybody & their views even if I don't agree or share the same. I still respect & try to understand their frame of mind & how the way they think helps them live their life. Yet time & time again I hear & read people criticize or judge others simply because they do not share their same taste, fashion or ideas,etc.
Although during my childhood I loved hiphop, heavy metal, top 40 music,etc. I ended up gravitating toward hip hop as my primary music of choice & I've watched the music I love so much evolve on so many different levels from the clothing style to lyrical content. I've seen some artist start of as underground being a staple on college radio (Common,Eminem & Black eyed peas) to others making the leap straight to mainstream (Soulja Boy &
Plies.) My first awareness of the term keeping it real obviously came from the hip hop community but what is keeping it real??
It seems some think staying broke & true to your artform or @ least what they think is true to the artform. I know so many DJs & artist that look @ mainstream success as negative or selling out & @ the same time complain about what they deem to be wack being successful. Yes, I do agree & am baffled sometimes on what actually sells & is of interest to the general public but again who am I to say what is good to them? I just know what I like & I also know what will work to the majority, even if I don't necesarily like it. I can still distinguish the difference between the two & my duty as a DJ comes two fold..I am responsible for breaking & introducing the world to new music & what I personally think is cool but also its my job to give the people what they want & entertain them. I see some DJs defy the crowd & only play what they think is cool which can work sometimes & not others. I see other DJs play it safe & only play what's been broken & is guaranteed to work. They both serve purposes. One isn't better than the other technically speaking, of course this varies on your taste of music. You can't go to a hip club in NY or LA & play ice,ice baby the same way you have a good chance of clearing the floor in say a Vegas club if you start playing to much indie rock music or if you go to a club in the hood & try to play house or electro music. Its knowing & understanding people. That's a whole other story. Anyhow, back to what is real?
I was recently in a debate over soulja boy & whether or not he's hiphop or he is real & I know some of my friends that "keep it real' or are older hip hop heads totally disagree w/ me but I stand my ground. The debate was sparked over the fact that he was unaware of who Ice-t was or some other older hip hop heads that have helped pioneer this music. They all frowned on him which incidentally doesn't matter because he's still richer & more successflu than them but regardless I entertained the debate.
Question:
If I know I love pizza & I think its cool to sell pizza & own a shop am I obligated to do my research on the inventor of pizza & who 1st introduced it to America or how many pizzas are sold a year? I just think owning a pizza shop would be a great way to earn a living & I really like to eat it so it makes sense, in my mind to open one.
This is how I feel about an artist like Soulja Boy. Why should he be condemned because he doesn't know some of hip hops history or even when Asher Roth was unfamiliar w/ some of the older pioneers or Lupe Fiasco never listening to Tribe called Quest. They stumbled upon something that was compelling to them & was interesting enough that they wanted to get involved. To me this is remarkable because it can bring change & help create a new sound that has not been birthed yet.
The cool thing about the new generation is not what they know, its what they don't know. They can't get stuck in what was or what use to work. They don't try to keep reinventing the old ideas because they don't know them. They are open minded.
They are, let's say...on to the next...
Maybe you guys should try that too.
Miles Davis did.
What is keeping it real?
There is a certain rapper who had a bit of success when I was very young from my city (Boston) that over the course of his career has never been able to maintain or reclaim that kind of success. He's had odd jobs, part time & full time sitting @ a desk in a warehouse while still trying to flourish in the hip hop game. He got the pass of being accepted because of the success he had over 15 yrs ago & quite frankly because we hadn't had anyone else really do anything of significance or positive from our city with respects to hiphop (shout out to New Edition.) I am a fan of the work that he has done in the past & consider our relationship to be pretty friendly & cordial until one day I heard him on a record say something negative about me...hmmmmm, where did that come from I wondered? Especially when it was on a song by a DJ who I was equally as cool with & actually spoke in depth about trying to help him gain success with a project he was working on that I thought was great. The line in the song goes like this "I remember when I use to rap in the parks, now we get familiar with that bullshit from Clinton Sparks". Now being the promoting, branding ambassador that I am, my first reaction was "that's fresh" because my name was mentioned in a song. The fact it was with a negative tone didn't phase me on a business level but then the more I thouht about it, I thought it was really uncool on a personal level & as real as he thought he was by trying to convey I've become part of the system it was actually the opposite of real because it goes deeper than that. Here's what I mean. One, if you were someone who kept it real & had a problem with me then you would personally reach out to me. Two, the fact I'm from your city & have garnered success shining a positive light on our city should hold some sort of weight as to not be spoken of negatively , no? Three, you have known me for years & have been part of many local talent shows with me, seen how I lived on our local college stations, have done shows,supported local hip hop station fundraisers, lobbied & campaigned to start the only mainstream show to be ran on Bostons #1 radio station thats dedicated to playing local, unsigned artist yrs ago & it still runs to this day (shout to geespin & on & on) & for years have helped many artist from our city.
I have no choice but to assume that in his mind I'm not keeping it real which leads me to
Four,
If your actually getting familiar w/ that bullshit from Clinton Sparks that means your listening to me & hence not keeping it real to yourself.
That senseless comment really sounded like a quote from danny glovers character from lethal weapon "I'm too old for this shit." Some people need to keep it real & realize that its a wrap for themselves. Let's see, I've done major projects w/ Clipse, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch, Kardinal Offishall & countless other artist who I know he has respect for so now five, you dissed all these guys too. Fail!
Some people actually get so caught up in wanting to be what other people define as real that they actually are not keeping it real, to themselves. How real is that? BTW - I have a lot more "bullshit" that you will be getting familiar with.
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