BY: DIMEZ
When you think about New York, you don't envision picnics and grassy fields. I come from a tightly knit family and every summer we went to Bear Mountain. My uncles would always bring the "reefer" (that's old school for weed) and something to sip on. My aunts and grandmothers would chef up something marvelous that you could smell without opening the cooler. I don't know how they kept the fried chicken crispy when it was wrapped for hours. The potato salad was always cold and laced with a hint of relish. I couldn't wait for them to break out the BBQ and the music. Damn, the music made the summer feel eternal. Bobby Brown was just hitting and RUNDMC sounded like white boys fucking with their guitars in a garage, but I loved it.
It's been a long time since I associated music with
a particular time period. "SEPARATE BUT EQUAL"
is the exception. It's pure music and the soulful production
by 9th WONDER is similar to swimming in good times.
You never want to leave the soothing waters. BIG POOH
and PHONTE are a NATIVE TONGUE fiends purple haze dream,
rolled in country lyricism. In other words/when it comes
to fist to cuffs/I ain't miss the bus/so I am quick
to leave a nigga dick/deep in the dust. It's witty lyrics
and the country phrasing that makes the sound masterful.
It's a shame that the mainstream hasn't embraced LITTLE
BROTHER the way they have COMMON and KANYE WEST, but
it is a true Hip Hop heads advantage. I'm not sure that
I'm willing to share songs like "CAN'T LET HER"
with an unappreciative public. A cult following isn't
the worse thing that a group can suffer through. The
head nigga in charge is still dreaming/of an industry
where hot shits rewarded/and dope shits recorded/and
wack shits ignored/I sold my heart to the world/nobody
bought it.
I keep hearing that "Hip Hop isn't the same." I'm not sure if I want it to be the same, because that means there's no progress. LITTLE BROTHER is the Hip Hop that we miss. You just have to accept that as times change, the topics that emcees address will also. BLACK THOUGHT, COMMON, DEAD PREZ, and LITTLE BROTHER are all screaming for change, they just don't have to be as forceful as PUBLIC ENEMY was in the past. This is beautiful music and I pray that the message doesn't fall on def ears. Whether you are a fan of cars, rope chains and but naked bitches, we all partake in the culture of Hip Hop and no genre of the music is greater than the other. We are "SEPARATE BUT EQUAL".
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