“Breaking atoms”,”Mecca and the soul brother”,People’s instinctive travel and paths of rhythm”

By Bright Igho (B-elect)

……sound like names of books or topics for elaborate discourse at a tertiary level don’t you think?

To adequately explain these phrases away as titles of past rap albums to my 16 year old nephew might  just sound  as unconvincing as asking Mode Nine to dance “alanta’ or better  yet Terry G saying he has never  heard of cannabis….

Digging in my crates about two weekends ago, listening to 3^rd Bass (mc serch et all) ,

Malcolm Macleren and the world supreme team (Hey D.J.) and finally ending up bopping a compilation cd “Roots of rap” which contained unforgettable classics like

“the message” and “whites lines” by Grandmaster Flash,spoonie,electric Boogie

and the first ever commercially successful rap song on radio “rapper’s delight”(which sampled  pop group’s Chic),I start to re-wire my cipher plug- ins to tune the volume of recent  half truth/half disgruntled phrases from hip hop purists(yours truly is guilty as well)like “hip hop is dead”,”the golden era””94 era,”keeping it real”……excetera.

I Listened through ‘rapper’s delight”, breaking it down frame for frame like I was trying to understand the appeal, the reason for acceptance,the musical weight behind the rap:sincerely,the lyrics were not as mind elevating, cipher buggling as rap later became but rather a song with lyrics about girls,fun,bragging and truly…just fun,so maybe it was all pop from the start??

I start to think, could it be it was just the Chic sample? or possibly because it was something fresh, the element of “new”, that  nouveau aspect of new trends and fashion which get people scampering to the  next  venue, which makes girls want to don outfits that reveal everything their mums taught them to conceal: Andy wahrol pop culture,madonna’s defiance, lady Gaga’s shock element!

Hip hop becomes like a child who is always searching for a new way of expression or a chic that gets bored with orthrodox sex,then maybe a three-some wouldn’t be something so horrible to try out afterall,or a prodigal who still insists on marshing out every available terrain in constant locomotion, a quest to fill up inner wants.

What if it was just the Industry rule no.1080?record companies have to make money of course,greed, fashion trends,product(drop in record sales world wide due to music sharing,software availability plus piracy)and a replacement of talent  with looks and glam?

As the evolution of the sounds of hip hop continues it’s cycle, my personal opinion is that the consciousness and intensity of expression on beats and attitude that cumulated in the golden era of 88 to 96 which gave us Nas,Wu Tang Clan,X clan,public enemy and the likes would always be remembered and revered alike….mostly because this era gave power of speech to rappers more than ever;Ice cube’s debut album,the P.E. logo, timberland boots, gangster rap (ala NWA),KRS1 and BDP were just a personification  and interpretation of the minds  of many young blacks in America. It ain’t hard to tell that this was easily understood worldwide and youths on other continents built on this frame and adapted the hip” attitude that rappers carried like a chip on their shoulders as the slang was one, the clothing was another and the beat was constantly adapting a new groove.Lyrisicm,wordplay and punchlines have over time become what is seen as “skill”, hence the present fusion of such over more “danceable beats, has created a line that might not be as thin as it would seem between a nineties rap disciple and an average rap lover.Difference been “consciousness.

Albeit not as recognized as should be, the golden era of rap still leaves it’s effect on a lot of us….if Nas told you”the world is yours”,then possibly in the same vein some other son only remembers that Dre and snoop told him to “smoke chronic”;Tupac versus Biggie,,an epic battle between East coast rap  and West coast of the U.S.Female emcees evolved from Roxanne to stestatonic (and spandex) to gangsta bitch(Boss),then skillfull and beautiful (lauryn Hill) and little Kim to sexy,endowed and animated Nicky Minaj.

A wise man has already stated that nothing is constant but change, agreed but hip hop seems to be the only musical form that has the tendency to always shoot itself in the foot and thinks it can run away with it,why? Because every generation likes to discard the values of the one before it and so on and so forth..Rap,breakdance,dee-jaying(disc jockey),graffiti art…these actually in practice have spelt out the fact that hip hop is more artform and culture.Music is one minute part of it all, hence in developing artform,gaining popularity and cognisnace,then returning back to the dancehall in it’s evocation,trending to compete with it’s alternative,it looses dept,base,intensity,primal creativity,spirituality and essence.Not saying here that it’s hip-ness will ever go anywhere,but the hop has turned into different meanings for different people.For a disciple of the pre 90s and 90s era,skill,rhymes and cadence,with premiere-eque and probably vintage dre beats with (for some such as myself),

Album concept and topic matter more than anything else.

Apparently,Naija rap scene was unfortunate enough be  graced with few rap albums in it’s early stages,discarding the metamorphosis as lousy would be unfair,from the  Eedris to Ruggedman,tribesmen,SWAT ROOT,Modenine and thorobreds,the mainframe went from rap persona to rap concept,lyrics and skills and of course in recent times, Mode Nine with his chain of  top notch hip hop albums has turned a lot of sons into punchline advocates,(well since no one else has stood up to the occasion with other faces of rap,mad props to the ninestein),due to a poor support and lack of embrace for well rounded rap in Naija,not enough dee-jays with average or minimal spinning skills(seriously)and understanding of musical legacy,seriously the terrain hardly develops variety.

Whatever the case may be, most rappers in naija evolve into singers or similitude of  that over time.

Internationally,the most successful artistes  have always been the one that have changed with trends of time  and evolved their approach to suit thus,true:that jazz artiste Wynton Marsallais will cease to play his own form of vintage jazz and switch to jocking off Kenny  G for instance would be saying KRS1 should start biting lil Wayne….hence in an overtly fast-paced,internet savvy generation of hip hop,which gets more access to consumers than ever with much more available resources and and industry that upholds swag over legacy,complaining about how the rap  music has changed would only make you sound like grumpy uncle,since hey,rapper’s delight was possibly just “delight hence it was accepted commercially….

Won’t be a bad idea though to just kick back, relax and shake the speakers properly with some bad ass,vintage ”I used to love her” by common…and screw hip hop just the way she used to like it once in a while as the dance continues!