Hip Hop Battles: What Are They Good For?
[For context to this blog read this and then listen to the battle raps ("Kevin Winkle" and "Eat35 Battle Record", respectively) on the following web pages: htttp://www.myspace.com/835rappin and http://www.myspace.com/yamio263. WARNING: EXPLICIT LYRICS AND NOT SO NICE CONTENT]
Before the beef between 8:35 and Yamio emerged online--it is, as Yamio states on his own blog, close to a decade stale--I sent Yamio a message in response to something he wrote in a song called, "It's Like That." A track seething with venom, an emcee featured on the song says that his music will sell because "it's blood. They love it." Then he says something to the effect that he's hard enough to walk around "with a gun in public."
Yamio, for his part, proceeds to speak negatively of virtually everyone in his middle verse. This, of course, is the nature of the emcee battle. But he starts talking about the crew Forgotten Dialect, of which I was a part back in the day. He dissed everyone specifically, with the exception of Kayer (a.k.a Kazrah, Kaerah, Kaer) and myself. Kayer still raps and puts out straight hip hop material, so I suppose that's why he goes untouched. And though he doesn't explicitly diss me in the middle of a battle track, he says, in effect, that as long as I am not putting hip hop first (making beats, writing rhymes, doing shows, etc.), I am wasting my life.
Forgotten Dialect disbanded long ago, and many of the guys who were in the original crew have continued to make music, or remained involved in the hip hop world in some capacity. Some still Dj, some still rap, some still bomb trains, but for the most part, hip hop is not what they do for a living. Yamio took this to mean that they--really, we--have fallen off.
So I wrote to Yamio expressing my dismay at the way he wrote about me, and the context in which he wrote about me. I felt as though he was being condescending, like I needed to check myself and my priorities in life. That hurt. I have two children and my beautiful wife to support. I work at a bookshop full time, I'm going to school part time, I spend my weekends with the fam. My initial reaction was to respond in kind. I got him started making beats and writing rhymes and painting. I know his family. But I knew that wouldn't solve anything. I knew I would end up right where he is with 8:35. And everybody knows that this is unproductive. This is a microcosm for the eastcoast/westcoast, B.I.G./Tupac, Jay-Z/Nas, 50 Cent/Ja Rule P.R. entertainment bullshit that I thought we all hated. But I see people jumping on and posting this and that, so I guess I was wrong.
I told Yamio in my message that battling is hardly useful in building hip hop community, with the exception of being aimed at the betterment of one's opponent. If an emcee tore into their competitor's real flaws, not that they're like a dog that needs a whooping for stepping out of line, or telling them that they're a bitch, but got down to the real issues, I might actually appreciate it more. But see, these guys don't even know each other well enough to do that. They just have hate (or boredom) that needs appeasement, so they channel it in whichever direction sets them off. That's wack. Ask anybody who has been through it (that doesn't have an ego the size of Texas).
Back in the day, emcees would battle about who was the dopest, and yeah, there was some real beef, but look at those same cats now. The beef is hip hop legend, now they're working on building global community together. That's what we need to do. We need to continue to battle wack emcees who rape the culture for its lucrative appeal, or who cheapen it by inflating their egos beyond reason or comprehension.
I know what battles are about. I have witnessed and participated in them more than once. I have Canibus' "Second Round K.O." on vinyl. What I'm saying is that everybody needs to sit down and listen (I know that's hard for rappers) to "Hello, Hi, Hey" like it's a textbook for the class, cause they nod their heads, but they don't hear it.
"Beef is when workin' niggas can't find jobs/
So they tryna find niggas to rob/
Tryna find bigger guns so they can finish the job/
Beef is when the crack kids can't find moms/
Cause they end up inna PINE box or locked behind bars...
When a soldier ends his life with his own gun/
Beef is tryin' to figure out what to tell his son/
Beef is oil prices and geopolitics/
Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip/
Some beef is big and some beef is small/
But what y'all call beef is not beef at all..."
--Mos Def (with Talib Kweli), "What's Beef", 2003
Before the beef between 8:35 and Yamio emerged online--it is, as Yamio states on his own blog, close to a decade stale--I sent Yamio a message in response to something he wrote in a song called, "It's Like That." A track seething with venom, an emcee featured on the song says that his music will sell because "it's blood. They love it." Then he says something to the effect that he's hard enough to walk around "with a gun in public."
Yamio, for his part, proceeds to speak negatively of virtually everyone in his middle verse. This, of course, is the nature of the emcee battle. But he starts talking about the crew Forgotten Dialect, of which I was a part back in the day. He dissed everyone specifically, with the exception of Kayer (a.k.a Kazrah, Kaerah, Kaer) and myself. Kayer still raps and puts out straight hip hop material, so I suppose that's why he goes untouched. And though he doesn't explicitly diss me in the middle of a battle track, he says, in effect, that as long as I am not putting hip hop first (making beats, writing rhymes, doing shows, etc.), I am wasting my life.
Forgotten Dialect disbanded long ago, and many of the guys who were in the original crew have continued to make music, or remained involved in the hip hop world in some capacity. Some still Dj, some still rap, some still bomb trains, but for the most part, hip hop is not what they do for a living. Yamio took this to mean that they--really, we--have fallen off.
So I wrote to Yamio expressing my dismay at the way he wrote about me, and the context in which he wrote about me. I felt as though he was being condescending, like I needed to check myself and my priorities in life. That hurt. I have two children and my beautiful wife to support. I work at a bookshop full time, I'm going to school part time, I spend my weekends with the fam. My initial reaction was to respond in kind. I got him started making beats and writing rhymes and painting. I know his family. But I knew that wouldn't solve anything. I knew I would end up right where he is with 8:35. And everybody knows that this is unproductive. This is a microcosm for the eastcoast/westcoast, B.I.G./Tupac, Jay-Z/Nas, 50 Cent/Ja Rule P.R. entertainment bullshit that I thought we all hated. But I see people jumping on and posting this and that, so I guess I was wrong.
I told Yamio in my message that battling is hardly useful in building hip hop community, with the exception of being aimed at the betterment of one's opponent. If an emcee tore into their competitor's real flaws, not that they're like a dog that needs a whooping for stepping out of line, or telling them that they're a bitch, but got down to the real issues, I might actually appreciate it more. But see, these guys don't even know each other well enough to do that. They just have hate (or boredom) that needs appeasement, so they channel it in whichever direction sets them off. That's wack. Ask anybody who has been through it (that doesn't have an ego the size of Texas).
Back in the day, emcees would battle about who was the dopest, and yeah, there was some real beef, but look at those same cats now. The beef is hip hop legend, now they're working on building global community together. That's what we need to do. We need to continue to battle wack emcees who rape the culture for its lucrative appeal, or who cheapen it by inflating their egos beyond reason or comprehension.
I know what battles are about. I have witnessed and participated in them more than once. I have Canibus' "Second Round K.O." on vinyl. What I'm saying is that everybody needs to sit down and listen (I know that's hard for rappers) to "Hello, Hi, Hey" like it's a textbook for the class, cause they nod their heads, but they don't hear it.
"Beef is when workin' niggas can't find jobs/
So they tryna find niggas to rob/
Tryna find bigger guns so they can finish the job/
Beef is when the crack kids can't find moms/
Cause they end up inna PINE box or locked behind bars...
When a soldier ends his life with his own gun/
Beef is tryin' to figure out what to tell his son/
Beef is oil prices and geopolitics/
Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip/
Some beef is big and some beef is small/
But what y'all call beef is not beef at all..."
--Mos Def (with Talib Kweli), "What's Beef", 2003
posted by chris at 12:26 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home