I Noun Hip Hop

---"For many people Hip Hop was that first friend… the first to talk to us, the first to understand. Hip Hop has always been that kind of friend to me. And like any relationship… I watched it grow, I watched it change" --- Sanaa Lathan

Like you and yours I am a fiend for good music, whenever my view on life becomes foggy and I have difficulty finding my path I find my focus back through music. Any music. Through every situation I have ever faced in my life, music has been the pillar on which I leaned on, from the African drumbeats roaring in Oliver Mtukudzi and Mama Mirriam Makeba’s sounds or the upbeat rhythm I find in Glen Lewis’ Mid Tempos and DJ Fresh’s House Definitions, it could be the catchy melody in Trompies’ Malabulabu or Thebe’s Sokola Sonke, the blues in Nina Simone, the jazz influence from Chrisette Michele or the sound of the cornet from Olu Dara’s melodies to the near perfect cadence of his son- Nas- as he laces rhymes over tight beats.

The point here is I love music, all kinds of it, but at the same time I cannot front on this compulsive love for Hip Hop, the history of this blog is enough to validate my lifelong love-hate affair with it.  For me, Hip Hop is not just about fresh lyrics over dope cuts. It is a way of life, it is the air I breathe and the bounce you see in my step. That is why I speak about her in third person- as a noun, as an adjective, verb or any other way the English language permits.

This is also why today I peep from my shell to write to Hip Hop, to stress her impact on my life and to lay emphasis on my disappointments with the path she chose. I don’t write to change who and what Hip Hop has become, I write to get the load of my chest, to shed feelings and thoughts and to heal from the pain that she has dragged me through.

I know I should have heeded Nasir’s Message

When he told me that a thug changes, love changes

And best friends become strangers

I should have known the prerequisites to this love and hip hop shit

That you just don’t open your heart and let her hit

Ya’ll forgot to mention that there’s levels to this ‘follow your heart’ stream

The roses may be admirable but they are also as prickly as they seem

Now I feel the thorn on my hide, still I should have known

That she would stay mine, that is until her head got blown

She went mainstream, became relatable and then unfamiliar to me

Neglecting to remember that I was with her from the start

Or the person she was when we first made love

She fed of off my middle and my mind and then let me starve

And when I brought it up she act like I said I wanted half

What’s funny is she seems oblivious to what we were from the genesis

She found herself in the heart of the city and that’s where she thinks the love is

Dimmed memories as she waters down the role that I used to play

Omitted thoughts- when she was down it was my knees that hit the ground to pray

I played my part but you Hip Hop played my heart

Took me for a fool used me as a stepping stool and left me in a rut

The accolades came they were wrapped in fame

I understand now that shit could not have stayed the same

What hip-hop never understood is that those who pioneered her stay possessive

It’s their disposition although the new school thinks it’s regressive

I mean how do you introduce me to Grandmaster Flash’s The Message

And still think I’d feel the same when Soulja Boy Tell Em?

You acquaint me to KRS’s teachings on peace, love, unity and having fun

And expect me to still hail Wacka Flocka and Chief Keef on their run?

I know of your origins, I practically held you through them

You can’t blame me for seeing past your malleable façade in this new term

I’m serene for knowing that I gave her my all

And although our demise she had tried to stall

She and I both know that it was inevitable this fall

So to you Hip Hop, I hope you’re happy and that you’ll forever have a ball

Because now I know

That Hip Hop will not only come to Break You Off and maybe Break Your Neck

But it’s also bound to Break Your Heart

I might fight for her and have my way cause I know with me she came to stay

And even if she got around and asked for a new start

It would change nothing; I’d still rest one eye up