Warning Signs

Warning Signs (take 2…to make a thing go right)

Does Hip-Hop have a Check Engine light? I’m contemplating this as I sit at a stoplight, feeling the shakes from my V8 with the amber engine light glowing as I play a burn of Pharoahe Monch’s Desire. I can’t see a mechanic for a few days, but I’ve gotta pick up my son, so I push it along hoping that its more of a “go in and take care of this soon” type light and not a “yo, your engine is about to explode” type light. Everyday we see warning signs around us (shoot, hasn’t the entire COUNTRY been on yellow alert since 9/11?) but we make our little judgment calls about whether to heed them.

Hip-Hop has had quite a few warning signs of engine failure if not complete seizure over the passed few years. If you’re a more industry minded person, the extreme dip in sales is one indicator. If you’re more culturally minded, the decline in the female presence, as well as the quality of the music is another clear indicator. To me, these symptoms are not mutually exclusive. The hyper-masculinity in the MC has gone unchecked with little or no balance and the people are turned off. Why do you think the silly dance-crazed songs like “Aunt Jackie” and “Chicken Noodle Soup” became so popular? Folks are tired/bored with bravado with no talent to back it up. When Kane bragged, you knew why. When rapper X2007 brags, its not so clear. Cuz other than his car and his chains, he isn’t that unique. You’re just another dude rappin, so why should I bother? Trust me, they realize this too. Which is why the threats and battles nowadays are predicated on not liking somebody, as opposed to thinking you’re a better MC: “You got chains? I got chains…You got cars? I got cars. Neither of us selling more than 300K records in a year, but I’m cooler than you. Why? Cuz…cuz…cuz you’re a doo-doo head.”

To illustrate my point, look at the skill to beef ratio of Lil Wayne lately. You notice that the better he raps, the less you hear about people beefin’ with him? Come with it if you disagree, but the man took over Summer Jam with a freestyle session and I haven’t heard nary a word from Juvie, BG or Gilly in a little while…Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Several years ago I interviewed De La Soul at Negril when their Grind Date album was coming out. While the story would become a victim of office politics and never run, a statement from Maseo stays with me to this day. “Gangster rappers are fatherless boys trying to find their manhood through music…” I’ll just let that one simmer with you. Sometimes the best thing a writer can do is let the words sit on their own.

“Shoot me. If I die, I’m Tupac, if I live, I’m 50 Cent.” – Mike Epps.

The trigger for this train of thought is of course reading about the murder of Stack Bundles in Far Rockaway. Mind you, I only have/had a small knowledge of the man and he wasn’t on my personal radar. It also saddens me that if he’d not been a rapper, he’d have just been another murder victim in Queens. This is a Black Community problem, not a Hip-Hop problem. Nevertheless, the same question has to be asked: Why did he die? The fact that he wasn’t super famous makes it more disturbing to me.
Will this be seen as a warning sign? Probably not by itself. But combined with the respected execs getting caught with coke in their cars and multiplatinum rappers getting charged with assault, if we aren’t gonna at least check under the hood, can we at least pump our brakes? Slow down, sons, you’re killin ‘em…