We have solicited the opinion of our close friend and fellow head, GFUNK, in an effort to kick the hornets nest that is hip-hop. Presented on Wednesdays, keep an eye out for future editions. Until then, scroll down to read the first installment Forgot About Dre.
Be sure to follow @gfunkinyotrunk
Hip hop is by far one of the most beautiful, gut wrenching, ugly, wonderful, real, fake, majestic things I’ve ever had the honor of encountering. When’s the last time you actually and realistically thought about what the music means to you instead of talking about what the newest music means to hip hop? It’s easy to take something that you’ve become so accustomed to having around and discuss and dissect it, think about it, talk about it, read about it or just listen to it. It’s hip hop. It’s music. It’s wonderful.
For those hip hop heads out there who have been around for some time, tell me where you were when you heard Big Pun died. Tell me where you were when you heard that Biggie died. Tell me where you were when Tupac was shot…when he too died. Tell me when you fell in love with the music. I can remember listening to Tupac’s Life Goes On while drinking Red Kool-Aid and just feeling something more than I had ever felt from music. It hit me in my chest and my gut and my head. I loved it. Now this wasn’t the first hip hop song I had ever heard, wasn’t even close. I had been listening to the music for some time. But that is a distinctive memory I have about this art form that I reminisce on from time to time.
I remember when Ain’t Nuthin But A G Thang dropped. I remember the video with that cute little boy boppin. I remember how Dr. Dre represented everything that was right about this thing I had come to love. I remember when he performed Forgot About Dre on SNL with Eminem several years later and he seemed to be spitting in the face of everyone, as if to say, “Yeah fools, I’m not done.” I remember the chills that I got watching, then realizing that Dre was a fucking genius and that Eminem had better breath control on stage than just about everyone performing. I loved it.
Now, tell me this: how much would you pay to buy a Tupac album from the man he would be now if he had not been taken away? Think about it. Tupac lived. He grew past 25 years old. The genius that he was…it developed. Tell me how much you would pay today to buy a current album from Biggie. He didn’t pass that day in March of 1997, but instead he lived. Fast forward almost 14 years to today. If an album came out, how excited would you be? Ask yourself the same, but substitute Big Pun. I do not know anyone who would nonchalantly say, “Oh, it’s been too long.” “Who’s waiting on that? Is anyone still waiting on that?” If you can honestly say that you would not stand in line all day and night for a fucking month just to hear what an older, wiser, and more experienced Tupac, Biggie or Pun would say, then I say you are not a true fan of this art.
With that being said, Dr. Dre has been making promises to release Detox for a while now. Drop dates have been scheduled and rescheduled like the date on a wedding invitation that never happened. It has been said that he would release an album, and some of us got excited. Now, here we are again. This time, though, is different. There has been two singles released. One of those singles, “Kush”, has a video. The other one was released yesterday entitled “I Need a Doctor”. A version of this song was leaked a few months ago, albeit an unmastered version to which Dre said not to listen. I did not listen to it until he officially released it because I didn’t want to hear a version of a song not bearing his stamp of approval. Now it has been released some 4 months later, showing that he takes his time with his songs.
Back to Detox. This time, there is progress. But, there are people out there saying, who cares?!?!? How fucking dare you? This man was the contemporary of giants, consider his resume if you disagree. He was there when Snoop released his best music to date, specifically Doggystyle. He was there when Tupac was Tupac. He was a member of NWA for crying out loud. NWA started west coast “gangsta rap” which has altered the course of hip hop as we know it. Dr. Dre just wasn’t a contemporary of giants, he was a giant himself. Who cares if it’s been 10 years? This man was a trendsetter when hip hop was a toddler. What makes anyone think that simply because he has not proven to us over recent years that he hasn’t somehow lost it, that he is still Dre, that he might not be able to meet the level of the hip hop we have become accustomed to recently? We have a genius still in our midst. He wasn’t taken away from us prematurely and permanently by violence or fate. He simply went back behind the board and decided to do something else for us, like bring us the Aftermath Record Label. He doesn’t owe hip hop fans an album to prove that he’s still got it. He’s Dre. We owe him a little bit more respect and (to treat him like the genius he is) respect his timeframe instead of being pissed off or disappointed that he hasn’t given us what we wanted in a timely manner like petulant fucking children.
Artists work on their own timetables. I don’t mean musicians, I mean those artists like Monet, Warhol, and Basquiat. They are not in control of their creativity, their creativity is in control of them. They are forced to pick up a brush or a pen and paint or draw or sketch. They have to feel that something is finished. We, as art lovers, would not dare tell Michelangelo that “The David” was fine the way it is before he finished it, demand to see it so we can dissect it and critique it, and then judge him on it before he said it was done.
Have any of you naysayers even stopped to consider that when we judge albums, and we definitely judge albums privately and publicly (XXL has a rating system of S, M, L, XL, and XXL and Vibe has their mics instead of stars rating), we are judging the artist on the content of their work. Some guys are rappers because they decided to hustle rhymes instead of other things; and, they couldn’t care less about the content of their work because they are only out for the money that comes with this territory. Dr. Dre is not that guy. He is an artist who values his body of work as any true “artist” would, again, not like poppy ass musicians but true artists. “I Need a Doctor” just proves I’m right.
We as fans bitch about the lack of quality music, yet spit in the face of a giant and genius who doesn’t want to add to the problem but wants to give us fans an album that is brilliant and well put together, an album that he himself as the artist and genius can sign off on. Sure, maybe the release dates have come and gone. Sure, maybe we’ve gotten excited only to be let down giving us hip hop blue balls. Still, this time, it’s obviously different.
So, for those of you asking is anyone still waiting on Detox, my answer is you’re fucking right I am. My question is, as a true hip hop head, why the fuck aren’t you?
Put that in your trunk and thump it,
GFUNK.
No comments:
Post a Comment