Hip Hop! Ya don’t stop!

A good-looking black guy singing (or maybe talking) with the some brilliant beats in the background. Some beautiful young women dancing around, flashy clothes, cars and beautiful locales. I remember that I just could not keep my feet still. The music blew my mind. It still does.

“Getting jiggy wit it” by Will Smith remains on of my favourite songs till date. The video by Hype Williams still gives me goosebumps. This is how I discovered Hip-Hop – on a Sunday afternoon in 1995. Back then I had no idea what Big Will was talking about on the song. It took me a while to figure out that he was indeed speaking English. But it didn’t matter cos the music was what got me.

Living in a small town, I had little access to international music in the early 90s. It was only cassettes and they were rather expensive by my pocket-money standards. It was MTV that got me started and I started watching some crazy music videos. Somehow rock music never made sense to me then. Rap and Hip-hop was what got my attention. For the first 5 years I listened to only Will Smith. I even bought a CD of Big Willie Style, which cost me 450 bucks in 1995. I had to skip a meal for the next 6 months.

After a year or two I said to myself, “Hey this guy actually seems to be saying something”. Curious, I checked out the lyrics on the internet (which was again an expensive proposition) and voila! Not only was he saying stuff, he was rhyming! Shit just got deeper!

I really got into black artists and started watching out for their videos. All those videos were filled with flashy clothes, shiny cars and well-endowed women – and I wasn’t complaining. Then one evening, watching MTV select, I was hoping to hear Sisqo’s “Thong Song” as Nikhil’s pick of the week but what I heard instead was Marshall Bruce Mathers a.k.a Eminem. I was disappointed but I recorded the song onto my tape recorder anyway. Later that night, when I listened to it, I realized that this guy’s pronunciation was much easier to follow as compared to the black guys and that this guy was absolutely and positively INSANE!

He was spewing venom in every direction and in such style! Abuses flew around like mikes in the parliament. He was abusing his mom, wife and god knows who else. He was using poetry to vent his frustration. “The Real Slim Shady” wasn’t exactly one of his best songs but when I heard “The Way I am”, I realized that this guy was destined for greatness. His rhyming, flow, delivery were all magical. From there on, a whole new world opened up – Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Notorious BIG, Ice Cube, Nas, Jay Z, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and so many more.

Hip-hop today is the most popular form of music. Yes it has overtaken Rock-n-roll! But here in India, I have hardly found hip-hop fans. People are still crazy about rock music and those who do listen to hip-hop couldn’t care less about the lyrics. They want something that they can dance to. That’s all!

Rock lovers on the other hand, look down upon hip-hop. “they keep saying the same thing again and again”, “it’s just dhikchik dhikchik music”, “there are no meaningful songs” are some of the arguments I hear against hip-hop. Well assholes, have you ever tried to listen to what they’re saying? Yes they talk about sex, drugs and violence. That is how some of them have lived their lives. That’s how they came up. Are you trying to tell me that rockstars have nothing to with these 3 things? Sex, Drugs, Rock-n-Roll, does that ring a bell, numb nuts? Hip-hop chooses to express it’s lifestyle in the songs. So when rock stars want to write about puppy love while they’re giving it doggy style to a bunch of hippies, it’s fine? Tripping on acid, they want to point fingers at a rapper who talks about smoking weed?

I love my U2, I enjoy my Pink Floyd and I worship my Doors. Rock has changed the world but that does not mean that hip-hop is in anyway inferior. 2pac, Biggie, Nas, Rakim, Jay Z - they are all poets who have revolutionized the game in their own way so first listen to them before you say that hip-hop is trash. I am still discovering hip-hop. There are expressions and slang that I still don’t understand but I try to read up and understand. I’m not telling you to make an effort to like hip-hop, but if you can’t then shut up.

“Cos I am, whatever you say I am
If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am
In the papers, the news everyday I am
Radio won’t even play my jam

Cos I am, whatever you say I am
If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am
In the papers, the news everyday I am
I don’t know it’s jut the way I am”

Eminem, The Way I am