DeGeneration...

You already know...watch the video...

Let me begin by saying I'm probably the biggest Little Brother/Foreign Exchange fan in the history of the group...

I'm the dude that goes to the concert, stands about 30 feet from the stage, and sings every song...word for word...

Nah, I really did that last Valentine's Day in Cary, NC...Foreign Exchange had a concert there and I sang my ass off nearly the entire concert.

Why? Because its good music...

The question should've been...why not?

Ask yourself this question...

Can you name an artist from the "Hip-Hop/MTV/80s Baby" Generation who has a SOLID catalog of songs that you can dance to, sing to, make love to, ride out to, and think to?

Don't worry...I'll wait...

Seriously though folks. My generation is still listening to and seeking replacements for our Generation X counterparts. We've found our Bill Gates in Mark Zuckerberg...our Bill Clinton in Barack Obama...our Dr. Dre in Kanye West...that's great! I can truly respect that.

However, 20 years from now...when my daughter is riding with me in the BMW and I throw in some of my old music, do I really want to ride around with my 21 year old listening to "Lollipop"...or "Buss It Baby"...Hell naw!

I want my music to have some sort of aesthetic value, some sort of lasting impression, a feeling of....forever. Not just today.

I like Lil' Wayne, Drake, Nicki Menagerie...all of them. I really do, but I don't hear that timeless hip-hop sound in a lot of their music. Some of Wayne's I do. A lot of drake's old stuff (Example: "The Last Hope") has that feel, but I don't really hear it consistently throughout their entire catalog.

I love Kanye, I promise you I do. I think he's in a class by himself. So, I'll give him the thumbs up for my earlier question.

However as I listen to the radio online, via satellite, and over here, all I here is Cocaine rap, trap rap, angry rap, and dancing rap...I don't hear much thought provoking music.

(Here's where I finally get to the point...kinda)

Why is that?

I think its because we've decided to glorify a culture of not knowing (ignorance) rather than embrace all that it means to be young and black in today's American society...

I'll explain more after the break...













Ok...now TELL ME that the cat spittin' that verse, Phonte, wasn't cold. If you say no...believe me, you may be part of the problem.

I just don't understand...

Don't get me wrong, I like Gucci...alot. I listen to Plies on the regular. I'm a Lil' Boosie FAN.

No really...I'm a FAN.

I also understand that there's MUCH MORE to Hip-Hop than what they are offering. Why is it Waka Flocka can garner SO MUCH attention for being less than marginally lyrical on songs like "Oh Let's Do It", "Hard N Da Paint", and "Luh Dem Gun Sounds", but Lupe Fiasco's new joint "The Show Goes On" is struggling for similar spins and notoriety?

I'm seriously not understanding folks...maybe I'm special.

Hip-Hop is supposed to be the voice of America's underprivileged class. Chuck D once called it the CNN of the Ghetto. When hip-hop went "suburban" Tipper Gore, every Midwestern housewife in the country, and Dionne Warwick lost their collective minds. For once kids in the 'burbs were getting an unadulterated picture of what the kids in the bricks saw every day as told by the street poets of our day.

Voices like Tupac, Nas, Raekwon, Outkast, Snoop, Ice Cube, The Notorious B.I.G., and others...

It was a genuinely American art form, much like jazz was, born of abject poverty and shaped in oppression as American as apple pie...

It was our collective voice of authentic blackness...

Now, its our prodigal son.

If I took the top 10 most popular hip-hop songs each year from 2000 to now...you'd probably see a trend.

Outkast's "B.O.B." and Dead Prez's "Its Bigger Than..." were HEAVY in rotation in 2000...

Care to compare the lyricism and subject matter of those tracks to the top ones of today?

Didn't think so...

What's the problem folks?

I'm not saying that hip-hop needs to be flooded with nothing but the Mos Def's, Kweli's, and Sticman's of the world. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying there needs to be balance.

If hip-hop is the voice of black and brown people all over the country, why doesn't it represent me?

The dude that knows the difference between brown and white work, but also knows the difference between socialism, Marxism, and communism. (Some of ya'll missed that...)

I the brotha that knows how to stretch 6 into 7, but have also had to make a 20 stretch for a week...(Some of ya'll WON'T get that one...)

I'm that cat that wants to 2 step and get my grown man on, just as much as I want to Dougie and Flex.

I'm the dude that knows how to break down a Glock 19 in less than 10 seconds, but I also know how to break down the theory of evolution in less than 4 paragraphs.

I'm the guy that doesn't mind breaking your jaw, but I would much rather hug a female...

I'm sure you get it at this point, right?

I don't see why things have to be so one sided...

Why has my generation embraced things that pander/cater to out lowest common primal instincts? Why do we reject thinking?

More of my bitching after the break...














More dope music from Foreign Exchange...I LOVE IT!

Anyway, maybe I'm thinking about this because as I've grown, I want the artform and the generation that I love so dearly to grow with me. I want to see Waka Flocka put on a suit one day...I'm not saying tomorrow...but one day. I want Lil' Wayne to talk more about the challenges he has in parenting his kids...specifically his daughter...or daughters...well...all of 'em. You know? I want Drake to go on and marry some crazy light skinned woman that he'll have a whirlwind romance with and then make an entire album about....

I guess I'm saying I just want some grown man music from grown people...

Our generation has grown up with a number of different issues that have shaped our world view...

(Here comes the obligatory list...bare with me here)

We saw Tupac killed on the streets of Las Vegas.

We watched Biggie get crucified by the same beef that consumed Pac's life...and hip hop as a whole.

We watched Kings rise from gutters and project hallways to manifest themselves in the form of Jay-Z and Puff.

We saw "Brenda" from Brenda's Got A Baby every day in our high schools...and some of our middle schools.

We watched the AIDS epidemic unfold as TLC educated us about safe sex.

We saw the south rise from the ashes of Jim Crow, being carried by 2 Dope Boyz in a Cadillac.

We saw the world introduced to Country Grammar through some St. Lunatics.

We saw a black man become the best golfer in the game.

Then we saw a white boy from Detroit, of all places, turn around and become the best rapper in the game at one point.

We saw the towers fall...

Then we saw our friends fall...in the desert...and in our own city streets...

So, believe me, I understand our desire to completely tune out the world and just dance.

Our parents, and some of our grandparents, used to say, "Free your mind and your ass will follow!"

What they didn't tell us to do is "Turn on...tune in...and cop out..."

So why has our music?

Is THIS...THIS MUSIC THAT WE HAVE RIGHT NOW, ON THIS EARTH, ON THIS DAY, BLARING IN YOUR SUV/IPOD/CLUB SPEAKERS what you want to leave your children?

Is this your aesthetic legacy?

I don't know about you...but it won't be mine...

Peace

--Bleek G.