Respect due, Beatmeister! Eye appreciate the kind words and you know the admiration is mutual. You have bore witness for those of us who did not happened to come up in the cradle of the culture. You have laid it down with authority, not just because you have the authentic experience but, because you have always kept it funky.
In that same spirit, Eye say this.....in this day and age, Eye think society (or at least, American society since we have an international audience) is caught up in a giant contradiction. One the one hand, largely due to the 24 hour news cycle and the instant access to information, we now live in a time where there is so much focus on "political correctness". Yet, if you observe what passes for entertainment these days, there has never been a time in this country's history more extreme in terms of sex, violence, profanity, etc.. As the Blastmaster, KRS-One once queried, "why is that?"...
IMO, it's because most people are not truly concerned with making the social climate better; people are afraid of litigation and/or scandal. As a consequence, there is a tendency to tip-toe through certain areas of public life, so as not to wake any sleeping dogs for fear of getting bit. However, you can turn on the television or go to the movies or surf the web and find things that would defy any reasonable logic if trying to match the popularity of extreme content to the damn near puritanical posture of society at large.
So, where does Mel's rant fit in all of this?
From my vantage point, he's as caught up in the contradiction as most of us. He's railing against social decay, both in the black coumminty and in the culture of Hip Hop. Yet, the manner in which he expressed his opinion is reflective of that very decay. There was a day where you couldn't have cracked the mic (anywhere...recording studio, radio, television, etc.) and spit that many expletives and epithets without the FCC, the news, the law, the government and everybody else raining hellfire down on your head....but, here's the thing....today ain't that day.
That interview was apparently being recorded for the website AllHipHop.com, which means it was not on terrestrial radio....translation: anything goes in terms of freedom of speech...just like satellite radio. Although, truth be told, you can tune to Hot97 (the biggest terrestrial Hip Hop station in the country) and hear the "N-bomb" dropped all day, every day.
Mel spoke in the language of the streets, unfiltered....Eye suspect, not just because that's his background but, because that's the order of the day in contemporary Hip Hop (not to mention, reality TV, and a host of other forms of entertainment).
Now it just so happens, that you and Eye agree on the notion that, as elders and veterans, we have a responsibility to represent the culture in a manner that helps build it up. Also, as gentlemen and civilized human beings, Eye think there is a certain appreciation we share for the ability to express oneself with effectiveness without having to resort to the profane and abusive. In that latter respect, Mel's rant was more of a disappointment than anything for me.
You have seen how Eye have expressed myself over the years but, that's mostly a stylistic choice. Other people have other styles....but, the key is not to confuse style for content. Once you remove the profanity from his rant, you're left with some heavy concepts he's addressing. Trying to give thought to those concepts raises many more questions...which is why Eye said, not right space for it; too big of a package for such a small box. But unfortunately, many people simply won't get that far because of his stylistic choice....the profanity will be the only thing they hear...or, the hostile nature of profanity will put the audience on the defensive, which in turn, inhibits objectivity.
On the subject of what happened to Hip Hop after it migrated to the West, he has valid points. He may be too broad and dismissive regarding the current state but, that's common with many cats from his (our) generation of this culture. That's been discussed many times elsewhere, so I'll move on...
On the subject of the general direction of the Black community on a whole, Eye felt he spoke more out of emotion than fact but, having lived through the period of change that he referenced, Eye understand the underlying context of his assertion. That said, that subject would require far more discussion to assess his specific reasoning and whether or not Eye agree.
On the subject of women's contributions to the culture, as Eye stated in the prior post...he went down a road that exposed some clear signs of sexism. That, Eye can say fairly assuredly, would be a point of discord for me.
In the end my brother, what I'm saying is that you and Eye probably agree on the thought that how he expressed himself was not how either of us would expect someone of his cultural stature to roll. However, Eye am not inclined to let my disappointment in his manner preclude me from acknowledging the weight of his context.
