I'm gonna go you one better.HipHopChiq1....
Every person has a right to their own opinion.
People fought and died for people to have that right.
That said, people also have the right to DISAGREE with an opinion.
When I saw this and heard this,I thought it was a parody or something.
Never in a million years would I have thought Mel would come out his like this.
I was left shakin' my head, saying WTH to myself....
I do not know the man personally,but as a Black man in 2012 with a wife, daughter,
mother,sisters I apologize for him.It was str8 up disrespectful.
I highly doubt any lady in his family would have suscribed to that BS.
I saw these cats back in the day, at the venues..
people don't realize how big Mel was back in the day.
He was a cult hero not only to the hood,but also to his competition.
That's why I was so shocked to hear this.
Everyone knows Mel for his braggadosio and arrogance,he was the one that everyone
modeled themselves after.He was THE EMCEE, and everything that goes along with the persona.
But he's 51 now....
How could he have passed so many years and not gained some self-respect and respect for others.
In giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe something was underlying with the people in the room
before he took the mic,but even so...you have got to conduct yourself with more maturity regardless
of what your view is.
First off, to start...the "D-writing" comment right in the lady's face as She sat off just to his right
was so disrespectful it wasn't even funny..
and I don't care what type of atmosphere of Hiphop they flow at in that station,
the brother leading the interview should have nipped that in the bud real quick.
That had nothing to do with HipHop.
That was just disrespect and also hypocritical.
At 25,or even 35 if you had no decent upbringing,that type of ignorance might be excusable,
but for a man of his age and stature to go out like that was incomprehensible.
I saw nothing funny about the "menses" comment.
I'm from the same time,from the same era,
played alot of the same venues,and on the streets did just about the same things...
but I guess somewhere along the way he didn't open his eyes to see what was going on.
Let me tell you the reals, fam...
There was this lady called Sha-Rock...
I had the privilage with the Mark 5 Emcees to go against them
(Funky Four plus One More) and many others at the second rappers convention in the winter of 1980
at The Ecstasy Garage.People waited for hours in the NYC cold,
SPECIFICALLY to see her perform.
She was not an anomoly or a 'female" rapper sort to say....
SHE WAS AND IS AN EMCEE, in every sense of the word!
She rhymed about the same things that was going on around her,just like we did.
There was no protocol as to what you could or could not rap about.
I was there,and I'm here to tell you that She was just as dope as any of the 'male" emcees at the time....
I guess he also forgot about LISA LEE,THE MERCEDES LADIES,M.C.LYTE,MONIE LOVE,MS.MELODY
and a whole host of sister emcees that are apart of Hip Hop.For him to dismiss them like that, wasn't
Mel being Mel..It was downright ridiculous.As far as "butchy" which by the way is a 1970s term,
nobody even says that anymore.Your kidding me right?
Women during that time had three strikes against them b4 they came to bat.
We just had to deal wth racism.The sisters had to deal with racism,sexism,abuse, single parenthood,you name it.
So what would you rap about, if this was what you went through on a daily??
You would rap about some real heavy hittin' s**t.
Just like they did!!
We had a sister in our crew called Destiny,
She was real nice with hers...thinking that emceeing back then
was an exclusive boys club is historically and completely wrong.
It was nothing to see sister emcees in different crews across New York.
They competed just like we did.
As far as Black people being as he said "ain't s**t anymore"...WHERE HAS HE BEEN?
There are Black Doctors and Lawyers all over New York,U.S. and the rest of the world.
Black civil service workers doing thier thing on the 9-5 helping these massive cities run efficiently.
Black servicemen and woman putting their lives on the line every night,thousands of miles from
their homes so you and I can sleep every night safe.There are Black teachers and professors all about the land
bringing our children up,Black people in government adressing the bills that govern our lives,protecting the issues
that prevent us from going back to the 1950s.Black sisters holdin' it down taking care of their children without
the help of the fathers day on stay on....What are Black people today...we are the remnants of those who stood before us.We have our individual and collective problems just as EVERY race has.But we did not lose our pride and dignity
in the recourse.We have been a strong and dedicated peoples for the 500 years we been here and will be so 500 years from now.
He mentioned his disdain about today's rappers having a voice and not using it...
Well who had the voiceduring the early 80s when the crack abuse was hitting our streets hard??
..THEY DID! and what did they do...alot of them glorified it too!
.All of a sudden guys that did party rap all of a sudden had guns in their hands on album covers.
that
I'm gonna kill this and do that hit HipHop as early as 1985.
Public Enemy, Queen Latifah,etc..was an acception to the rule.
All them cats changed over..which is what led to the Wu tang,EPMD,Mobb Deep,period in rap music.
The pioneers had a voice back then, and didn't do s**t either.
They fell in line.
As far as the ganglife in New York....Well he is being hypocritical...
Just as Bambaataa and The Zulu Nation did their best to promote unity and end gang violence..
One or a few of the pioneers could have hit their communities hard,
day and night to make sure that it never came to New York.
When the cats were away the mice played.That was what was up...
There were not enough strong men in the community to chase that lifestyle back to L.A!!
So what was the kids suppose to do with no fathers and no direction...
Fall in line with the goings on and ills of society.
So you can't comdemn this generation for that.
Fam feel me on this, a majority of them cats sold out for the dollars and moved away from the NY style of rap
a lonnnnng time ago.This wasn't something that just happened.I think that was portrayed in the Mr.Dobolina video.
They changed their style to get paid too.just like these kids are doing now.
There was a brother down the dial named Donny Cash,remember him??
He was a little abrasive for some,a handful for others.haha..
We never really saw eye to eye,but that was cool.
I think that is called the freedom of democracy.
I respect everyone's opinions whether they agree with me or not..
I give him props for this one thing he did.
He always promoted NEW material, NEW rap...
He always did everything he could to turn us old heads on to some of the newer stuff
that you couldn't hear on the radio waves.
He was real estute on that subject.I enjoyed the education..
I know he never thought I did, but I REALLY did.
I say this because you can't GENERALIZE what is out there just because you listened to the top 20.
Hip Hop is not dead.....It's just some people decided to plugs in their ears.
The so called "garbage" rap is just a percentage.
There are MANY artist doing their thing today.In which I give them props.
Now Us Ol' skoolers will always feel that our generation did it better,
that is just a personal pride of having been there.That's who we are that is how most of us feel.
There is nothing wrong with that, but music as in life continues.....
Wake up, Brother Mel.....It's a big world out there.
Used these opportunities to speak to inspire and lead.
Instead of spittin' that same ol'
woe is me, woe is us nonsense.
Well,that's how I feel...don't be shy feel free to agree or disagree if you will.
It's all in the matter of using these rights we have to speak our minds.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 07:59AM by BM31.
