If you can't tell, the BITM family is enjoying a 2017 that so far feels like it might break the current cycle of Hip Hop. What do you mean stayfly? First, please save questions until the end of the article, but since you asked. There are many reasons why I love the Golden Era, and many of those reasons have to do with feelings/emotions. But in the current state of Hip Hop, all everybody seems to talk about are numbers (Nicki is the best female rapper because she sells blah blah blah, she just beat so and so's record), so I will go the numbers route. Kinda. I feel that the 90's (you can also add the 80s and early oughts to this) cranked out less whack tracks and produced less whack rappers than, lets say from '07 until now. This is my opinion, but one that I am sure I can back up with data if I chose to go into the numbers. But I digress. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah.
So this year might give us more "mainstream" lyrical records than the current mumble rap hitting the airways the last decade or so. But as exciting as 2017 has been so far, it is always good to take a look back. Way back. All the way back to 2016, back to almost five months ago. Last year A Tribe Called Quest were the authors of one of the best and worst moments in Hip Hop history. The year started off with the untimely passing of Phife Dawg on March 22nd. THAT ONE, that one right there HURT. I think I took that day off, or next day off, for an unrelated reason. But later in the week people at worked asked me if I took off for Phife's passing because they know how passionate I am about my Hip Hop. And it seemed that right after that, we got word of a new ATCQ album dropping later that year. So November 11th gave us We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, the sixth and final Tribe album.
The second single, "Dis Generation", features long time Tribe affiliate Busta Rhymes. The track is a perfect blend of each emcee passing of the baton like they running the Olympic 4 × 400 metres relay. The song gives praise to a few new school artists, namely: Joey Bada$$, Earl Sweatshirt, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. They feel these young emcees will carry the torch for the more lyrically inclined writers of Tribes's and Busta's era. The black and white video reminded me of the video for "Electric Relaxation" (another black and white video). At least that's the one that came to mind. I don't recall if there was another ATCQ video that was all black and white. So maybe they wanted a call back to Midnight Marauders. Either way, it did for me.
So peep video for "Dis Generation" below. And since I had "Electric Relaxation" on the brain, peep that video below too.
No comments:
Post a Comment