This is such an interesting piece, like damn this was a great conversation. I love Mr. Dyson's enthusiasm and I certainly get what he wants. I commend him actually for that and I am parallel with some of his ideas. However, I would LOVE for this same exact topic to be discussed between you two now that the Kendrick and Drake beef has happened and what's been exposed about Drake being such a shallow person/artist, because though I agree with Dyson that things shouldn't be gatekept, a lot of people, myself included, feels just as you do Mysonne where Drake has tried to always play it safe. He's never put ANYTHING on the line to try and push a positive/risky narrative when it comes to for black culture. The problem is knowing where that line needs to be drawn, since it's so easy to try and gatekeep ANYTHING that you find precious. There are countless things in history where if people had their way in the past, certain things wouldn't be at a healthier version of what it is today if they had gotten their way. This works in reverse too, don't get me wrong, particularly, I do feel rap/hip hop falls in a very unique and interesting category of it possibly needing to have been gatekept from certain types of artists so it didn't evolve into what I think it is today. I digress though, I really loved this discussion and I would love to hear you both return back to this, and man I'd love to be able to get the chance to speak to either one of you two, you guys seem to be levelheaded and very articulate and wanting the best for the culture, and that's awesome!
@dondreavery4497 0 seconds ago This clip needs more comments. This is probably one of the most thorough hip hop interviews. Both men make excellent points. The beauty of music is, everybody has a different ear to styles or genres. As I gotten older, I learned to expand my reach of the game, partly because I have a teenage boy. So what we do is, I play music from my era he plays me music from his era, and we compare and contrast. We don’t agree with everything, but there are some mutual songs that we like. My son listens to soul and mischief, Mobb Deep, Scarface, 36 mafia. That’s all from me. Hip-hop will never die. It’s constantly changing.
I agree to an extent….But “RealHipHop” to me is a weapon of expression used to defeat oppression aginst poverty & pain but somebody jingled a bag a change & the message was lost in the sauce intentionally bye the ones jingling the bag……Even love songs defined real affection…..RealHipHop did what the internet did before the internet did what it did which is expand the Horizons…..
Lets be clear, Mos/Yasin was asked a specific question on Drake, he answered it honestly, he didn't come for Drake soo part if Mr. Eric comments are off.
Exactly. Mos wouldn't have commented on him. And he was reluctant to answer the question because of the larger discussion on music's role in people's lives.
Dope conversation. I agree with Mysonne and been saying it myself: there's a difference between Rap and Hip Hop. I would put Drake, Cardi B, Lil Whoever in the rap category. J Cole, Kendrick, Cyhi the Prynce in hip hop.
So, every time Dr Dyson mentioned an artist and said are they not hip hop then, I thought yes, they’re not hip hop. At the end of the day, it’s subjective and everyone is free to feel how they feel. From my perspective, hip hop is a culture that we keep trying to minimize to a musical genre. The music is certainly an expression of hip hop, but it’s just an element. Like Mysonne, I believe hip hop was born of human struggle, and that’s a profound element of it. Hip hop is often commercialized, but it cannot begin with the commercialization and work its way backwards. At least that’s my opinion. Perhaps it’s unfair, but that’ll always be my challenge with Drake.
I think your statement is extremely unfair. The "originator" hip hop came from Jamaica to a working class community in the Bronx, not the struggling hood. He said his first mixes were that of various blues singers and Rock bands. This idea, that people who aren't from the hood, didn't struggle, said no to gangs and drugs, are lighter skin colors, mixed or even white...have less say than the inverse in hip-hop is bias, and disingenuous. It's also a ridiculous statement on it's face, given hip-hop was inspired by people from all over the world and different economic levels from the person who actually created it. He again wasn't even an American. This idea Drake isn't hip-hop goes back to this mentality we have as a people, that places biases on our own kind. Drake not lyrical, Drake not street, Drake not cool, are all fair. None of those things or lack there of make you more or less hip-hop though.
Levels. In high places you can’t be reduced to where you came from. Never forget nonetheless but OG’s on point the argument ended when he demonstrated the culture moving up in the food chain and that same culture holding on the title of oppressed and struggle like I said never forget where you come from but when you reach heights not reached before the fight changes.
