05.06
“We all get older, but we don’t all get grown” – Shad
We’ve had the party rap era, the gangsta rap era, the bling-bling era. We’ve had the time of thugs, hustlers, and pimps. What’s the next season going to be? I used to hope that it would be a spiritual one. Hip-hop has its influences from all different religions (e.g. Wu-Tang, Guru, Kanye, Lauryn Hill, Nas). I used to hope that the popular theme for a minute would be chasing after God. I still think that it would be dope, but now I also have another idea. I wish that the older folks would make songs about being or becoming an adult. We all know that the pioneers are older. If hip-hop started in 1973, they’re even 37 years older now! However, some of the not-so-old-school cats are grown men now too. Ice Cube has kids. Timbaland and Jay-Z are grown now, probably not living the party-life like they used to. Snoop has a show on TV about his family life. The lyrics don’t have to be about how to make mortgage payments, put away retirement funds, or picking a family mini-van. (Although if there was a song about that, it’d probably be this one.) But why can’t we have more songs about responsibility, respecting our spouses, revering our elders, and raising our kids right? (For example, check out a song in the music player near the top of the page on the right called by Illtripp called “Percussions and Bomb Threats”.) My hope is that this would actually better our society and help our youth expect and prepare for life, both in growing and maturing.
