i understand the "sit your old ass down" sentiment, to a degree.
but i have a problem if that sentiment is only attached to black music artists.

i think it comes from the assumption that black music
is supposed to be fleeting, for the moment, and disposable.

music is a young person's game anyway.
but in rock there is a space for legacy acts that are irrelevant
aside from their millions of fans.

if rock acts can have that, rappers should have it too.
i'm glad some of them do.


>most of the rappers who lived through the white dollar boom
>period of 96-01 have kept releasing music and performing
>unlike the generation of rappers who preceded them whom were
>mostly considered washed up by about 25 and had the dignity to
>just stop releasing music entirely by about 28.
>
>rapping used to be a young man's game.
>but in the 00's - that obviously changed.
>
>in the mid-00's the idea of a 40 year old rapper was still
>little more than a comedic suggestion.
>people would laugh at mc shan, krs and other rappers of the
>80's who dared to try to still release music and dismiss them
>as nothing more than hilarious "irrelevancies".
>but when people like jay-z and many of the other rappers who
>found popularity in the 1990's actually turned 40 years old
>and were still rapping - it became normalized.
>
>so, where do we draw the line today?
>jay and many of his contemporaries are slowly inching their
>way towards 50.
>
>are you willing to seriously entertain the idea of a 50 or 60
>year old rapper?
>ok, how about a 70 or 80 year old rapper?
>where do you draw the line in 2014?
>...or do you not even draw the line anymore?