... within the scope of music.

I mean lets be real what you did was some truly revolutionary shit, even if there were precedents to it decades before, it took you to really turn it into a true musical movement. I mean if we're honest with ourselves this latter day ressurection of electronic music no matter how inevitable it was, is indebted to you for setting the stage.

You took the bad boyness of rock to epic proportions that yacht rock couldn't even imagine. You turned a phrase with the ease that jazz cats spent lifetimes practicing to barely achieve. And the thing is that for the most part you did it unkowningly because you were so wrapped up in your isolationist type perception that all that existed in the world was you.

There were the rebels amongst you that brought in the outside influences of course, but only long enough to sample and take ownership of. Not that this was an intentional snipe mind you, but in the (proto) cultural value base it was what it was. It was taking ownership of music, in a way that was never imagined (except for you know those obscure european guys in suits who are otherwise irrelevant).

But that isolated view point kept you from seeing music *beyond how you could use it*. There was no broader context. Everything had to be placed within the hip-hop context. Everything had to be redefined. Except only you readily accepted those definitions. Outside of the circle nobody cared.

That of course didn't stop some of the actual redefinitons from happening. Much of the things you were once critiqued for have now been wholeheartedly embraced outside of hip-hop, as redefined by hip-hop. Take the drum break for example. All of the classic loops and breakbeats that come in all those presets with your software program today. Yeah you can thank hip-hop for cannonizing those. They sued you for looping it, then created an industry around looping!!! An industry!!!

While all this was happening you were so busy worried about protecting the real (while defining and redefining it) you missed the music. When you said it's bigger than hip-hop, you should have been talking about music. But you were talking about social things like how to present oneself in hip-hop. Only you cared about that. Everyone else just loved the beat.

Then there was all the fragmentation while trying to hold on to this definition of self. Jeeze louise. You couldn't find so much in fighting in a barrel of crabs sitting next to a pot like the one ol boy tried to cook bugs bunny in over an open fire. But then it hit you that all this keeping it real stuff didn't matter, and thank goodness for that, except that you replaced that not with music, but with fame. Now you're all going gaga over the fame teat.

Meanwhile what have you been doing musically. Either throwing back to times that nobody outside of yourself really cared about when they were hot in order to keep it real, or being owned by whatever sound is hot at the moment to try to boost your fame.

YOU YOU YOU!! It's all about you, very rarely the music. So stuck on yourself its any wonder everyone thinks you're in a rut. C'mon now, no need to run down all your pop star acheivements or talk about how one of the real heads dropped that dope LP. You know what the fuck I'm talking about. You don't think you do? Don't make me say it....

... oh alright.

That's why the outsiders have gotten better at the things that you do than you. Yup I said it. And I'm not talking better at making classic boom bap or some shit. I'm talking about making music. They are better at making music than you are. Cause that's what you do right hip-hop? Make music? That's what I'm talking about. The outsiders are better at making music with the tools you created than you are.

You're still sampling the records they browsed in their loop library when they first launced their cracked software. So they sample bees and shit (ping pong tables omg!! ) All your drums still sound the same. Well that's kinda cross the bored, but you don't even make an effort to hide it anymore. They weren't limited by copyright laws (or gave a fuck about them in most cases) because they didn't have to keep it real a dig up that hot loop to make a song. They just made a song, and then sampled you shouting "Whoa" to go over it. Think about that hip-hop. Then it becomes hot and you have to go to them as a guest to stay relevant. Think about that hip-hop.

You could learn a little about sacrifice hip-hop. Not that you haven't sacrificed a lot already, well socially. But musical sacrifice. I'm not saying go learn music theory, fuck that you deaded that shit when you came in the door. But I am saying stop taking yourself so damn serious. Take music as serious as you do yourself and maybe just maybe you might find the muse pushing you towards innovation again.

kthxbai

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Big PEMFin H & z's
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"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician." © Miles Davis

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."