>last i looked i have more
>people in our corner with
>every release. as for you
>fly by nighters (you know,
>the cats who come up
>and have to swear that
>they have the first edition
>organix, and "these other cats
>don't know what time it
>is". they cry like babies
>who don't wanna share their
>toys......"i knew em first. they
>ain't the same no more.
I am sure this is the problem. Based off what I've heard heads saying about this Common album and other underground heros of late - like Pharoe Monch - that's the whole issue. The underground audience is as fickle as the mainstream one, and once they don't feel they have control over an artist anymore, it's over. The Soulquarians are just a threat to some fans. In the D interview when you talked about why can't acts like De La, D, 'Kast, Comm, etc. work together like Ruff Ryders do, I think one reason could end up being that the core audience could turn against the artists. Maybe that's ok, since like you said, with each album The Roots are getting a wider audience (and Outkast had to lose some to gain some and then get them back again). But there's not just this knee-jerk protecitvness underground heads have about anyone they see as "their own" and whose popularity they can't control. You can't avoid the backlash. But maybe when you guys are making records like Voodoo and LWFC that will be future classics and also widen the appeal of your style of music today, if you stay strong and keep going on that path, five or ten years down the line the hip-hop landscape will have evolved enough that it'll be easier for the next generation, and we'll see the fruits of your labor. I'm not trying to get all idealstic here, it's just the way I see it.

Backhanded, pimpslapped backwards and left stranded - Kurupt