its not even a finger pointing thing.
but because the roots are a unit in which live performance is uber crucial
the mode of operation is a lil different then what artist go though.

like for instance.

you SHOULD always be at the venue 90 mins before the start of the show.

why? some shit could go down and you need time to regroup.
we stress this but its like when you ask for favors you are kinda at
the mercy of the one granting the favor (and on the real shawn gee killed this
theory by paying our guests only because we thought we could avoid that whole
"they got us hostage" type thing) but on the real? when you ask for favors you are
at the mercy of the person you are asking.
so you can beg "please be there at 7" (an hour before stage) but if said person knows they
coming on at 9ish...its the passive aggressive "what is my motivation?" thing going on.

the motivation is that classic hip hop is in an endangered species state and "rappers are in danger" so i wanted to craft a night that would hopefully spark some sort of fire (form a team with my new def jam family---ghost, nas, kanye, hov...---and maybe we could all move as a team. but the thing is kan and hov are gods in their own right so really its like okay i need them more then they need me---but i STILL think its a circle jerk and even though it was a favor i know that 4 min cameo hov did filled his gas tank up a lil something (ie he benefitted too) just as it did ours.

there were actually more invites than that (some gave a "no" some days beforehand) but some of those cats don't seem to realize the significance of doing this night would benefit them.

i dont think ANY success you see in music ever occurs unless it is connected to a movement: (soulquarians, wu family, the roc, bad boy camp, the houston crew, death row)

i think we ALL coulda benefitted. i mean shit may be cool for cats now....but i KNOW i am the ONLY cat gonna wonder what will my career be into come 2011 when im 40.

so i hope i gave some insight. im sure imma catch beef with some of the name dropping from the watchdogs of the artists i said. but shit wasnt even said in a mean tone.

its just i feel like god told me to build an arc because a tsunami is about to hit us and mofos think shit is sweet.

lets see what's up in 2009.