I have always loved hip hop because the pure word overload nature of rapping lends the form to creating prophecies, whether meant or not, especially when freestyling is factored in, where you are abandoning conscious control of your flow of words and allowing whatever is sent to you from wherever it comes from to rhythmically emit from your face. Because of this, my largest problem with current hip hop is not how commercial or club-savvy it is, but that it lacks that potential for prophecy. This is why I can never wrap my head around respecting much less endorsing someone like Kanye West, who, sure, for these L.E.D.-lit commercialized times, certainly seems like the most brilliant thing around, but just doesn’t bring any prophecy whatsoever. It’s strictly shine. Kanye would have you believe he’s a great artist, and I don’t deny that, but it’s also exemplary of the problems with any art.
A true prophet would never try to convince you of how prophetic he is; it is just something that flows through him. He is the medium, not the message, and he understands that everyone has that potential. It’s just he was lucky enough to have unlocked it one way or another. The artist, however, will feel that his methods are better (through whatever personal filter he cherishes) than others, and he takes a common medium and delivers a message no one else bothers to. There is an elitism to it, and Kanye fits that perfectly. And for many people on this earth, that’s all you need to do to get them to prop you up on a pedestal.
I got the new crappy Spin magazine in the mail last week, and never bothered opening it until today. It had a list of the best albums of the year, which was, of course, questionable at best. But their #1 album was the Kanye West album, which I have given multiple shots running through my aural canals, and yet to find the mind-blowing dropkick of it. But the running meme is that Kanye made a classic and it should be respected as such, and so long as no little girl somehow end up with high five-figure followers on Twitter and decide to point out that the artistic emperor is not actually wearing a robe, then Kanye is the greatest thing around right now.
Also on their list was Big K.R.I.T.’s mixtape, which was so goddamn great it transcended being classified as just a mixtape and made a ballyhooed Best Albums list. And deservedly so. K.R.I.T. speaks with that prophecy that makes hip hop great. It is the same mindless channeling of music messages that Rakim spake with, or Tupac and Biggie when not overly hazed out of their innervision. “Moon & Stars” is just such a song, that even though K.R.I.T. and Devin the Dude are essentially rapping about getting some ass, it sounds like something more, something greater. It feels like it has the potential for prophecy. Unfortunately we do not live in a spiritual world, so that potential will be exploited by culture demons who will turn K.R.I.T. into a music “artist”. I hope that somehow his words stem from mental illness more than a desire to be shiny, and he will allow the messages from celestial sources continue to pour through him, instead of thinking he is the ultimate creator of his words and deserves financial glories to be bestowed upon him.
STEAL “Moon & Stars”
NEXT MONTH: The World keeps spinning!
No comments:
Post a Comment