Lamenting The NBA Finals, And The Rise And Fall Of Hip-Hop's Greatest Hope.

****NOTE: For some reason (probably my poor computer skills), this blog did not post last week...but, here it is now. My apologies, and enjoy.****

NBA, or RHT? I was torn. I'm sorry...what can I say? KG is my favorite player, possibly of all time! I had to pick NBA...and who doesn't like Kobe? (aside from half of the basketball world, and most casual fans...but aside from them...who doesn't like Kobe?), so anyway. Sorry. Had I known the Lakers would melt down like the ice in my root beer right now, I wouldn't have even watched.

Anyway, it got me thinking about legacies. KG is no longer that "great player without a ring", but Kobe might be on the road to being that "great player who can't hack it in the finals" and Pau Gasol has the market cornered on "Big man who would get posted up by my niece"...so there's sports. But, what about music? I read about Kanye West's latest meltdown at Bonnaroo just last week (http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b142905_kanye_booed_bonnaroo.html), and while I wasn't totally surprised, I was a still just a little bit let down I think. Though it is ROCK hard times, I would hope that I could touch on hip-hop for just one blog.....Sorry fellas, I won't make a habit of it.

Flashing back to about 2001....mainstream hip-hop was just flat out uninteresting. I am a total hip-hop fan, leaning more towards supporting the underground aspect of it, but I appreciate the mainstream rap as well, understanding that it's an important platform for getting fans who otherwise would not be interested. So, needless to say, I was let down by the constant same-sounding mainstream rap of 2001. Then, late in the year, Jay-Z released his (Now classic, and probably one of the best rap albums ever...) Blueprint album, with a new sound. Filled with classic soul samples, and heavy instruments. If you're like me, you read the inside of albums, finding out producers, writers, etc. The common trend with the Blueprint was that every song except one was produced by Kanye West. At the time, I know it's hard to imagine, but no one thought much of West, if they thought of him at all. He was no different than The Neptunes, Just Blaze, or any other young up/coming rap producer. Even when the first single off of the Blueprint ("H to the Izzo") came out, I don't remember being overly impressed with the production. The guy sampled "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5? ok...who hasn't? But with each sampled beat, most music fans began to appreciate his approach even more. It wasn't that he was sampling...it was HOW he was sampling. In most cases, samples in rap prior to this were heavily focused on the vocals of the sample, as opposed to the actual beat of the sample. I mean, I like "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" just as much as any late 90's rap addict...but hearing Diana Ross' looped voice as loud as possible over and over wears on you. So, with West, you got very little vocal sampling, and the focus was on the music. What else you got, that was new was a new way of sampling, learned from Dr Dre* (more on Dre later), where you have actual live instruments playing the sampled beats in some cases, as opposed to just taking a sampled track, turning it over, and rapping over it. It's important to note here that I am all for sampling in music, as long as it's tasteful, and creative. West covered both of these in sampling everything...he even sampled The Doors AND David Bowie in one song alone ("Five To One" and "Fame" were used for the song "The Takeover"), and Kanye West's sound was crowned as hip-hop's saving grace.

Fast forwarding to 2003. West had been pretty quiet since all of the Blueprint hype died down, until he was in a near-fatal(?) car accident and hospitalized. During this time, he released a mixtape ("I'm Good") which contained an assortment of mostly unheard tracks of West freestyles, and instrumentals. Followed by the promise of a debut album in 2004, music was buzzing. Sure, West had (and still has) glaring vocal deficiencies. His flow is choppy, his lyrics can be corny...but he wasn't totally bad either. He was witty in the same way that Will Smith USED to be, and his delivery was so passionate, it was hard not to get wrapped up in his rhymes. The College Dropout, released in 2004 has to be by far the best debut album in rap history. I think (Eric B. and Rakim's) Paid In Full is the only album close, but there were no expectations attached to that album like there were to this one. A concept album based off of society's view on college education, I bought it the day it came out (sometime in February), and didn't stop listening to it until the end of the summer. Every song was close to perfect. The music and production was superb, even better than the Blueprint. Riskier samples (The guy sampled Michael Bolton!) were pulled off even more perfectly, and any lyrical faults that West had were covered up because he had a support staff of tons of guest artists. It was like he learned from The Chronic (um...the album, not the drug), and built on it. It might be hard to imagine now, just 4 years later, but at the time, he seemed to be the new likeable savior to rap music. The artist that could bridge the gap between generations. Example being this: does my 59 year old Father listen to rap? not at all. But, he could appreciate The College Dropout, because the samples and the soulful vibe took him back to music he grew up with. And there was a quirky humility about West at the time. You did get the vibe that yeah, he thought that maybe he was just a little bit better than average, but he was also in touch with his fears, and his faults. He might have even been a bit hypocritical in the same vein as Tupac, but he did something that Pac never did: he owned up to it. In "All Falls Down", he laments black people for spending too much money on jewelry and cars and not enough on the things that are really important, but in the last verse, he states "But I can't even act holier than though, 'cause I went to Jacob with 25,000 before I had a house, and I'd do it again, 'cause I wanna be on 106&Park pushin' a Benz". There was something impressive about a rap artist who was that in touch with all of his faults.

And then, around late 2005, something happened. A second album, Late Registration came out to similar fanfare. Critical and commercial praise. But something was different. West went from being in touch with his fears and faults, to having seemingly none at all in his mind. And the ones that he did have were not his fault. The most introspective song on Late Reg was "Roses", and that was the only glimpse of vulnerability on the album. And don't get me wrong, I loved the album. Loved it. It was just a different kind of appreciation. And, hey, here we go...I'll talk about the "George Bush/Black People Thing" (while not spouting any political views). As a black person who has been to New Orleans a few times post Katrina, the people down there in general (that I spoke with) were outraged. Black AND White. Some people there said they didn't listen to him anymore after that. Reason being, Kanye West used their REAL pain, and suffering, and tragedy as a soapbox for his political statement, and it didn't help matters. And what's worse, HE didn't personally help matters as far as touching down and lending a helping hand, but no one claimed that HE didn't care about black people. I wasn't as outraged as the whole of New Orleans, but I also don't live there. I did think that the cries of "Kanye West is a racist!" were a bit unfounded, but he badly botched that situation, and it seemed all downhill from there. Award tantrums...how many Grammys does someone really need to confirm their greatness? I watched a documentary on Rick Rubin where it showed Grammys in the bathroom, in closets, etc. West has griped 3 times for not winning album of the year (and, again, in fairness to him at least in 2004, and this past year, he had a fair argument. He ran into Herbie Hancock this past year, and there was just no way though. He was doomed from the start), and it just gets old. Winning best rap album is not always an easy feat. He says he wants to be the biggest artist in the world, bigger than U2, Green Day, and etc. That doesn't resonate with people. The reason U2 are so big is because they DON'T openly want to be the biggest band in the world. Somewhere in between 2004 and late 2005, West forgot about the human factor that made him great. He is still the prominent producer in urban music. Period...he's the best there is, and could be the best ever if he keeps up at this rate. His production skills are matched by few. But that's never been questioned. I think what people, even in rap circles, tend to question is why he's so set on turning away the fans and the industry that built him up. His latest effort, Graduation, is just as remarkable as the previous 2. It's almost as though he can't miss, but for me, Grad was tainted when the day of it's release (to 4 and 5 star reviews), West stated "This isn't even the best I can do". Well, then why release it? Why put out an album that's not your best effort? It gets to a point where, for me, it's like 'Look, we know. We get it, you're good. But tone it down a notch'. The thing that STILL makes Jay-Z and Nas great is that we just know that they're good, and they don't have to constantly remind us. Graduation was a great album, but it was a great self-serving album. And it was obvious. "The Glory" might be the greatest song West has ever done. Containing a Laura Nyro sample, it's just amazing to listen to musically...sadly, you get to the lyrics, and you realize that it's about 3 minutes of Kanye showering himself with praise (not to mention the cringe-inducing point in the song where he rhymes Louis Vuitton with....Louis Vuitton), and when that happens, when he writes songs about how great he is...it's THEN when you realize that he will never be the biggest artist in the world. People used to say he was hard to hate. But, it gets easier by the moment. Kanye West will always make inspired music, but the question is who is he inspiring? It's not art for art's sake anymore. It's Kanye West making art for Kanye West's sake**. And that's sad. I'll always enjoy it, but I haven't listened to Graduation since the week it came out. Get some Lupe Fiasco in your life.

*Not a popular opinion with rap fans, but when are we going to realize that Dr. Dre has pretty much coasted for about 9-10 years off of one album. The Chronic, probably one of the best albums in music history, but what NOTABLE has he done since then? I'll save it for later though.

**For an actual solid new song featuring Kanye, give "I Put On" a listen. It's not a bad listen at all.

Lastly, an R.I.P. to George Carlin, and a hope that all of my RHT peers are enjoying any vacations that the summer has thrown their way.