As you all know, hip hop is dead. Well, the diamond age of hip hop is dead. The Krystal and bling bling has been reduced to a piece of cubic zirconia and a bottle of Korbel. All the people who meant anything during the period know this. Kanye West said he’s done doing hip hop. Timbaland is doing dance music. I saw Lil Jon with Diplo at the WMC in Miami this past year rapping about Dubstep.
It’s a natural cycle in some regards. There are a few innovators and a lot of haters, playaz and imitators. But in regards to hip hop, the cultural phenomena that was and the monetary mountains reached only magnified the monotony of production and reproduction. Someone breaks new ground and twenty others bite their style, their swagger and their synth lines. The Cure had it right when they said “Someone’s always jumping someone else’s train.” It doesn’t just apply to pasty white boys with tears of black eye-liner staining their mopey faces. It’s different players, but the game remains the same.
So that’s why I was so refreshed to see this video for “Robot” by KRS-One and Buckshot. The call out the entertainment industry manufacturing the mass-produced, boardroom-designed, artless, auto-tuned, talentless hacks who decide they can sing and perform. Not because they are compelled to or have anything to say but in some neurotic obsession to be famous. It’s the disease of fame that compels people to begin to believe the mythology of the media.
But this song is spot on: hot beat, catchy chorus, and dropping knowledge. Talking about Africa Bambaataa and Kraftwerk, and then laying out how people keep following each other around like pathetic dogs, trying to lick the ass that feeds them. Boogie Down Productions was one of my favorites – “My Philosophy” is one of my top five hip hop songs of all time. I’m glad to see KRS-One still being relevant and keeping it real. Now if only listens.
