Some changes:
- Due to being in college and work, I simply cannot shoot and edit episodes of HHW in a timely fashion every week. As such, I will post the top stories that I find interesting to give my perspective on it once a month until further notice.
- To add more value to the podcast, I will be giving a written transcript of the video that is released in order to give more context and to articles and go more in depth as well as add some stories here I would prefer to write about in detail instead of producing a video for it.
With that out the way, let's begin!
1. Drake gets exposed as a weirdo; the internet is outraged for 5 minutes
Then blasts sicko mode for the 5th time. I have gotten on Drake many times in the past due to his inability to show he creates his own music and not just repeat words, the fact that (as a half-Jewish man) he put on blackface prior to becoming a rapper and gave a lame excuse for it, and using artists as a way to gain street cred and to completely Debo their hype in the culture. These are things that are annoying to me but can be mostly ignored (except for blackface, you’re cooning if you don’t see what that is). But this….this is really weird. The timing of this video is peculiar since it was put out after the R-Kelly documentaries and the age of consent in Colorado (where this video occurred) is 17 years old. So that would make this okay. This would obviously make this an attempt to damage his reputation right? Not really. In order to contextualize this properly, you must remember that
- Drake was reported as texting a 14-year-old about “boys”
- Drake also was reportedly dating a 18-year-old model
- Has a tattoo of Aaliyah (which isn't that weird but considering all the other old rappers that have courted this girl while she was still a minor…..)
So you cannot just look at Drakes actions in a vacuum. One cannot get on R-Kelly for his past of preying on little girls and ignore this. It's principle. Would you, as a High School senior, go after a girl that is a freshman? You're 17 and the girl would be 14, so under the LAW, you are cool to do that. But you will be looked at funny not because ur doing something weird and illegal, but are being weird. So when u take that same situation and apply it to a man that is in his thirties, how is that not weird? Why do people not question why Drake doesn’t just talk to girls his age. The mind of a 17-year-old teenager is not that of a 30-year-old woman. Ultimately though, it really doesn’t matter how anyone feels about it because a young girl will always fall for the allure of an older man not really understanding why. But as a grown man, in a way you are preying on that girl because you know it will be easier to get at her and get what you want from her. So really it's up to society to frown upon those that prey on borderline minor girls.
2. Quavo Denies stealing “Walk It Talk It” from Georgia rapper
Migos have always been a fun topic of discussion when talking to Hip-Hop nerds and historians because anyone that has studied hip hop even a little bit learns quickly that history repeats itself and eventually rappers will reuse elements from the past. Only in the past 15 years did artists begin to start reusing at a ridiculous rate. Migos is a great example of this because their rhyming pattern is literally that of the late Lord Infamous of the Three Six Mafia, who in turn was influenced by his peers in Memphis, namely people like Tommy Wright III and others. But the fans and the culture treat the trio as if they are bringing something so fresh to the game, going as far as to reappropriate their rhyming scheme as the “Migos flow”.
So when I heard this story about rapper MOS attempting to sue the Migos for stealing the idea for their song from his, I wasn’t really surprised. What makes this story puzzling is the fact that weeks later…
3. Quavo acknowledges the influence of Soulja Boy in an unprecedented admission
I call this unprecedented because the last generations of artists have a serious issue with respecting the trailblazers of the cultures that sacrificed their careers (or lives) so that they can make their garbage music and not get laughed out the record label. They also have an issue with acknowledging that all their ideas aren't original and were influenced (the word influence is taboo in Hip-Hop and seen as a negative thing and I don’t know why). Soulja Boy is taking advantage of the fact that the music industry has put him on the throne of troll king, a title that was vacated once 6IX 9INE went to jail. If Soulja Boy would've done this in 2017, he would've been laughed out of the internet. But for some reason, on the internet, the minority can become the majority if enough people switch over drastically (or in this case, are influenced to support someone they made fun of previously) and change the whole narrative. Back to Quavo though, there wasn’t really much that can be said against Soulja Boy to refute his claims. Soulja Boy got the beat first from Zaytoven. It influenced the Migos to create Versace which Zaytoven also sent to them (he is known for sending beats to multiple artists). Soulja Boy is in the video for Versace. At the very least Soulja Boy's presence in the video just shows that what he's saying holds weight. I salute SB for using this newfound attention to get the recognition he deserves instead of wholesale cooning as he did in 2017.
4. Preserving black history through theater and Hip-Hop
Even in higher level American history classes, there's a lot of things that happened during the institution of chattel slavery in the Americas and reconstruction that happened that is summed up in mere sentences. When you look back, you see that blacks, both enslaved and free achieved a lot of things that are remarkable. One of these feats comes from a slave called Henry Brown who after losing his wife to a new owner, arranged to be packed into a crate and shipped to freedom in Pennsylvania. This is a story that has been told in the Hip-Hop musical, “Henry Box Brown”, Directed by Rapper Dice Raw from Roots. The article in particular talks about the importance of talking about these stories and how Dice Raw engaged with students at a local school in Miami through workshops aimed to not only to tell Brown's story but also use creative means such as poetry and Hip-Hop to speak on injustices they notice in society. Learning more about some of the things we did in spite of injustice and slavery should only heighten our resolve as African Americans to want to strive to reach the heights we are capable of and not thinking we are only victims. We’re not.
(One thing concerning Mr. Brown that I think should be mentioned. After shipping himself to freedom, he became a well-known performer touring the states and speaking out against slavery to other abolitionists. He was approached by the owner of his wife and children and was presented the opportunity to buy them into freedom. He declined. He would then move to London in fears of being captured due to the Fugitive Slave act of 1850 and continued his performances, eventually marrying a white woman and fathering children with her. Sounds like the end of a Kanye West song I know).
Hip-Hop (Monthly) - Facts through research