What are your thoughts about the idea of a Hip Hop council?

[Len Cnut]

I've seen this idea expressed many times and there's murmurs around it still, what are your thoughts on the idea? The idea basically is that hip hop is a culture and to preserve and assist the evolution of said culture and to define it's parameters a council should be put in place. Kinda like the thing you had going at The Source with the 5 mics things where there was like a five mic council who would review albums or whatever and it was this really stringent process to where when something got 5 mics it had some kinda weight, it was substantial y'know?

You could have like a defintive hip hop journal (kinda like The Source was but obviously, y'know, fixing this shit up) and you could kinda control the culture in the sense of preserving it and stablising that cultural core and ensuring that as it evolves into all kinds of avenues the core of it still remains strong and it doesn't lose what it had that made it great in the first place.

What do you think of this as an idea? Do you agree with it, do you think it'd work, is there something you'd add to this kind of a framework, how do you see it working, what do you think are the pitfalls of this kinda idea? Just a general discussion about the idea.

I kinda like the idea to a point but there's something about making a kind of faction out of it, a religion thats a bit...i dunno, doesn't necessarily sit well but in another way i REALLY like the idea. You could still have everything else and all these offshoots but at the same time there would be work going on to preserve its core tenets and ideas and ideals. Also there's something exciting about the idea of a functioning working class movement created by people with not a lot of formal education thats like, a functioning peaceful way of life. Kinda fuckin' amazing actually.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Len B'stard

[J Dog]

I don't know how it would work. But if it cut out all the, instant classic and GOAT talk, I'm all for it.

[Len Cnut]

I don't either but i think there's a lot of merit to some of the ideas that might arise from the proposal. A lot is made of certain things that go on in the mainstream under the banner of hip hop that are kinda contrary to and a dillution of its principles that, OK, it can go on cuz you can't tell people what to do with musical influence and nor should you but i think its a good idea for a clear distinction to be in place.

For instance biting, thats a fuckin' hip hop rule...and you see it all over the fuckin' place now, under the guise of tributes and homage and all that fuckin' bullshit...but it's just straight biting. Every culture in the world has active councils that work to kinda preserve it and respect its history and the tenets that made it what it is.

The Source and their five mic council i thought was a beautiful thing and until Mays and Benzino fucked it up it was functional too, it was kinda accepted and taken for granted in terms of the ratings it dished out and moreover those ratings had a value in that they were from the core community, accepted to a large degree by the core community and established a clear framework through which rappers could come up and if you look at the rappers who came up as a result of things like Unsigned Hype, they were stellar fuckin' artists with a real respect for the culture. Eminem being a prime example but there are tons and tons of others too.

There's always been talk of the nation, preserving the nation, building the nation, Tupac did a lot of it as well as a great many others and I really do think there is a distinct possibility of losing that shit.

If you look through history, these big movements, like rock n roll, there was a culture that was built around rock n roll and it had its own speak, it's own dress, its own music, it was tied into art etc etc and they seriously believed they could and would change the world. But none of it was formalised and great ideas petered out and eventually it kinda died by virtue of a kind of devolving evolution, if that makes sense. Not saying that it or hip hop was gonna like, fuckin', i dunno, lead to world peace or some stupid shit, i just mean the construction and preservation of that culture. And there was rules there, or rather parameters.

And Hip Hop already has these kinda things set up but they're in danger of kinda vanishing as the sheer numbers behind an artist like Iggy Azaelia (who is a load of shit), these fans from across the world whom the vast majority of don't care about the culture (and they don't have to) literally drowning out the voice of the core community.

[J Dog]

The rock thing is a good comparison. It went from thinking you can change the world to hair metal. It had a little uprising in the 90s, then turned into Creed and Nickleback. I can see in 5 or 10 years, somebody like you mentioned, Iggy, not really meaning a white girl with blonde hair, but somebody dumb like that being called the best, and being compared to the actual best.

5 mics had merit. You could brag about that in your songs. There is just too much out there now. Social media is a big judge on everything, and you can actually see bandwagon opinions on all kinds of nonsense. That shit gets sold, and that shit gets bought.

[Len Cnut]

And this instant star shit, it's starting to permeate the culture or rather drown out the sober voices of the culture. Like when Eminem came up, he was clearly prodigious lyrically, as was Canibus...but people didn't just hear one fuckin' album and go 'OMG, THE GREATEST RAPPER ALIVE!!!', people were kinda sober and it was like OK, good album, or great album but like...you built your thing, you worked up to it and thats why when you got that respect it was valuable cuz it really meant something, as opposed to just kids coming out of nowhere, a mixtape or two and suddenly they're God.

[OmarBradley]

This has already been done with Laurence Fishburne:

[J Dog]

And this instant star shit, it's starting to permeate the culture or rather drown out the sober voices of the culture. Like when Eminem came up, he was clearly prodigious lyrically, as was Canibus...but people didn't just hear one fuckin' album and go 'OMG, THE GREATEST RAPPER ALIVE!!!', people were kinda sober and it was like OK, good album, or great album but like...you built your thing, you worked up to it and thats why when you got that respect it was valuable cuz it really meant something, as opposed to just kids coming out of nowhere, a mixtape or two and suddenly they're God.

Yeah that is a big problem. It took Jay-Z three albums before any talk like that started. Even though his first album might be his best. Now I'm not even the biggest Jigga fan, but as an mc, he is miles ahead of someone like Kanye or Drake, but just to hear the talk, they are right there with him, if not better.

[Len Cnut]

As an MC Kanye doesnt even really register in the best stakes. He's good, he gets it in, he's definitely above average but thats about it. Strictly talking rhyming-wise.

[DieselDaisy]

Can I be Guy Fawkes?

[J Dog]

As an MC Kanye doesnt even really register in the best stakes. He's good, he gets it in, he's definitely above average but thats about it. Strictly talking rhyming-wise.

But that's the kind of the thing you are talking about. Or I think it is. I agree Kanye is better than average and brings a little something different to the table, but that's about it. All the goat, genius, one of the best all time, that's crazy talk. But that's how he is going to go down. He shouldn't be but he is.

[Len Cnut]

As an MC Kanye doesnt even really register in the best stakes. He's good, he gets it in, he's definitely above average but thats about it. Strictly talking rhyming-wise.

But that's the kind of the thing you are talking about. Or I think it is. I agree Kanye is better than average and brings a little something different to the table, but that's about it. All the goat, genius, one of the best all time, that's crazy talk. But that's how he is going to go down. He shouldn't be but he is.

Exactly!