I noticed when Heavy D performed at the BET Hip-Hop Awards last night about 20 people were moved. Out of an audience of hundreds. It was embarrassing; first off, he closed out the show, when a legend of his stature should have went sooner, second, there was such a generation gap in between his work, as he hasn’t had a hit since the late nineties, and the kids that were doing the rap cypher.
It actually made me sad. JaRule started doing his thing when Heavy D was already past his prime. There should be room in hip-hop for different voices, rather than just being hard, gangsta, or wearing your emotions on your sleeve. As if someone really cares about your bleeding heart and how mean the world is and the fact that you do not have any friends. That isn’t hip-hop.
I understand that Heavy D is a pop artist. But so is Lil’ Wayne, Drake, and a lot of these other Cash Money/Young Money/whoever’s money artists. I mean you have garbage like Young L and Lil B out there, getting millions of hits on YouTube and a legendary artist like Heavy D cannot even move the crowd. Has the game changed that much? If it has I do not want anything to do with the mainstream.
Secular mainstream hip-hop really sucks these days. I never thought I would say it, but I would rather listen to mixtapes off of New H20 than cop the latest album. It is not a religious or a spiritual argument. It is about the fact that I am not convinced that mainstream artists even remotely believe the lies that they are trying to sell me. At least back in the day you had some conscious mainstream artists worth listening to. BET had their heart in the right place, but the kids out here today are such zombies they may as well have not even tried …