That Reminds Me...

I woke up and did my usual internet surfing this morning and came across a youtube clip Erik Parker's The Parker Report. I've been peeping it from day one when it was just that, a youtube clip. Now, the show has been picked up by MTV Jams, props on that. The subject on this clip is Lil' Young rappers.



Watching this clip reminded me of two things. One, just how smart dumb David Banner can be sometimes. He should really consider being a lawyer or public defender or something, lord knows his rap peers could use one. Two, just how much I need to go ahead and start me a show or something, I was clowning on this subject a while ago on my old myspace blog. Surely, there is nothing new under the sun, but I've been noticing that random shit I've ranted on ions ago is starting to pop up in editorials and television shows. I once heard that if you have an idea in your head and you don't use it, it will hop into someone else's head. Maybe that's whats going on lately.

Here is the old joint from the myspace blog, written 5/4/06

Am I Getting Old? Maybe a Lil' Bit
Current mood: amused

[Claimer: Maur!ce Is Still Crazy wrote this blog under the spell of Red Bull and Chocolate Chip granola bars. So he may come off as Lil' crazier than usual.]



Man, Damn...

I really think that I'm turning into a 25-year old crank. Lil' shit is really starting to get on my nerves. What kind of Lil' shit you ask? Just that exactly, Lil' shit.

Everyonce in a while my mind drifts off to a time when I learned certain things about life, love and economics from Hip Hop and Rap music. It tends to drift when I get bombarded with music and messages that leave me empty handed. Of course, I like to go out and have a good time every once in while, like when I'm showing a visitor around or happen to be out with a young lady, but the balance is really effed up right now when you think of message music as opposed to party music...

Okay, let me get to the point...

In between listening to the radio, reading a couple magazines and surfing the internet (I'm proud to say that my TV diet is of Kate Moss proportions; the NBA Playoffs are my only vice right now), I realized that there are alot of young people running rap right now. I'm not talking about execs that are under 40 or 19-year old DJs. I'm talking about the artists.

Why are so many rappers naming themselves as if they are children? Every other artist is calling themselves Baby-who, Lil'-this or Young-that. And guess what? Most of them talk about childish shit.

Look at my toys=Look at my Benz, Chain; my Benz and my Chain

Why won't you be my friend=Ya'll niggas hatin' on me

I want my mommy=I hate ya'll hoes

Hey man, I got some candy=I sell the most dope on the block

Do you like me check YES or NO=You fuckin'?

You're a tattle tell=STOP SNITCHIN'

so on and so on...

Am I living up to my "still crazy" moniker for thinking/seeing this? Am I the only one?

What happened to naming yourself something with authority? Big Daddy Kane, Big Mike, Big Gipp, Big Boi, Big Syke, Notorious B.I.G., Large Professor, Grandmaster Flash, UltraMagnetic MCs....shid, Father MC or dare I say it Master P and King George (maybe too much of a stretch there).

I used to look at cats like that as if they had some kind of grown-man nature about themselves, hell I used to look at rappers like that in general because most of them had something to offer the mind as it relates to growth.

But all this Lil Young shit is starting to get on my nerves. So much that I really want to commend Bow Wow for dropping the Lil from his name; but I won't.

Where did it all come from? A friend told me they think it started with Jay-Z, a 30-something year old man, calling himself Young Hov and Hovi Baby. Which may be true. A dude that can kill the throwback-era with one sentence surely has enough power to make everybody under his voice think of themselves as young.

Its funny, as I'm typing this a pop up saying "5 DVDs $25" pops up and I see the cover for Baby Boy in the pile. Remember the opening when Tyrese, er, Jody was talking about how we call our woman our "girl," our friend our "boy," and our home our "crib." I guess thats what Hip Hop music is suffering from...a struggle to grow the fuck up. That becomes evident everytime someone like Russell Simmons, who turns 50 next year, insists that Hip Hop and Rap music is for the youth and the kids.

I still have hope tho...hopefully another grown voice will come about to bring some balance and fatherhood, or even motherhood, to this thing we call Hip Hop.

But I swear man, the way its looking right now...by the end of the year someone gonna come out calling themself The Fetus....yeah Young Lil' Fetus...it gets no realer than that.....I wonder what they will talk about.

Blaring Contridiction or Perfect Imperfection: I am a Little Brother fan