June 28, 2009

  • I finally decided to check out Jay-Z's performance at Glastonbury yesterday. It's pretty good. A few pop singles in there, but a good deal of them were rather good. He had some live instrumentation and when Public Service Announcement came on, you knew hip hop was there (that song is just great).

    As I was reading through the comments, one person commented that (given the concert is held in England) it was just more "Americana", the same old sound over and over again. Which made me laugh like no other. Jay has one of the most distinctive sounds and flows in the entire game. Same old? If it weren't for Jay and a slew of other "Americana" rappers, rap wouldn't have the styles and techniques open to it today that it does. I mean, there's just certain things which you have to know if you even want to talk about rap. Biggie demonstrated how far flow could really go, Eminem and Big Pun essencially broke the rhyme scheme limit a thousand times over, and a good deal of rappers showed the literary capabilities of the genre. I mean, without American 90s rap, you don't have the progress in skills that have been demonstrated for others anymore. Not to say it's refined to that era or that there aren't talented artist showing capability in other countries. But, honestly, show some respect. You look ignorant when you're unaware of your past.

    Well, seems my hope to see you soon Lizzie is going a little contrary to plan. Miss you though.