I have not done music, remixes, etc. in quite some time.

Instead, I have re-focused my energies on Birthplace Magazine, www.BirthplaceMag.com, what I hope will soon be known as THE online source of New York-area hip-hop news, views and all other things.

Check out the original ‘manny-festo’ by reading “Re-Birthplace: Documenting New York’s (Hopeful) Hip-Hop Resurgence”

Check out the BirthplaceMag.com site overall, participate, send us suggestions, love mail, hate mail, etc.

If you are an artist, organization, or entity in any way involved with hip-hop and are in-or-around the New York City area, hit up Birthplace Magazine at info@BirthplaceMag.com.

As always, thanks for your support.

Available here. Thanks to I Did It Creative for the link.

Anyway, the reason for my post today is very simple. I am also in the process of moving. We’re settled in the new spot, but still carrying the old spot. Slowly but surely, we’re clearing it out (much bigger place than where we have moved to).

Today I was there, picking up mail and a few other things still laying around. I saw a neighbor who, over the years, we had been cordial to, but never overtly friendly. She is an older woman, lives alone, and always seemed a little… eccentric. I saw her sitting outside, and since we hadn’t mentioned us moving, I noted to myself that she was probably out just being nosy, and would probably come over and try to get the scoop.

Sure enough, as I was bringing items to the car, she crossed the street and walked right up to me. Having had a few awkwardly extended conversations with her in the past, and not wanting to spend all day at the house, I essentially groaned inside.

I am not normally one to prejudge someone. I am not normally one to shrug off conversing with someone, even when conversations can be long and awkward. Even with eccentric people. Yet I made that mistake today.

“I’m going to really miss you guys. I’ve enjoyed watching your family grow up. I enjoyed Michael (my oldest son), he always helped me when I couldn’t pick up the leaves or shovel the snow.” She went on to say how much she hoped things worked out for us, hoped that the economy wasn’t forcing us out, and again, that she’s going to miss us. Then she turned, and walked away.

Now, she’s a little… eccentric. And I don’t know her that well. And I could be wrong, since I could not see her leaving. But something about her… She seemed… Sad.

And I was touched. Again, all these years we saw her, we were cordial. My son, and I, always went over and shovelled for her. Recently, my fiancee drove her to the voting booth, as she does not have a car, and had a nice conversation. But other than that, we did not interact much, and often saw her watching. I suppose, like I did today, in the back of my mind I thought she was simply being eccentricly nosy. In fact, she may have been watching, admiringly, as I and my kids endured domestic disputes, separation, visitation, divorce, my struggle to keep the house, the passing of my mother, the introduction of my fiancee to my family, her moving in, us cleaning up the yard, me killing all the grass with too much weed killer, me re-growing a nice lawn, my fiancees deft touch at halloween/Christmas decorating, and my younger children surviving all the drama to become polite, beautiful, happy 5th graders, who in turn, also helped shovel her walk.

There are a lot of things I thought I would miss from that house, having been there 10 years, and though all of these things. Turns out, I’m not missing many of them at all.

Today, I just realized I’ll miss something I never thought of. Our eccentric wonderfully kindhearted neighbor, the only one who came to us to wish us well.

Here’s a story of a guy I know.

Mike is in his mid-30s, a largely self-educated, highly successful mid- to senior-level manager in the business world, having spent 12 years or so rising through the ranks of various media firms, just outside of New York City. Mike has shown great skill and natural acumen at managing both people, and processes, and achieved great results in companies that had previously had less-than-optimal working situations, start-up environments, and established firms alike.

Exhibiting strong creativity, leadership and professionalism throughout his career, he received hefty praise and accolades from nearly every supervisor, co-worker or subordinate he has worked with, or for, demonstrating particular success as part of the management team that turned a raggity Long Island bi-weekly entertainment rag newspaper into an award-winning weekly journalistic powerhouse, the Long Island Press, which at the time was the fourth largest weekly paper in the nation. Even while handling production management, directing new media efforts, and participating in business development, he found time to write several articles for the paper, and was at one time, a featured co-columnist.

He is also one of the proudest dads you will ever meet, after weathering, and winning, a lengthy, drawn-out custody battle (are there ever any other kind?). The fact the he did so while serving as his own counsel, displays the kind of intellectual ability Mike possesses, his skill at learning and mastering a previously unknown discipline, and also gives a good example of how he walks his own path, despite the lessons taught by conventional wisdom.

For the past year and a half, Mike has been employed as operations manager of a marketing and technology firm which services independent financial advisers, and again, achieved tangible results improving operations, procedures, morale and profitability. In fact, it can be argued that this company was in such a tumultuous state upon his arrival, that Mike is a huge reason the company has not faltered as much as it would have without him being there. In business, Mike is a well-respected, well-liked boss, who inspires those around him, and also brings his intelligence, eclectic experiences and strong ethics to the workplace. Any business should be eager to have him, as this one is. He is well-liked, they pay him well, and in fact, just recently promoted him.

So it would seem odd that Mike just resigned.

Call it a third-life crisis, but Mike believes he can do more. His personal interests are in entertainment, marketing, PR, journalism, and while he would be perfectly happy continuing to perform operational management duties, he wants to do it where it’s more his ‘thing’.

In the past, Mike has been involved in many “side” projects, many of the also successful. From event planning and promotions, to co-hosting a radio show, to full-fledged management of a rapidly rising comic talent, Forrest Hobbs. In fact, in little less than a year, Hobbs went from begging for minutes on hole-in-the-wall comic club stages, to being invited to the Tom Joyner radio show, and BET’s Comic View. While Hobbs’ talent was incredible, it was the calculated, well-executed marketing techniques Mike devised which propelled Hobbs to that kind of “about-to-blow” status. He has written bios, designed marketing materials, developed websites, edited audio, arranged press interviews, and generally been a one-man PR and marketing force, all “on the side”. And all with a budget of nearly zero!

Now, without telling the story of what happened to interrupt the success he and Forrest Hobbs were enjoying, let’s just say things happened, and Mike fell back into the safe arms of the 9-5 grind, perhaps jaded toward the other things he could be doing. It’s a shame, because helping an artist like Forrest Hobbs certainly showcases many abilities, but more importantly, showed character.

See, Mike is also a fairly talented musician himself. As a hip-hop/R&B producer and remixer, he has used his own promotional and marketing abilities and taken himself from the depths of obscurity to the point where now, he has music playing on BDS and top-40 stations across the nation, an international fan base, achieved on- and off-line press mentions, and has received nearly 2 million downloads of his work. He has become known among DJ, radio and industry personnel, and received personal accolades from the likes of Akon, Mary J. Blige and T-Pain. But he hasn’t gotten ‘there’ yet. He is a guy that will generally focus on the needs of others before spending that time working for himself.

Admirable. But if Mike had dedicated the amount of time, effort and creativity into publicizing his own musical endeavors, he might well have succeeded in his own right. The thing is, he truly seems to be able to make things happen the most when he exhibits selflessness, when what he is doing helps others, either in business (leading staff), with side ventures (making Forrest the star), or in everyday life (fighting for what was in his childrens’ best interest).

I really hope Mike finds what he is looking for. Maybe he will settle down into another 9-5 management role, but one at a company as dynamic as he is, where his creativity, experience and leadership will be valued and valuable, perhaps in entertainment, or music, where his personal interests and side-hustle experience and connections could be most beneficial. Perhaps he will take on project or consultative work (he is self-incorporated and runs Bannus Media, Inc. for just such endeavors). Maybe someone reading this will have an opportunity or two, and would be interested in viewing his resume, or his LinkedIn profile.

I just hope it works out soon. This “necessity-is-the-mother-of-figuring-stuff-out” mentality that led Mike to learn so much about so many things, has made him an enormously eclectic, and given him the potential to become a monumentally successful generalist. But this economy does not provide much room to gamble on one’s livelihood, so I want to see this work out fast.

I almost think he shouldn’t have done it.

But when you are not happy because you are not doing what you like to do, and you like to do so many things, and are great at many of them, I can understand really wanting to find a place where you can feel free to be yourself. Is there such a perfect place waiting? A close-enough-to-perfect? Where can someone who has this need be happy? Is he expecting too much? What should he be looking for? Anything? Everything? One thing? Many things? Nothing?

Both of us really want to know. See, in the words of the illustrious Snoop Dogg (and Hova, subsequently), since “he is I, and I am him.”

So the both of us really need to know. The sooner, the better.

Two quick notes, I wanted to state for the record, just because I have been missing my hip-hop state of mind lately..

1st.
50 Cent is really quite a genius. After defining the mixtape genre, moving on to conquer actual record sales, and being one of the largest entities in music, not just hip-hop, this guy drops this Sincerely Yours mixtape that is really kind of genius. I mean, content/lyrics completely non-withstanding (although he spits rather decently on it, I say), the concept is brilliant. String together all the summer BBQ flavored hits that everybody and their mama (especially their mamas) know, spit a lil’ here and there, and give it away for free. Flex plays the sh*t out of it, mad heads playing it in the yard, on the block, etc., and even the folks who are not entirely 50-fans (like wifey), can’t really complain or turn it off, because by the time 50 is done with his 16 or 32, you are jamming! Just a really cool concept, and I have to give it to the guy.

2nd.
I was at Big Ced’s weekly Industry Cosign party a couple of weeks ago (shout to Ced! Cool cat.), and Ralph McDaniels was there. I didn’t get the chance to meet him, I didn’t stay that long, but I just thought of how many DVD magazines have cropped up in the last couple of years and thought damn, this dude is the Godfather of these things. I always got a little extra respect for someone who did something first, especially so long before it became the “thing” to do, so my hat again goes off to Ralph McDaniels, the O.G. King of “Man In The Street” Hip-Hop.

That’s all for now. Thanks for tuning in. Hope to come back soon. As always, working on a couple things up my sleeve.

COP MY LATEST MIXTAPE: The Producer: The Best of Manny Faces – Free as always, www.mannyfaces.com

So, what happened was, Usher’s new song Love In This Club, was produced by Polow Da Don. But it turns out, Polow Da Don essentially made the track using preset loops in Apple’s GarageBand software, which comes free with a Mac computer [seen @ Miss Info]. Well, this interests me of course, and as usual, I see things in at least 3 ways.

1. As a “struggling” or “up-and-coming’ producer
This crackerjack-ass no-talent-having, gets 50Gs for doing not much more than <click>, <drag>, <export>, [OK to continue]? No, it is NOT OK to continue Goddammit! I been crate digging, DJing, sampling on cheap ass reverb machines rigged to loop, spent car insurance money on records and Ensoniq keyboard memory chips, listed to hours and hours of albums over and over, looking for JUST the right loop.. Turned my back on good weed and better ass cuz I wasn’t done with this track I was working… Played baselines, piano twinkling, day in, day out, up until 4am on the regular with full time jobs and baby mama drama to turn out to be a pretty damn decent producer/remixer, but who is still not making a dime, while this guy essentially takes his textbook, photocopies chapter 12, hands it to his teacher as an essay, and gets a fucking A!!

2. As a sampling up-and-coming producer
OK, so the argument is, how is this different from me (or Kanye, or Pete Rock, or countless other successful and talented producers in Hip-Hop’s history), sampling loops, adding some drums, and calling it a beat. Lord knows I’m still milking good response and radio play from my Bartender remix, which unashamedly samples George Benson note for note. Well, it is kinda the same. Sort of. I mean, I consider myself a connissour of good music. I sample from records I own (yes, vinyl), or mp3s I download. I filter out so many songs, my ear listens for loops, they are not handed to me. OK so the Give Me The Night loop didn’t take DJ Premier-like audio genius or skillful chopping, but still… I’ve come across royalty-free Loops/Beats CDs here and there, and I would never in my life use any of them. No matter how hot it was. I’m sorry, I just wouldn’t. But there are those producers, who might be very musically talented, who would say the same of me and my sampling. While I just can’t bring myself to say that Polow’s extremely uninspiring method of selecting music and creating tracks is nearly close to being equal in creativity to doing what I, or many other talented sampling-based producers do, to really call him out on it, would verge on hypocrisy.

3. As a listener
Well, I do like the song. I kinda thought Usher was gonna remain fallen off, but I think this is a good look. Personally, I have to say dig the joint. I bounce in the car a little like a fool when it comes on and I sing the hook sitting at my desk at the day-job. I guess at the end of the day, that’s what really matters.

No matter who, or what, made the music.

February 3
I share a birthday with my Hunni. While this makes it unlikely I’ll ever get a surprise party, it does make for a fun time of year when we co-party, and occasionally, have a co-party. This was such a year. On the way home from BJs, I hear Funk Flex blasting off on a SICK remix of Sounds of Silence. Dope. Stopped me in my tracks! “Now this,” I said to myself, “is some issh I would /could/should have done.” Man it was good. Hard hitting drums, little bassline here and there, dropouts, buildups.. Well done! (I still don’t know who did it, and I looked, and I never look, but repect due.) So now, in the back of my mind, I now have a new wheel turning. Gotta find me a similarly styled old school, non-R&B-per-se joint, and get my Manny Faces on! I thought briefly about what song would be good to work, but nothing came to mind. So, like a billion other things, I filed it away for future reference.

February 11
Me, Hunni and the Faces youngens go to Wendy’s for dinner, and are devouring dollar menu items, filled with tasty glee. Fast-food muzak is playing, though muted, over the restaurant speakers, as always. There, softly wafting to my ears, is a classic rock song that we all pretty much have heard. I stop chewing, right side of my brain wrenching control from the left (or whatever area controls eating). I turned to Hunni, who probably didn’t care much, and said, “I should work that!”… She nodded “Ok.. Whatever.” So I turned to the kids, who probably cared even less, and said “I’m going to work that!”… They nodded, “Ok… Whatever. Can we get ice cream?” I didn’t mind. I had made my Babe Ruthian prediction, pointing to the music bleachers, proclaiming my intent. I was going to hit an audible home run. You’ll see.

February 11 – Later
Crap! I have schoolwork to do. (This online go-back-to-college-thing is hard!) But the juices were flowing. The heat, was not. It was cold. Very fitting for the song. (I also grasp the logo-irony that I was inspired in Wendy’s). I feverishly worked the ‘first round’. (There are usually 3-4 before I get close to being done). A couple of off-the-top choices of drums, sounds, etc., worked out great! That is a nice omen when that happens, as opposed to trying out 32488 different things before something clicks. You start to lose the vibe. Bartender remix was like that. The first beat in the vault I tried, ended up being the winner. Love when that happens. This process was more complex, had to chop up the song a lot, since it was originally live, the tempo varies, and I had to sync it all nice so it would work alongside more rigid drum programming. There’s more, but that is either a) boring, or b) production secrets. But by 2:30am or so, I had a rough draft. And oh what a great idea for a verse to throw it!! This just might be kinda sorta hot.

February 12
I started listening over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. As I always do. Listening for imperfections, different arrangement options, levels, etc. Oh how I liked how the verse comes in. I was sweating myself kinda hard. This is gonna be a good one.

February 12 – Later
Back at the lab, I snuck in a little touching up between homework and reading. I really worked this one fast. Careful not to sacrifice quality, but I had to get back to schoolwork or I’ll be in deep educational debt doo-doo. I saved a mixdown and dished it to a couple of confidants. They would tell me how it sounds, and be honest about it.

February 13
Feedback started coming in. Couple things. I took note, plus had a couple of my own tweaks in mind. During the work day, I go to the back, and my co-worker has classic rock playing through Sirius. Guess what song is on? This is definitely an omen (because of course, my remixes are part of an ongoing divine intervention…. Don’t worry. That was sarcastic. But I did think it was a very very cool coincidence). I can’t wait to get home to finish it!!!

February 13 – Later
Back at the lab again. Man if it weren’t for a “real job” I’d get things done much quicker. Anyway, made the final tweaks, listened another 235 times, and threw together an email blast. No time to lose. It was Thursday, I don’t like sending out stuff on the weekend and the urge to get it out and hear what people think was strong. Around 10pm, e-blast-off! Back to reading U.S. History and Physics, and waiting for the feedback to start trickling in.

February 14
Feedback is 99.9% great!!! I love it when a non-plan comes together!

And now, if you haven’t already come across it:

The Mamas and the Papas (featuring Tupac) – California Dreaming (Manny Faces Remix)

Click here for non-Tupac version.

Hope you enjoy! Let me know.

It’s not something that will distract me forever. Just let me get through a couple of weeks and I’ll let you all know how it is!

One of my greatest drawbacks, is my scatterbrainededness. Oddly, though I make my living in the ‘real-world’ as moderately successful, semi-big-dog-level Operations Manager, and much of this is project management, it is an interesting irony that one of my biggest flaws is my inability to stay organized. True, I have to handle all of my day-to-day activities, being a single father, boyfriend, worker, and aspiring music producer, none of which are particularly easy to do, and combined are close to impossible at times, but I have always secretly known that I just simply need to get a better grip on all of the activities and responsibilities that I need to juggle, if I wanted to come close to living up to my potential. So, the last 3 weeks or so has been largely dedicated to reorganizing (and in some cases, organizing for the first time) many factors of my life. My focus has been strong, and therefore, my attention to Manny Faces business has been on hiatus. Here are some things I did:

Home Office Overhaul
I begun this New Year’s Revolution during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I was off from work, home with the babies, while my hunni had to work most of that week. So, I cleared out every ounce of furniture, music equipment, computer equipment, garbage, wires, rocks, papers, scissors… Everything. I completely threw away my desks, remnants of a modular office system that one of my old employers was throwing out. It was at home in a big office, too big for a home office. And more importantly I realized, it didn’t allow me to have my ’setup’ the way I want it. With dual-monitors, big ol’ speakers, a midi keyboard, amp, mixing board, and clutter, it just wasn’t feng shui enough I guess. Hunni bought me a new desk as a pre-birthday present, and it was great! Just how I wanted my ’setup’ set up, and inexpensive, but not cheap. So, after two nights of priming, painting, perspirating and painstaking preperation, my office was reborn from an office-slash-storage room-slash-hideout for the cats-slash-pigsty to a clean, HomeOffice 2.0ish looking oasis of ergonomically placed Manny stuff where everything is at arm’s length and just feels right.

Filing
I have papers. Boy do I. Bills, Family Court papers, Divorce papers, newspapers, bills, business papers, mortgage papers, bills, health record, birth certificates, bills and countless random sheets of printed matter, most of which, doesn’t matter. And it was high time that I lowered the high tide of this sea of paper. So, for about $12, I got one of those plastic tub-thingys from Staples that hold hanging folders, sat my ass down over the course of two days, went through every pile of paper, threw away everything that was truly useless, and filed. Now, instead of scraps of my whole life scattered throughout the house, irreplaceable important records entangled among insignificant leaflets of irrelevancy, I now essentially have everything on paper that is worth keeping, in one place. This makes a huge difference. And is 24% less of a fire hazard!

Computer tweakin’
So I am pushing through! I am psyched! I am excited and working hard and staying up late and organizing and rearranging and rebuilding and so this is the PERFECT time for my computer to die, isnt it?. Ah yes, Mr. Random.Windows.Operating.System.File is missing or corrupt or has herpes or who knows what. Now, in the past, because I am a) cheap, b) broke and c) technically savvy, I bought lower end PCs, no service contract or brand names – “If it breaks, I’ll just fix it” was (and largely still is) my mentality. But this one, is still relatively new. And was not cheap. And is a name brand. And I am super careful about keeping it clean of unwanted stuff. So, when it died, I was definitely a tad miffed. But OK, nothing a Windows reinstall can’t fix. Well, long story short, I reinstalled Windows, and as Microsoft-luck would have it, this did not solve the problem. So I tried a million and 7 things, all tidbits of tech procedures I’ve picked up in my many years of PCing, with no success. I wondered how a Windows file could still be missing, when I reinstalled Windows?! Bizarre. But then the answer! One of my USB slots was broken. Now, the corrupt file message I received, that was not permitting my computer to breathe any e-life, had nothing to do with the USB slot being damaged. But as anyone who has had major computer trouble undoubtedly knows, it does not have to make any sense at all. So anyway, a little mechanical prying and I fixed it. The actual silver lining here though, is that by reinstalling, I actually got my computer back to near-factory level cleanliness. Sure I had to reload a bunch of my applications, but I definitely de-cluttered the OS, registry and all the unwanted programs that I had previously loaded, tried, and dismissed. So in a way, this major annoyance was not a bad thing. I cleared my desktop of the 239847239 things that were there, made improvements to my browser (hotkeys, easy to get to toolbar links, etc.), set up an iGoogle page, a Google Calendar page, set up my email boxes (in accordance with the Getting Things Done system that I have also been reading up on, an intricate, but much heralded method of learning how to process information. Valuable time-management self-help). All in all, I got this computer setup just the way I like it now, and I’m taking advantage of many lifehack-type of technical tips and tricks and it has made a huge difference in me keeping track of all the things I need to keep in mind.

There are a few other things I’ve done to try and get on top of my game this year, some I will hopefully hold on to, while other ideas and methods may fall to the wayside, but I point all this out to those who are reading because it is important to realize that despite whatever natural talents you may have, whatever dreams and aspirations you might be following, sometimes you have to stop and take stock of the situation, and of yourself, to determine what you need to do to be a better person. The best part is that this is something I need to do to be better at music. And at marketing myself. And at my day job. And at my relationship. And at fatherhood. And at staying sane. So no matter what, taking stock in myself, recognizing my flaws, and finally taking the time to simply DO something about them, is the #1 priority on my new fangled to-do list. After that, everything else will just be better.

Now if I could only stick with my exercising. <sigh>

See, hip-hop in 2007 is not the hip-hop that was in 1990. In the 90’s, it was easy to blame hip-hop music and subculture for the woes of the inner city. In actuality, it was probably crack-cocaine and IT’S subcultute that had the most impact on the African-American youth of our nation. But since hip-hop music was closely associated with that youth, it was too easy for the uneducated and ignorant politicians, newsmen, parents and racists, to blur the lines between the youth intricately involved in the crack epidemic, and those who just relayed the messages over a funky, James Brown-sampled, beat.

Enter 2007 and the tragedy that is/was Sean Tayor. (For the record, it does not matter what the circumstancs were behind this heinous act, it is a tragedy in every sense of the word. But the issue I am addressing is that of Mr. Whitlock and his blaming of hip-hop. The issue is that in 1990, he would have been wrong. In 2007, I truly hate to say this, but he is right.)

It is not that hip-hop itself is to blame however. This is the tricky part. As many of those reading this know, I am a producer, remixer, and part-time lyricist. I have been a hip-hopper since the 80s. I will not apologize for the fact that I now, in my ….. um.. late 20s/early 30s (roundabout, sheesh.. shutup!), continue to make beats, mix songs, and write rhymes. It is in my consciousness and will never leave my soul. I am a product of my looped-funk-and-R&B-over-hard-12-bit-drum-sounds roots and will be that until I die. But in 1990, hip-hop was a product of the culture of the youth. Today, it IS the culture of the youth. And in becoming so, is no longer what hip-hop originally was, or was intended to be.

When I see on YouTube, young white children in ballet class, “Supermanning” that proverbial hoe, there is no question that life has completely swallowed up art, and now, spits it back out as a cartoonish mockery of itself. Hip-hop has lost the exclusivity which made it so eccentric in the beginning. It is probably like the elite nightclubs or celebrity hot-spots of NY or LA. They begin, much more secretive, reclusive, hard-to-get-into. But once word gets out that a “celebrity-of-the-day” frequents the joint, the ‘regular people’ find their way down. By then, the star/starlet has moved on, eager to avoid having to mingle with the peons, and all of a sudden the hot-spot of the stars, ends up being just the lukewarm-spot of the wannabes.

So, when Mr. Whitlock blames ‘hip-hop’ for the problems of the youth, on the surface, it sounds like a back-in-the-day attack, when the uninformed critics would criticize hip-hop, because it sounded different, and sounded mean, and looked menacing, and was unknown. And the hip-hop fanatics and defenders are so used to being attacked for their beliefs, that we raise up when even the slightest suggestion is made that hip-hop (and by default this mean rap-music) is to blame for any ill. But actually, Mr. Whitlock is not swayed by any emotional attachment to hip-hop culture. He is not distracted by a love for the music that he met when he was 10 years old, and what he loved most was that she had so much soul. No, he is saying ‘hip-hop’… But he means ‘youth’. No longer is hip-hop a piece of the culture of youth. The culture of youth, is now simply called ‘hip-hop’.

So, I cannot attack the statement, “The ‘keepin’ it real’ mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution”, until I can accurately determine how the writer chooses to define hip-hop. If he is mindlessly equating black youth, crime, violence and hip-hop in one big melting pot of tragic circumstances, then no, I will not support his theories. But he seems smart enough on the surface to not fall into that trap, and instead, realizes that hip-hop today is not hip-hop of old, and that today, black, white, hispanic, asian and practically any race, creed or ethnicity that is young follows a twisted, perverted and different culture than the hip-hop purists would claim as their own. And unfortunately the culture of today’s youth does indeed draw from the roots of hip-hop, but the overall culture of today’s youth is that twisted, cartoonish hip-hop-ish mashup that was created when mainstream USA dug their claws into Golden Era hip-hop. The result has been an increase in buffoonery and self-denigration. A blind adoption of the original tenets of hip-hop, without the understanding or experience necessary to appreciate, understand and relate to them. An adaptation of hip-hop by mainstream popular culture that has become the culture of the popular mainstream.

In essence, the violence that fell on Sean Taylor was not due to hip-hop as I, or the authors of the comments of the aforementioned blog would define it. It was more likely the result of the twisted, mutated evolution of youthful society. A society which, across racial and economic boards, has cherry-picked the most extreme and egregious characteristics that hip-hop as a culture, and through its music in the past, has to offer, and followed with pseudo-religious abandon.

So Mr. Whitlock, while wrong, is kinda right. Defenders of hip-hop, defend out of habit, and defend because their defense of African-Americans particularly, is reflex, and for good reason. But today, hip-hop doesn’t equal hip-hop anymore. Realistically, this morphed version of hip-hop is now simply ‘popular culture’. And that popular culture could, by itself, be what is to blame for Sean Taylor’s tragic end. Hip-hop, at it’s core, was a form of expression. A vibe. A way of life that existed to give a voice to the voiceless. Not to give guns to the gunless. A reporting of the reality. Not the reality itself. What is called hip-hop today, is not the hip-hop we hold dear to our hearts. It is the radical Islam of hip-hop. A force that does not reflect the hip-hop that true hip-hoppers believe in. And therefore, many of us denounce today’s hip-hop, today’s popular culture, and any and all factors that could have contributed to the violence that Sean Taylor, or the thousands of young people today must endure, that are done in the name of hip-hop.

It is simply cultural heresy. Hip-hop, as Nas and I once knew it, is indeed dead. Perhaps, and hopefully, it is setting the stage for a rebirth. If so, long live hip-hop. If not, good, ’cause they ruined it anyway.