It's A Just A Dude With A Blog...

From comments:

You think Doom will be the last hip hop artist you'll write about? Because Kanye is a dick? Did you flip and quit the game when ODB said Puffy's good but Wu Tang's the best and for the children?

I love what you have to say about hip hop and think your voice is an important and necessary one, but if you just give up on the art, when there is so much out there, even if it's outside the mainstream...? Well, it's just disappointing, TNC. And I'd really love to see you backtrack on that retirement, Favre-style, and come back and play the game again.

But I guess from the writing on the blog it just seems like you don't feel hip hop anymore, or that you've outgrown it...is that it, outgrown? Because I don't see how, if you really loved it, you wouldn't be able to find stuff out there that speaks to you. You just have to hunt, you won't find it on the radio. Yet here you are writing about Doom, so obviously you get that...

Anyway, your post saying you were done with hip hop sort of pissed me off, and I wish you would take it back.

This has been an ongoing process for me, as readers of this blog know. But the process isn't a statement or recommendation. I haven't been to the movies in over a year. That says a lot about me, and maybe something about the movies. From that perspective, I'm not sure why there's such a strong reaction to a personal opinion. People love things all the time, and then move on to other things--I don't collect comics or play Madden anymore, either.

My reaction Kanye was really a kind of fatigue with ego and the "I'm the best thing out" pose which hip-hop is built on, which hip-hop has always been built on. As younger man, that pose meant something to me--I needed it. As an old-head, not so much. I'm half-curious about the Rae album, but I just don't know, at this stage in my life, that I want to hear more about the crack trade. Cuban Linx changed my life ("And when I slept I dreamed Gs son/I need some..") I'm fine with letting that be. Hip-Hop will always be foundation. That's enough for me.

This is a deeply personal choice. It is not a declaration about the state of hip-hop. This is a blog written by a guy who lives in a small Harlem apartment, with his spouse and kid. It should never be taken as anything more than that. 

UPDATE: It's important to add how much I appreciate the compliment, also. It means a lot. I hope I don't undermine it by saying the following. I'd hope that people who like what they see here, but wish I did more of XXXXX, would be inspired to do it themselves. Writing has never been more democratic than it is right now. If you're looking for a particular analysis of hip-hop, which you aren't seeing right now, grab the pad and go knock it out. Now's the time.