Respect The Hustle

From the age of 9 I have been listening to Hip-Hop, back when Hip-Hop was good and there was a certain degree of talent going around. My hunger for Hip-Hop has grown over the years and I now research the genre a lot more, through books, websites, hell even my dissertation was based on it. My first 3 albums I brought back then were Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise (many will have heard the title track on cheese nights but the album was a classic), Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - E.1999/Eternal and 2Pac - All Eyez on Me. Everyone a classic, can that be said of some of the artists on this years MTV's Top 10 Hottest MCs? Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, Fabolous anyone?

In 1996 Jay-Z dropped Reasonable Doubt, a classic album, with the first track Can't Knock The Hustle. Jay-Z talks about growing up hustlin' on the Marcy projects, making the track and album appealing to you hustlers in New York.
Fast forward over 20 Years and Hip-Hop fans are only respecting the hustle, rather than respecting real talent. Jay-Z is to hit 40 in December this year and has just dropped The Blueprint 3, what is hopefully the last installment of the series, with each one getting gradually worse. BP3 is by no means a bad album but compared to the first BP it's definately lacking. As Jigga has just dropped an album and also been named #1 on the Top 10 MCs (I will address this in another blog) list certain artists have decided to put their 2 cents in, namely Gucci Mane and Birdman.

Gucci Mane took a jab at Jay-Z on a skit on his mixtape where the snippet says "Jay-Z the best rapper alive? The survey says......NO!"
Birdman, founder of Cash Money Records (home of Lil Wayne) also questionned how could Jigga be the best rapper alive when....get this...."we make more money than anyone"
In support of Jay-Z was iconic Public Enemy frontman Chuck D who suggested "Gucci Mane, he'd be better off jumping in a swimming pool with a plugged in toaster."

Now everyone is entitled to their opinion, but what shocked me the most in these series of events is the fans of Hip-Hop reacting to these comments. In all honesty I would expect both Birdman and Gucci Mane to get laughed off the face of the earth. But in reality the majority of responses on sites such as AllHipHop and HHBoard was the opposite.
Apparently legends in Hip-Hop have no place at the top, nor are their comments valid any more....everyone should sit back and respect the hustle of these young rappers. Fair play they have gotten out of the streets, they are making a legitimate living. But that is not what Hip-Hop is based on, what happened to the days where you needed a certain level of skill? Did people respect KRS-One because of his hustle? No the respected him cos he was and is still one of the illest MC's alive. Why should whack artists such as Gucci Mane be championed because he has had a few hits and is the flavour of the month thanks to guest appearances on Mariah Carey songs, and having Usher jump on a track? Will anyone be talking about Gucci Mane in 10 years time? I think not. If it is all about respecting the hustle, then who better to respect than Jay-Z? Over the years he has become so powerful that he can headline a UK rock festival, sign a bigger deal than Madonna, and is a U.N. recognised Philanthropist. If Birdman has a better hustle than Jigga, then why is Diddy, 50 and Jigga all above him?

A few years ago Nas proclaimed that Hip-Hop is dead, that it was the artists and the labels that have killed it. I am now more inclined to say that the fans are slowly killing it off. If we should just be respecting the hustle and not the talent, then go and start buying pop music, get yourself a nice Britney CD or Robbie Williams CD and when someone says they are shit just respond with "yeah but you gotta respect their hustle".