LL couldn’t live without his radio. Huge giant boom boxes lifted up onto the shoulders of B Boys used to pump out the latest rap jams. Radio in New York was amazing, one of the best things about going to the city was getting to hear rap on the radio. Bigger, badder, deffer, fresher, NY radio was the place to hear the latest and greatest, and usually – the person rhyming was from New York. Trained and raised up in the trenches of New York, emcees battled for airtime on the radio. We all remember Brown Sugar, where Taye Digg’s character, Andre Romulus ‘Dre’ Ellis, believes so much in his artist that he bum rushes the music director at the hottest radio station in New York, forcing her to listen to the demo.
New York radio today is a wasteland. Soul-less, pornographic, repetitive, and boring - “emcees” pump out “hit” after “hit.” They all sound the same; none of them give any kind of a message, speaks on politics, or gives power to the people. The days of Chuck D and KRS One prophesying on New York, mainstream radio are gone, replaced by Uncle Luke’s protégés, and one hit wonders.
“Whatever happened to the emcee? Times done changed for the emcee.” ~ De La Soul
Radio aside…. today’s market is saturated with interesting emcees rocking the internet. Some are good, some are just plain comedy. Just google “Swaggasaurus” by The TradeMark Experience and you’ll see one of many examples of what the modern day emcee can share with the world. (HA!)
Our generation had it’s “TradeMark Experience” rappers…anyone remember Lavar and The Vanilla Melt? We had our one hit wonders Skee-Lo “I Wish”, Paperboy “Ditty” but for the most part, hip hop from our generation struggled and strived to prove a point. To prove that they had something to say, stories to tell, secrets to divulge.
It seems that those days are gone and we are bombarded with emcees, EMCEES, discussing nothing but disgusting topics. Soulja Boy “Crank That” or Lil’ Jon “Salt Shaker” or The Ying Yang Twins “Wait (The Whisper Song)”. Huge Craptastic Hits.
Dig a little deeper. Remember tuning into your favorite college radio Hip Hop show, waiting to hear who the special guest that week would be, dying to hear that track your best friend had told you about the week before. Or how bout waiting til midnight, tuning in the mix shows, the funny hosts, the best mix DJ’s laying it down, doing their thing, playing the freshest of the fresh tunes. You’d search the stores looking for that one track, finally getting a taped version from the kid down the block or your boy from around the way.
What about that feeling you got from digging for the classics?? Remember what it was like to find that one record that you’d been searching for for years? Local swap meets, Goodwill, your boy’s uncle’s yard sale, the basement of your cousin’s grandmother. There it was – the jacket might be a little dingy, but inside, the vinyl was smooth and grooved and black and waxy. Waiting to be rediscovered, and lovingly placed back into heavy rotation. Maybe it was a classic jam from back in the day, maybe it was the latest track you heard on the radio, either way – you were thrilled to have found what you were looking for, excited even.
The emcee still exists. Like that old record, or undiscovered track, he or she might not get the play they deserve, and it may be a matter of diggin’ to find that talented emcee. You know the one who lyrically puts people to shame. Whose rhymes are so on point, they send chills up your spine. The ones who make you rewind that back…that’s the joint….
You may not recognize a lot of the emcees I have recently photographed. They might not be household names. They might not be one hit wonders, blasting crap through the speakers of your home boys car. But you might be surprised, delighted even when you hear Che Grand rhyme about women on New York Transit using clever and positive rhymes, or Kaleber rhyme about striving to be an emcee. You might grin and remember when hip hop was fun, and emcees said silly rhymes like “Eeney, meeney, miney, mo good goobelly goo I bumped my toe” when you hear the Bayliens.
The emcee is not yet extinct, the emcee is alive and well, living beneath the surface getting ready to bust lose. Take a minute, turn off the radio, dust off your cerebellum, and relocate that place in your brain that had to dig for the good ish. You just might find what you’ve been scanning the dial for.
The following four-part blog is about my recent travels and the photoshoots that accompanied them. I was privileged to shoot Hip-Hop artists across the spectrum: from emcees with Platinum Records and Major Label Deals, to the DIY rappers Hip-Hop was built on, and those in between who tie it all together. I hope you enjoy the images, listen to some music, and discover someone new and exciting. Enjoy!
