it may have been over a year since i last wrote here. i
dont expect anyone to see this, but that matters not. hip-hop, in the tradition of all great forms of
American music (i.e. ragtime, blues, jazz, rock and roll), exists almost
listlessly. one may attempt to define the music, what gives it the title, a title owned more by one of the largest subcultures in
America, but these definitions never seem just. something is always lost in verbalizing it. it is not the rhymes and its not the beats.
itd both, together. the rhymes without beats is just "
flowetry", an outlet for wanna
bes with no rhythm. the beats without the rhymes is a great complimentary soundtrack, but
coldy sterile at best. and like all great forms of
american music, it emerges from the
african american culture. and it grows and it grows because of its beauty, and as are all things beautiful in
America, is purchased. next comes what is a product before what is art.
chet baker,
elvis,
eminem. though extreme success compliment some major themes of
hiphop philosophy - self-righteousness, survival - it seems to subtract from the artistic value. thus, today's split of hip hop, the hip rich
mcs with airtime, and the humble poets with a
myspace. no longer is hip hop a golden age, so raw, so fresh that no billion dollar checks can water down the expressed attitude.
this brings me to today's song, the forerunner of the hip-hop
renaisance,
Rza the Razor, patriarch of the
wu tang clan, has achieved definitive hip hop. in my own opinion, the east coast in the early to mid 90s seem to be the Classical Greece of
hiphop.
nas is
Achilles, biggie is
Oedipus, and
rza is
Zeus. off the
wu's new album,
rza spends a whole three minutes
com pairing himself to God, Allah in the song "Sunlight". he relates god's creation of earth to his creation of
wu tang, of hip hop innovation. but in such masterful poetry. this is the perfect balance of rap attitude with
beatmaker poems.
Wu-Tang Clan - Sunlight
