Does Size Matter?

                  Now this is something most people are familiar with. Hard drive space…what, didn’t see that coming huh? More so does the size of your music collection take away from how much you support musical artists? I’ll admit I have a lot of music. What I call my “crate,” to those hip hop heads, full of promotional music. Yet I do support these artists as well. My question really is does the space on your hard drive used to download those cd’s mixtapes and singles take away from how much work you support these artists? All those zip files add up. All that hard work that it took to put that album out. With one click, it’s now yours. Why is the music industry so vested in this topic? Some may say, “If I download this cd, it won’t matter a million others will buy it. Everything will be okay.” See that flaw in that logic, a) if a thousand people think that way, that’s a lot of money gone for everyone. Some artists will change their music entirely because of this. B) If you’re hard work keeps getting taken why would you keep putting music out.

               The music industry continues to fight back but the Zshares and Utorrents keep winning. My question to you is how do you justify downloading music?

The 2013 Future Thoughts....

It’s a new year. And you know what that means…a lot of resolutions that are going to be broken within the next 30 days. (Let’s be honest here we all know that one person who says they are going to work out, live better, budget better are going to be at the bar, drinking beer eating double fried wings) What we do want to talk about though is what we hope will happen in the year. That’s what this post is about what I’m hoping gets resolved about hip hop culture in the year 2013…

Can we see more diversity in the subject matter of the songs we hear?

We all hear the same thing out of most of the music we listen to. The grind of working in the streets till the late night hours, on the corner whippin work. Or how your life now is so lavish that you have to want more cars than the dealer ship or more girls then a playboy issue. I want to see the diversity between artists, venture out and showcase those skills you talk about having. I want to hear about your life growing up with your family. Biggie did it in “Juicy,” yes he mentioned what he did to make money but his main focus was showing how he went from rags to riches. Lyrical diversity is something that has always been something I favored for all artists.

Probability: 55%

Will this be the year of the emcee of the female kind?

Remember all those years back in the 90’s and first part of the 2000’s when female emcees were popping up everywhere and at least doing a semi decent album of sorts or coming out with something so classic that it stays in heavy rotation? I’m talking Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, Ms. Jade, Rah Digga, Queen Pen, and Charlie Baltimore to name just a few. They came out with songs, on everybody’s remix. When their mixtape or cd’s were released they were must have they were up there with their male counterparts as far as being lyricist. Now we are in a day and age where that doesn’t happen. A female emcee often has to be over sexualized and give us bubblegum lyrics. I want a female emcee to show how she can hold her own with some of the major musical contributors in the hip hop world without going pop or completely changing her image.

Probability: 40%

Hip hop and Homosexuality…when will we all get along?

This is my going out on the furthest limb. We all know that this has been the biggest debate amongst all who are involved. One side is saying that they will never fully be okay with allowing an artist who is gay by any means fully into the realm of hip hop. The other side is trying to show that even though they are same gender loving, they can be just as lyrical and important to the culture as a whole. Yes I know this whole Frank Ocean came out and said he was bi…isn’t that what you’re wanting? Yeah, but let’s look on the grander scale. He had Jay-Z and Kanye West back him up. Let me see Big Dipper or Deadlee come through put out an album and become just as buzzed and accepted. That’s what I want to see, let’s see how open hip hop is. Last I checked hip hop was the minority being talked about and decimated on. Now that the upswing has happened, the discriminated have become part of the discriminators. Where is that lyrical unity I have heard so much about on many songs? If you can talk about all of your side chicks, why can’t someone talk about his side dudes or side chicks from the female perspective? (Even though that lesbian rapper, gay rapper double standard is another topic) Let’s see hip hop expand its ears.

Probability: Realistically….10%

Those are some of my thoughts towards hip hop in the year 2013 hopefully some of them actually come true and growth for the year happens.

The Osiris of this

Its crazy to know that I have been around for so many hip hop moments. The life span of some artists. Their passing and just moments in the hip hop culture that I would not have thought I would see in person. One of which is the passing of one of the major members of Wu-Tang Clan. The man who had more trouble then you could think of. Big Baby Jesus, Dirt McGirt the guy who wanted his money back. The O.D.B as you can see aka Old Dirty.

Can't believe that eight years ago that he passed. I think this was during the period when I was getting really into my hip hop. All of the styles and just revisiting classic albums and artists. Which would include one of the most diverse groups in my opinion...Wu-Tang. You had a crew of friends who melded hip hop lyricism and Kung Fu. Two things that are always a good mix. (Kung Faux for example) You had all these members and then you get to O.D.B. He seemed to be the crazy persona that every group has. He brought rugged gutter style with the ability to give you some crazy flows. He was a versatile artist, he was on hip hop, rnb, anything where he would talk crazy on. That was his appeal, he was able to be so out there that you knew that once he was on a song he was going to give you some gold. Just think back to when O.D.B and Moriah Cary got together for the remix of Fantasy. You know that there was a lot of doubt about this collaboration. Yet it goes down as one of both of their most memorable songs. Its just that spark of energy that he brings to the track.

He was just that kind of artist he may have been someone of a 'Hip Hop Folk Star," but he was someone that everyone could identify with. He may have had his legal troubles and did his fair share of dirt. In this day who hasn't, he just showed even you can go through trials on your everyday and still make it. He would have been 44 years old on the 13th. Rest in Peace to the Dirt Dog, Dirt McGirt, O.D.B., Ason Unique, Osirus, Dirt McGirt, Rainman, Big Baby Jesus.

Voting for the Right Reasons

Its that time again, everyone its voting time. (Yes I know I'm just now writing about politics. I'm not big on politics) No, I'm not going to say vote this or vote that. Vote for who you think is the best representation of your political stances. If you don't know what or who to vote for. Take some time before you enter the poles on Tuesday and make some educated decisions. Don't just vote for horrible reasons which I know some will unfortunately do. Some will vote based on skin color. Others will vote based on which celebrities are endorsing. Its sad that as a country, we are getting to this point where this is an acceptable way to vote. Don't be bullied into voting either. Vote for the right reasons for who you want. Do not let people assume who you are voting for, I've had multiple conversations where it all circled around, “well we all know who YOU are voting for.” The thing is you don't know who I am voting for or what I think is important for this country. Don't let these type of thoughts corner you into thinking that your voice, your vote does not count. Just know that it does.

In Retrospect

As any other day on my daily commute to work, I realized that I left my radio faceplate at home. Which is one thing I depend on as I drive; daily traffic reports, music to get me energized and the witty banter of the on air personalities. I haven’t done a quite drive like that in a long time. In reality it was actually something much needed, my mind just wondered thinking of any and everything thing that it could. My health was and is always on my mind as of late. Started reciting old rhymes that were recorded a while ago during the golden age of my hip hop life. Those thoughts lead me to one of the things I’ve never really thought about today. That one day I will no longer be known as “Crispy.” That eventually that will no longer be my nickname. No one will refer to me as that, it will just be Chris. This thought actually got to me. I didn’t know where to go from there. What will my legacy be? All the contributions and hard work…who will remember them or me? I can honestly say that this one of the thoughts that singlehandedly changed my whole mind state for the day.



Thoughts like this actually force you to put your entire life in to a different perspective. A perspective that you probably tried to push out of your head till you were older. Just think, eventually what you do now, will ultimately have others look at your life and conclude what kind of person you are.

Music Labels the new NBA

Music labels are just like NBA teams. They want to comprise a super team to combat their competitors. Some of these new labels are expansion teams like the Toronto Raptors were back in the 90’s. They try to start out fresh with talent to compete with the major labels. Look at the Sony Music Entertainments, Warner Music Group’s or Universal Music Group. They are the big three of music labels. They are figuratively your NBA teams that always make it to the playoffs. The ones you have no doubt will do well. You’re Lakers, Spurs and now your Heat. They try to produce super teams enticing other players (artists) to come along with them to maximize both parties’ profits and make them the most winning label. I treat those big three like your owners. With each owner each team has their set rosters. G.O.O.D. music is like the label to be at the moment. They have comprised a slew (yeah we doing words like that today) of artists who could be your NBA super team. Lets look into the artists on the roster; Kanye West, Big Sean, Common, Pusha T, 2 Chainz, John Legend. This is a record labels dream team, full of players who can contribute on a consistent basis. They fall into the team of Def Jam its just one big chain of command. It all leads to knowing the top three labels are running the music industry. It’s almost as if you have to be apart of a bigger team to try to make something for yourself as a player in this musical game.


Yet the bigger question I pose to you is what that means for the smaller labels (teams). Does that mean that they either have to fold or should they try to make it and let what ever happens happen for their musical career?

Mood Music

We all have a song or album in its entirety that once we hit that play button, the entire mood of your day changes. From a dull pain of the boring work day to the over stressed and over worked business day. All it takes is just one song, one album, one punch line to some that can jump start your mind. I can personally say there are lots of songs that all it takes is that beat drop to get things started. Think about it… remember when “Knuck if you Buck”, came out. Think about how much energy you felt run through your body as soon as the beat came on. No matter what you were doing that song came on and you knew it was going to get crunk. You could be driving your car down the freeway; beat drops it all goes out the window with your previously calm demeanor. You are now shaking your imaginary dreads in the air probably doing about 70 speeding for no reason. Just because you felt that song take you back to 2005 and the moment when you first heard the song. It’s not always about the hard energy songs either. Sometimes a song can take you in the totally opposite direction. Look at Drake, (yes I am about to get some people in their feelings) Marvin’s room is something we all can relate to. That drunken phone call you know you shouldn’t make, yet you are still calling that guy/ girl up just to try to change and convince them that you still have feelings. Nine out of ten times, you are going to not get energy off of this song. Yet, you will sing this song loud in your home thinking about the last time you drunk dialed someone and how you were all in your feelings. Even at the workplace, you can have your Pandora on full blast at your desk and soon as Drake lets that first tear filled note across those speakers you are going to start into your last phone call. We all have done it, singing that course as if your life depended on that last note to hit correctly.

That’s the main thing; music especially hip hop is a gateway into ones emotions. You can feel mind swaying trying to decipher what your next emotion moving song is going to be. You even set yourself up for your feelings. Take a moment and look at your playlist titles. I bet there are few of the playlist based off of an artist and more of the playlist when you are in your feelings. Mood playlists consisting of, “Monday commute” which we all know isn’t always the best time of the day.