Some Wise Words from Grandmaster Flash

By SOHH Reckless on January 12, 2007 2:36 AM | 236 Comments

Grandmaster_Flash.jpg

Big-time journalist Davey D recently sat down and spoke with one of the greatest hip-hop icons of all time, Grandmaster Flash. There were quite a few angles taken throughout this interview, but what I found to be most important was this:

"What I've found appealing is the fact that Hip Hop can take from any other genre of music, recreate it, reform it, rearrange it and put poetry over the top of it. That's Hip Hop. That was a positive thing for it. Now, as for what I don't like [about hip-hop], I'll try to explain this real carefully. Me [Flash], Bambaataa and Kool Herc planted this seed. This seed was a seed to a tree. This tree had a massive trunk and this trunk had branches and leaves. The leaves symbolize different subject matter that we can speak on. If you think about the history of Hip Hop we've had artist who can talk about from socially significant ideas to something as cool as sneakers. There was a time when all these various subject matters were utilized. But what has happened, we as Hip Hoppers are not fully utilizing this tree. At this point in time, I just feel that this tree is leaning. By that I mean, I think we are putting too much weight on one side of the tree, when this particular genre of music allows us to talk about many things."
Davey D: Why do you think this has happened?
"I think the music business plays a big part. Let's say have two record company's which I'll call 'Company Left' and 'Company Right'. Let's say Company Left has an artist with a hit record. Company Right would rather come up with a record that sounds like Company Left as opposed to allowing the creative flow of the artist to come up with something just as comparable. If you think about my era to throughout the 80's, you had anybody from Eric B & Rakim who's subject matter was totally different from Chuck D, who's subject matter was totally different from LL's, who's subject matter was totally different from KRS-One. We were basically bombing the airwaves and the record companies could not figure out how and why. What has happened is that to some degree they have taken an attitude where they don't listen to demos of diverse subject matters. They're looking for demos like the record the guy on the left just did. Hip Hop has become real constrained. The creative juices and creative flows have been diminished."
Balance. That's what's missing. Or maybe we have it, and just aren't utilizing it. Too many people trying to do what everyone else is doing (Everyone from Fat Joe to Mims; even though "This is Why I'm Hot" is a nice club joint, the concept is annoying). Originality, various subject matter, different styles, different swag. Where is it?

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236 Comments

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