Elite MCs are great if you like rap but no one can deny a DJ needle dropping and spinning around while staying on beat is a Master Artisan. A Graf writer who can bomb an entire car geurilla style evading guards and sh't. Breaking "speaks" for itself.
When I was young every single lil n'gga I knew was singing, djing, breaking, rhyming, bombing. N'ggas rap and make beats nowadays but beat making is almost plug and play. No musical talent required. No technical expertise in engineering. Old school rappers read rhyming dictionaries and encyclopedias and sh't. Now n'ggas have all information at their fingertips and refuse to even peek at something educational.
If we woulda kept up training on the level that we started out at and passed the elements down to generations - there are Hip Hop great grandkids you know - we migt be on some Shaolin Monk sh't by now. I know people are still practicing the Elements at elite levels but it used to be ubiquitous throughout the hood. Before the hood was the hood (at least in my hood).
I feel as if we dropped the ball somehow by letting it go.. yo..
When I was young every single lil n'gga I knew was singing, djing, breaking, rhyming, bombing. N'ggas rap and make beats nowadays but beat making is almost plug and play. No musical talent required. No technical expertise in engineering. Old school rappers read rhyming dictionaries and encyclopedias and sh't. Now n'ggas have all information at their fingertips and refuse to even peek at something educational.
If we woulda kept up training on the level that we started out at and passed the elements down to generations - there are Hip Hop great grandkids you know - we migt be on some Shaolin Monk sh't by now. I know people are still practicing the Elements at elite levels but it used to be ubiquitous throughout the hood. Before the hood was the hood (at least in my hood).
I feel as if we dropped the ball somehow by letting it go.. yo..