Features
Kurupt Drops Science
Loading ...D: I really like that. On a personal level, it strikes a chord with me. I always thought that was, I don’t wanna say corny, but when somebody totally switches up there style it doesn’t make sense to me. Alright maybe our current realities changed, but who we are is an influence of who we’ve been our entire lives and it’s a growing process. I like the fact that you can do grown man music and at same time be a father but not need to change your style. But at same time like you say as you’ve gotten older, oh I can broader my stuff stylistically what I do with my music. And I can say even as a fan listening to your stuff, you can just hear you evolve in ways all dope artist do. They evolve. They try something new and fresh, whether it be a different type sample of different type flow. You see how they evolve as an emcee. And just aesthetically I’ve particularly liked your style. And you know particularly sometimes west coast emcees had a reputation for not being as lyrical or whatnot, but whatever that’s all kind of arbitrary nonsense anyhow. But it has all changed and I also feel as though you were an influence in that. You were very lyrical.
That’s one of the things I added to the table when it comes to the West. West coast hip hop is a totally different thing now, understand me. Kurupt came to the table and added that east-west connection and nowadays you’ll hear lots of cats with the east-west up in em. The Game is a prime example and he’s a shining star. He’s both east coast and west coast and that’s a good thing cause hip hop is a mixture of all continents. It’s a mixture of all cities and races. It’s a mixture of everything. Hip hop is the ghetto. Hip hop is for the unheard of. Hip hop is for the heard of. Hip hop is a way of life. You can have a million dollars in your pocket and be the richest man on earth and still do hip hop. You don’t necessarily gotta rap for the person that has nothing. You can rap for the person that has it all. That’s what hip hop is for. Hip hop is for you regardless.
D: That’s dope. I like that. I like the idea that it doesn’t have to be exclusive. It’s just about everybody’s reality. And that’s one thing that I’ve always struggled with in Hip Hop; you know the notion of “realness” and “authenticity” within hip hop. It’s so important to be “real”. But obviously as corporate American has taken over the images of real they wanna project to us are often times the hyper-sexualized angry black male and the black female that is that typical Jezebel character, you know oversexed, and somehow this has become the formulaic “real”, whereas what you just touched upon is with reality, nobody’s reality’s the same. Your reality, my reality, we might share some aspects in our realities but there’s no way someone can try to model someone else’s style and actually be real to themselves. Like if you’re rich and that influences you, well then rhyme about that. You know don’t make up some past or whatnot. And I really like your take on the whole authenticity aspect of it.
Hip Hop is made for creation so its not always about where you’re from and what you’re doing at that time. A nigga can say he walked on the moon but does that mean its not good music? Hip hop is music. Its whatever you express. You know when people start putting on these labels like you gotta be real. Like if you in corporate America do you gotta rap about corporate America? No. Corporate America guy might wanna rap about walking on Jupiter. I mean that’s just what he wants to rap about. Hip Hop is about you, about whatever you feel. Now if you try to say you’ve been to the ghetto, and I been did this, and I been did that, and you lived it, but if that ain’t what you did, that’s where you get off track. But if you create it in your mind and say you been to the ghetto, that’s different then being creative and saying you walked on the moon. Because that’s where it starts to fall off at. Where the realness falls off from creativity. There’s a difference in hip hop, you know hip hop has no place where it just stays. You can be creative and you can be real, but don’t be something you’re not. You can say you’re walking the moon, we know that’s creative but you can’t say ‘oh I’ve been over there on Crenshaw’ and Slauson and you ain’t ever really been there. Now that’s a little different. That’s falsifying the facts. Because that’s real. You know you gotta pick a side. Either you gotta be real about it or say that’s fucked up. And that goes not only for not only your entire project or you as a person, but also for you on the record. You know on this record Ill be real about it and tell em who I am. On this record, here I am walking on the moon. On this record, I’m gonna talk about the things I want to happen. On this record, I’m gonna talk about the things that I had. The things that I want to have, I create. The things I have is real. It always goes between the creative and the real. Don’t be something that you’re not. That’s the real.
D: Yeah, that’s a great take on that, man. And its great too because like what you said, its when that creativity is meant to deceive. Like don’t say you’ve been on this block on Crenshaw when your doing that is a tool to try to seem real. And that’s why I thought the Ultramagnetic MC’s when they came out in the late 80s
(Kurupt rhymes classic Ultramagnetic MC’s lyrics off of Critical Beatdown)
D: (laughter) Right, Kool Keith rhymed about spaceships
I know every genre or game when it comes to real hip hop and when it comes to any other formula of hip hop. That’s why I love what the south is doing. That’s why I love what that the east is still pushing their line. I love what up north is bringing to the table. I love what the West Coast is bringing, and I’m a representative of the West Coast. Even though I’m from Philly, I spent the majority of my life on the West Coast. I’m 37 now, I’ll be 38 in November. I been here since 16 so I spent more time on the West than I did in the East. You understand me. One thing the East taught me is what Hip Hop is. Hip hop is whatever the fuck you want it to be, as long as you don’t be something that you’re not.
Nicholas Conway is an adjunct professor, teaching Hip Hop Music and Culture at Trinity College, Yale University And SUNY-Albany. He is currently authoring a textbook on Hip Hop and freelances for Deft magazine as well as Albany’s The Time Union, UndergroundHipHop.com and also serves as a guest lecturer on hip hop.
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