the sun rises in the east? maybe only to true heads....

This last week, I found it somewhat necessary to relive the 90's, so I dusted off my copies of Jeru the Damaja's "The Sun Rises in the East" and De La Soul's "Buhloone Mindstate," at which I started to reminisce. Daydreaming about your youth is an ill advised thing since a) you feel as old as humanly possible and b) you realize that you've become your parents. I remember listening to "Enter the 36 Chambers" at a family reunion and my uncle made some snide remark to the effect of "Is that what they call music these days?" I can't really see any topical difference between "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Method Man" since they're both pretty much about getting fucked up.

The week was sparked by a conversation I had with Jathan from Respect Records. I was buying a Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz 12" and said "I can't believe I'm buying this. I remember hating this song [Deja Vu] when it came out."

"Yeah, I remember hating Redman back in the day, and now he's not so bad," he replied.

"I guess what was crap back when we were coming up is better than what's considered crap now."

And bam, I hit the mark.

Somewhere between the end of Rawkus Records and the rise of Atmosphere/Def Jux/Anticon, the quality of good hip-hop took a dive. I'm not suggesting that those labels or groups are crap, but the demand for weird rap music gave way to successes for overhyped artists such as M.I.A. and 50 Cent. While those two can be considered mainstream, I think that their rise happened faster because there's hardly any good hip-hop that has the kind of exposure or visibility that M.I.A. and Fiddy have had.

It wasn't too long ago for a group like Gravediggaz, Brand Nubian, Lords of the Underground, JT The Bigga Figga or Big L to have gone gold. Many of rap's yesteryear superstars relied heavily on regional fame. Hell, southern and Bay Area rappers still bank on that kind of credibility. But with the availibility and low costs of internet service, you'd think that a talent like South Carolina's Danny would go noticed. But I guess that's just not the case and, as a result, hip-hop fans are spoon fed watered-down, popularized crap like Fiddy, Kanye West and Gym Class Heroes. Thanks, but no thanks.