Me and my fam roll tight like The Firm...really?

David Ruffin really knew how to get to the core of bad emotions. I’m sitting here listening to the classic “So Soon We Change” and the mailperson (Kam is politically correct in '06) finally delivered my copy of the new XXL. The magazine took an in-depth look into the making of Reasonable Doubt, so how ironic is it that I’m looking at a Jay-Z cover story while listening to a song about a seemingly unbreakable bond suddenly falling apart?

When Jay dropped his smash debut in ’96, he brought a more believable flair to the New York “jiggy” era. The future King of New York formed a royal triumvirate with the flashy Dame Dash and silent killer Biggs that seemed like it would one day conquer the world. Eight consecutive platinum albums – six of them multi-platinum – later, it’s obvious that they did. But you know how the story goes. Royalty can only reign for so long before trouble arrives, and the Roc Dynasty collapsed just like every empire before it. There’s a reason people say kings must die; it’s an inevitable truth.

But still, I must ask why? Rome kept the party going for a millennia and a half. The Greeks, Ancient Egyptians, Colonial European powers – they all had centuries of rulership. How come Roc-A-Fella Records couldn’t even make it to the 10 year anniversary of Reasonable Doubt? We’ve been bombarded with theories and bullshit reasons to explain the split, but none have ever pleased my curiosity. Magazines have tried to analyze the situation, but even after hearing both sides of the story, I’m still left being unsatisfied with the conclusion. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan wrote the script for this Roc-A-Fella saga. And if you pay attention to headlines, whatever created the riff between Jay-Z and Dame/Biggs probably isn’t exclusive to their situation. There’s plenty of dissension going on in hip-hop. But this isn’t a hip-hop thing. David Ruffin was bucking heads with Otis Williams and the rest of the Temptations long before Kool Herc was scratching records in the Bronx. Hey, maybe it’s a black thing. No, wait; Van Halen and a long list of other white rock bands will confirm that’s not the answer either.

There are a lot of suspects in the deaths of the Roc and musical civility, but the assailant I’d put my Clue prowess on is conceit. All of the aforementioned empires collapsed because egos and alpha-male struggles prevented any chance of cooperation. Alexander the Great conquered the known world and his death caused mayhem when his generals fought each other for power. The Roc Familia conquered the music industry and couldn’t keep things together after The Black Album was released. What an unfortunate similarity. My guess is that a clash of egos killed the Roc, which is probably just as good as any other explanation since nobody wants to come clean about the end of the Jay/Dame/Biggs union. Even in their separate interviews for XXL, neither shed light on the situation. Dame even plainly states he doesn’t know why they couldn’t stay strong in his “Talking That Talk” feature.

I don’t even think I can listen to the shit [Reasonable Doubt] right now because I think things went so far the other way. At that time, what transpired now, we would’ve bet billions that it could have never happened. Back then, like, if we were to say, “Yo, in 10 years, Jay’s gonna do this and take the name, and he’s gonna be a part of Def Jam you guys, you know…” Like that would have never crossed our minds… It was all about friendship back then. I don’t know where that went.

The mystery shall continue, but I am grateful that I gained a lot of insight into a classic album. I just wish that I could have focused more on that instead of trying to figure out why the people who gave me Reasonable Doubt grew apart. And on a wider scale I’m trying to figure out why that seems to happen so often. Our generation – possibly more so than the ones before us – is so prone to bickering and narcissism that we can never sustain the greatness we build. We don’t suppress our egos; we flaunt and inflate them to the point that our heads are as big as Jason Kidd’s son. We turn our friends to foes so easily and just accept it as politics as usual.

As we appreciate the coming of age story that is Reasonable Doubt, we should try to at least succeed where d’evils caused its creators to fail – stay loyal to one another. Even though they couldn’t remain united, three young black men rose from nothing and conquered the world. You can’t knock the hustle of that.

Random Thoughts for June 25

The Real Joey Crack is reppin' for Jersey
Joe Budden is lobbying very hard to replace Nas as my new favorite MC. Obviously I’m not saying Budden is as talented as Esco or anywhere close to matching the legacy that Nas has built. But as far as the music currently being released, the man also known as Jerz is coming very close to topping my list of active MC’s. I got off the late train and finally listened to his Mood Muzik 2 mixtape and was cautiously impressed. That came after listening to the Clinton Sparks remix of “Whatever It Takes” where he just dumbs out for six minutes about his stress, child's mother and life in general. But the latest thing to get Joey on my radar was his bootleg remix of Gnarls Barkley’s hit “Crazy” that I downloaded. Every time I hear him, I get the urge to call timeout, but it’ll cost the game (listen to the track and you’ll get it). Of course, Joe Budden becoming rated the Top MC in my book is a conditional title that will not be fully applied until I hear Nas release Hip-Hop Is Dead… The N Word.

Sorry Mr. O’Reilly, but I’m with France on this one
Forget this whole Cristal/Jay-Z debate. The real racism concerning France is occuring in soccer. Spanish head coach Luis Aragones called French striker Thierry Henry a “black shit” last year and now the two teams are set to face each other in the second round of the World Cup. I didn’t really need another reason to hate the Spanish side, but Aragones gave me one. So it goes without saying that I’m cheering for France when they meet on Tuesday. How funny is it that I labeled France as G-Unit and Spain as Jadakiss in my If Soccer Teams Were Rappers post? Hopefully life will imitate art and los ninas de Espana will get shut down.

New York, New York, the big city of nightmares
It’s a good thing that Busta Rhymes is happy to be on his New York shit, because times are rough if you’re a fan of New York sports. Michael Strahan is being accused by his wife of saying “Yes Homo” with the doctor from Celebrity Fit Club, the Jets still don’t have a real quarterback, the Knicks just fired one bad coach in favor of another and the Damn Yanks are in second place. Yeah, I know the last one is supposed to be a good thing, but I don’t really care about baseball anymore and when I did, the Yankees were a team I never really liked. At least the Mets are leading the division, but it’s way too early for any of that to matter.

But going back to the Knicks debacle, can you imagine how difficult it is to be a Knicks fan living in Miami? Some of the fairweather supporters disgust me. I know people who can't even name anyone of the Heat roster besides D-Wade and Shaq, but they call themselves fans. And the next day, everybody’s wearing Caron Butler, Glen Rice, Steve Smith or jerseys from other players no longer on the team.

I just want the pain to stop. Isiah, please admit that you're inept and walk away. Leave now so we can get a new leader who isn’t so Layden-esque.

KamWatch: DJ Irie Interview

Whoa! Sorry for the lack of updates, but the World Cup is kicking my ass. Getting up early (9AM is early in the summer time) to watch the games and going to bed at 2 or 3 every night is killing me, but I'm surviving. The games are great. But I promise, there are more things to come in the very near future. For now, here's a new interview with DJ Irie, official DJ for the Miami Heat. They're about to win the NBA tonight, so read up on him as Miami prepares to make history. Click here to read the DJ Irie feature.

Bonus: While we're on the topic of Miami, I advise you to visit Jin's MySpace and listen to a couple of his new tracks.

KamWatch: DJ Khaled Interview

The top feels so much better than the bottom! Ya boy got the frontpage of AllHipHop.com today. The interview I conducted with DJ Khaled is up, so staying up late while my friends went out was apparently worth it. Khaled was a short interview, but it was fun. He was extremely excited about his album and responded to every question by reminding me of the release date. It's kind of funny that I used to listen to his radio show in high-school back when he was still the Arab Attack and now he's this world-famous DJ about to come out with a new album. Shout out to DJ Papa Smirf for helping me get this interview. Here's an sample of what Khaled had to say:

AllHipHop.com: Terror Squad and G-Unit have had words in the past, as well. Could the two camps squash their beef and have a similar peace?
DJ Khaled: I mean, the Terror Squad and G-Unit stuff, I don’t know if that could ever be fixed. For me speaking as a Terror Squad member, they’re not even on our radar. We’re making good music and we’re for the people. We’re the streets. Terror Squad is created by the streets, for the streets, and we’re going to keep reppin’ the streets. I’m not here to talk bad about anybody, but they’re not even our radar.

Read the rest of the interview by clicking here.

T.R.O.Y. (Yo! MTV Raps)

A friend called me late last night and invited me to go out with him (pause) to Metropolis, but I had to finish this DJ Khaled interview I should have had done four days ago. After catching a light case of writer’s block later that evening, I decided to take a short break and free up my thought process, so I turned on the TV to see what entertainment I could find at 2 am. VH1 was showing a pop-culture commentary show – gasp – and all of a sudden, a behind the scenes look at Yo! MTV Raps came on. At that point, it was safe to say that the Khaled would have to wait until Saturday, because the only thing I was in the mood to listennn to was the sound of a nice trip down memory lane.

VH1 Goes Inside: Yo! MTV Raps is an old broadcast, but last night was the first time that I sat and watched the entire show. The documentary featured great commentary and insight from Fab 5 Freddy, Ed Lover and Doctor Dre, but what I really loved was how people behind the scenes chimed in. Producers and cameramen spoke about how they tried to restrain 2Pac from using the show as the “Get Indicted Hour” by admitting that he assaulted the Hughes Brothers. During the episode that Fab 5 Freddy rolled through Compton with N.W.A., the reason the truck never stopped was because everyone was scared as hell. But the best nugget was when Leaders of the New School practically broke-up on air. Charlie Brown was acting awkward as hell and talking shit, which led to Busta and the other members having a group meeting they requested not be filmed. The group officially announced their separation days later.

Then I started thinking, where is the Yo! MTV Raps of this generation? How come I can’t turn on the TV and see a video show that provides a look into an MC’s world that magazines and music can’t give me? What happened to Joe Clair freestyle sessions and funny sit-downs with recording artists? It used to be easy to see videos without having hosts who were ridiculously hyper or excruciatingly lame; it’s damn near impossible to find that now. There are no entertaining segments between videos or on-location interviews. There are only Midtown Manhattan studios and soft, bubble-gum interviews that would make Billy Bush seem like Mike Wallace. The Ed Lover Dance was something corny but endearing; shows today are just plain corny. Forgive me for temporarily being another “I miss the mid-90's” whiney bastard, but it's true. The music video shows today are just plain terrible. Shit, they’re practically not even music video shows because in the hour-and-a-half that they broadcast, there are only 20 30 minutes of actually videos shown.

If you’re over the age of 20, I’m preaching to the choir, but the video shows on today just plain suck. My childhood and enculturation into hip-hop just wouldn’t have been the same without Rap City or Yo! MTV Raps. They were entertaining when I strolled across them and a godsend when the elders wouldn’t let my cousins, brothers, and me outside. The only thing kids these days have are 106th and Park and the shell that once was Rap City. It’s a sad state of affairs, but instead of continuing with this depressing comparison of times, I’m going to play the bitter old-man role and get nostalgic. I want all of my former youngbucks to grab a bottle of cognac and reminisce with me.

Final Episode of Yo! MTV Raps Cipher
Featuring: Rakim, KRS-One, Eric Sermon, Chubb Rock, MC Serch


Final Episode of Yo! MTV Raps Cipher Pt. II
Redman, Method Man, Large Professor, Special Ed, Craig Mack


Bonus: Doctor Dre and Ed Lover – “Back Up Off Me”