The 37th Chamber 05.01.10: Closing The Doors Once More

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 05.01.2010

For this final week, discussing why hip-hop should be more open to artists like Kid Cudi and B.o.B., justifying lists, fallout from the last two weeks and why hip-hop can be a good and bad thing for the fans

So yes, if you read the Herald on Thursday, you will know that this will be the last 37th Chamber for a while. As much as I like to joke about doing nothing and putting less effort into looking for a job than I should, it's now actually time to look for one. Real life has a tendency to pop up from time to time unfortunately and until I sort my schedule properly, consider the column on a temporary hiatus until further notice.

That's the main reason anyway, the other reason is that I just don't feel as passionate about hip-hop as I used to. I have also talked about this in the past and it's about time that I have one of my breaks from the genre however the circumstances are slightly different this time. Each time I've previously had a problem, there has always been a release or two that I will still listen to and will go out of my way to get my hands on it. That hasn't happened this time around.



I think that the last hip-hop album I listened to in full was Ghost's Wizard Of Poetry album! Since then there's been the new Canibus album, Little Brother's album, The Wu Massacre album, B.o.B.'s album, Statik Selektah's 100 Proof and more that I usually would have jumped at the chance to check out. Currently, they either sit in my CD tower in the ‘New CDs' pile, some of them still shrink-wrapped or I haven't even gotten myself a copy yet.

As I mentioned a few months back, one of the reasons I feel disenchanted with it is that it's currently plagued by so many artists who are living lives with Peter Pan complexes (not wanting to grow up). Now most of you should know my listening preferences by now and you'll know that when I make statements like this, I am well aware that there are many, many artists out there on the grind, doing their own thing and making QUALITY music. That still doesn't cover up for the fact that the majority of hip-hop we hear, whether it be on the internet or radio falls under the aforementioned problem. I said that I wanted the genre to grow with me but it's hard to ask that when more and more rappers who were previously doing quality work now appear to be falling into a line like sheep.

Gone are the days where artists were becoming PIONEERS and steering hip-hop into new directions. We still have some artists around like Kid Cudi and from what I'm hearing, B.o.B. (based on his new album) that are trying to bring some diversity to the game but for some reason, so many people seem to get it stuck in their heads that they AREN'T HIP-HOP!



Hip-hop to me has always been a genre about freedom of speech, finding ways to express emotions and telling stories. So if an artist suddenly begins dabbling with production that is a bit pop or dance or switches up their flow to include some singing, the masses seem to decry them as not being hip-hop. Case in point, check out reviews around the net for Kid Cudi's album and B.o.B.'s album. I can guarantee that on most of the reviews you read, there will be some person commenting:

"This is NOT a hip-hop album"

What about 50 Cent? The dude is famous for SINGING HOOKS (and getting shot some number of times, I forget). Big Pun in his day sang a bit. Ol' Dirty Bastard sung a LOT and was hilariously bad at times, but singing none the less. Now if you're singing on an entire album, I suppose then yes, it's not necessarily hip-hop but more likely a R&B album but with so many R&B artists getting hip-hop acts on their albums, and some of them even turning to rapping, the line between the two has become so blurred at times it's impossible to totally define a contemporary R&B album from most artists.

Again, I make generalizing statements but I do acknowledge the fact that there are many TRUE R&B artists out there still making quality music without having to rely on the latest flavor of the month rapper to spice up their track a bit.



So coming back to Cudi and B.o.B., whilst I haven't heard the latter's album, I have heard Cudi's and praised it for being different, creative and a change of pace in a genre which is currently stuck in a loop. And for that, people said I was crazy and that Cudi wasn't hip-hop so I shouldn't treat it as such. Well what is it then? I don't believe Cudi is pop music as I always find his CD in the hip-hop/R&B sections of CD stores. Is he R&B? Well, "Day N Nite" is mostly rapped, as is (going off the top of my head here) "Heart Of A Lion", "Make Her Say" and "Up Up & Away". Of course the others all feature rapping at some point but I can't remember the extent of them having not listened to the album for a while. So when people say he isn't hip-hop, what exactly is he?

And that brings me to another point, mainly charged by the previous two columns. Trying to talk to the average hip-hop fan is like trying to talk to a dead fish. Now if you read the last two columns, and by ‘read' I mean actually READ THE WHOLE THING, you don't fall into this category. Regular readers, who know who they are, also don't fall into this category. No, it's the people who don't actually listen or read anything and seem to think that hip-hop is meant to have a bunch of strict guidelines and boundaries by which artists should record tracks and their rankings on lists.

I'm not going to address the Comments individually as there were far too many that went along the lines of "Lil Wayne at Number 1? FAIL hahahaha" which speaks for itself but I will address a couple of points raised. Please note I currently cannot get to 411mania as of writing this as my Internet has been cut off presumably from going over the download limit although I can't tell for sure because I can't actually get to the site which tracks it.



First off, anybody who didn't realize that Lil Wayne wasn't the real Number 1, shame on you. I mentioned it at LEAST 3 times that he was going to be a TROLL ENTRY because I was interested to see if anybody actually read the damn things. Someone pointed out that the entire column was essentially dedicated to their stupidity and I can safely say that they proved the point perfectly. Also, the real Number 1 as a few people guessed correctly, was Common.

Now from memory, someone also said something along the lines of that I was getting offended by people criticizing my opinion and I should grow some balls and write on Xanga or something. Well I don't get offended by people criticizing my opinion, I get pissed off by the fact that people DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY WERE CRITICIZING! Seriously, if you ask someone "What are your five favorite names for a girl?" and they list, in order, say, Emma, Angela, Kimberly, Rachel and Joanne, how exactly does saying "Emma above Kimberly? FAIL" make ANY sense at all?

Now apply that to the columns from the last two weeks. They were lists of my FAVORITE rappers. I'd get a definition of the word FAVORITE from the internet, but it's still dead. Now if someone has a FAVORITE movie, is it in anyway fair to say "Your favorite movie is The Godfather? What a joke!" If someone has a FAVORITE artist, is it really fair to say "Gucci Mane is your favorite artist? FAIL". No it's not. THAT is what I was getting pissed off about – the fact that people seemed to think the lists were the Greatest Of All Time Dead rappers and Living rappers. No, they were my FAVORITE dead rappers and FAVORITE living rappers. The same person from memory also said I should defend my choices intellectually, well you know those paragraphs that appeared below each rappers Name, Number and Picture? Funnily enough, those words there weren't the recipe for a delicious apple pie, but the REASONS FOR MY CHOICE.

Personally, I think Greatest Of All Time lists, whether it be actors, hip-hop artists, albums, movies, books, NASCAR drivers or wrestlers, whatever are ultimately horrible things to write and get feedback on because rarely will anyone agree with you totally. Rather than present their own choices and use logical reasoning to defend their choices like you have done with your list, they instead take to the internet's favorite trend of the last decade and scream FAIL or EPIC FAIL and look like morons in doing so. I hate G.O.A.T. lists, so I decided to do Favorite lists so that other people could post THEIR favorite lists and people could discuss them. Hey, you might even discover a new artist!


Obligatory 2Pac picture

I take it though that some people don't even read the names on the list properly as one clown wrote that I did a good job trying to find credibility by including 2Pac, Eazy-E and Ice-T. I honestly have no idea where to start with this because a) The list was for LIVING PEOPLE and two of those guys are DEAD and b) I never once mentioned Ice-T. I like Ice-T yes, but he's not one of my favorite rappers so why would I mention him then? I have a feeling that guy, JP I remember, simply looked at "all them purrty pictures" and didn't bother reading ANYTHING to do with the column. Then called me a kid which is funny because I think most kids can actually read a list of 5 names properly.

Look, I know that people are busy these days. Hell, I am going to be busy over the next few weeks, hence me putting the column on hiatus for a while. I also skim read things. Skim reading is one of the easiest ways to determine whether or not to ACTUALLY read the whole thing but when you manage to skim past the title of the list which clearly had my name, and ‘favorites' and ‘alive' written in it, something is clearly wrong. I KNEW that putting Lil Wayne in Number 1 would cause a stir and oh man, it was awesome. Hell I could have gone with any rapper in that position such as Gucci Inexplicably Popular Mane or Soulja Boy and gotten just as good or better response, but I chose Wayne because I DO actually like some of his music as I have stated many, many times in the past and will not re-justify here and also because it seems that anything to do with Lil Wayne automatically gets skim read.

Jump onto another website like HipHopDX or Allhiphop and look up any Lil Wayne article. Regardless of what the article is actually about, you'll have a lot of people claiming he's the best rapper alive and a lot of people screaming FAIL or variations of.

Hip-hop is a genre, no an ART that revolves around words. Why else would we talk about being LYRICAL or the use of metaphors or similes in reviews? Words are a way to express yourself whether it be over political injustices (Ice Cube, Public Enemy), the loss of a friend (MURS on 3:16…can't remember which track exactly) or having a good time (virtually any Ludacris lead single). Words are IMPORTANT to hip-hop, so why is it that most fans seem unable to READ the most basic of news pieces, lists or reviews?

Again, this isn't everyone. I am sure that ALL of my readers know the kind of people I am talking about, and let's put it this way, if you KNOW the kind of person I'm talking about, chances are that you AREN'T one of them – you've done good.

I solely blame the influx of terrible, terrible artists for producing terrible fans. Some people might say that there is ‘no such thing' as a ‘bad fan'. I disagree because in ANY medium that has fans, there will be bad fans. Any sport in the world would be a prime example. Consider the fan that turns up to football games, gets drunk off their ass within the first 20 minutes of the game, throws up everywhere and is escorted out by the police. Great way to show your passion by missing the game!

Now it might sound like I am belittling fans of certain artists. I am in no way trying to do so but I can certainly see how it would sound like that. I'll say this, if your favorite rapper of all time was Soulja Boy, I would have absolutely no problem with that SO LONG AS a) You can give a reason WHY (because everyone should be able to give at least a rudimentary reason as to WHY someone is their favorite) and b) You don't criticize other people's lists and be ignorant in doing so. I've got no problems with people who like certain artists and if you CAN give reasons as to why that person is your favorite artist, you have already pulled yourself out of the ‘bad fan' region.


The man behind the "Sales equate greatness" argument who now ironically has trouble selling albums

The ‘bad fans' of hip-hop are the ones that go around spouting crap like "old rappers should go away" or "XYZ sucks" etc. The ones that don't seem to realize that hip-hop was based on words and expressing yourself and that as a genre with such a colorful history, history should at least be ACKNOWLEDGED as a bare minimum as opposed to writing it off totally. Also, a ‘bad fan' is someone who constantly uses SALES as a way of defending their position or criticizing another's opinion. SALES DON'T MEAN SHIT when it comes to determining an artist's worth because there are heaps of artists who sell loads of singles and albums, but are immediately forgotten soon after and there are lots of artists who sell a decent amount of albums and singles, but are considered to be true talents of the game. Alternatively there are some artists who DO sell big and ARE talents in the game and there are those that barely crack 10,000 copies of their album being sold, and rightfully so.

If an artist can sell, great. If they can't, well it sucks for them because music is their CAREER and nobody wants to start a career where they don't earn any money, but you know what, if the artist is enjoying what they are doing, then that is excellent. If an artist is looking to further their craft by expanding their horizons and thinking outside the box, great. If an artist makes the same damn album each time around and puts no effort into trying to make themselves a better and quite possibly, a more POPULAR artist, why should we care? Artists who are constantly striving to better themselves or have fun are usually the ones we care about when things are all said and done.

I'm going to signoff now for the last time and provide for those who can't be bothered reading all these words with a summary of the column.

- READ things, you might learn something and avoid making a complete and utter fool of yourself
- UNDERSTAND the context in which something is being presented
- APPRECIATE other's opinions
- Be prepared to DEFEND your own opinions
- DEFEND your own opinions using arguments other than sales
- DON'T criticize others for who they like or don't like
- AVOID skim reading if you intend on commenting
- If you're offended, chances are I'm sorry, but possibly not
- For anyone who reads the entirety of these columns or even if you skim read the last two weeks but didn't make an ass of yourself by doing something ignorant, you guys are great, you're the best readers on the site and I'm truly sad to be shutting the 37th Chamber down again

With that the doors of The Chamber close once more, and I'm out.