Now a days, it doesn’t take too much for people to become known as rappers. All you need now is a computer and some decent recording equipment. Even though a lot of people sh*t on the advancement of this time period in music, which I like to call the Computer Age, it has bred some talented and creative artists. Due to the internets and blogs, everybody and anybody with a voice can put something up. Thank the Lord for filtering by the blog owners or else my hard drive would start looking like Circuit City back in its hey day.
Logistically, in order for an artist to be known and somewhat relevant by the time they’re legally able to drink, they would have had to have started making a presence for themselves since high school. Usually it starts out with local stuff then building your way up with bigger and better beats/music. Due to the not-so-recent downfall in record sales since the new millenium, people are making music for the pure love of it. In order for people to make money off their passion, they’re going to have to be extremely talented and blessed. So with all of that, there are obviously some ups and downs but since we’ve been living through it for a couple years, we’re obviously starting to see the benefits in it.
Either way, back to high school. Since music is no longer anybody occupation, up and coming artists have to focus on their other lives. You know, the one where people have to work and go to school and things of that nature. In other words, music is just a possibly lucrative hobby. So with that, most artists tend to pursue their dream, while they continue into the world of higher learning aka college. This is also a good thing because you’re getting a lot more socially aware and intelligent music being made now. Kudos!!
Needless to say, 98% of the rap world is still made up of African-American men. Without the addition of rapping or having a whole nother life to attend to (ie – online promo, fans, interviews), college is a culture shock for most Black men. Not to be too general but no matter what type of educational background, you’ve come from, college is tough. Classes expect way more from you. The social life is inevitable. The groupies are great. It’s kind of like being on tour for 9 months out of the year. Added to all of that, you still have to keep writing, recording, and making things seem to the average world that nothing’s changed. It’s definitely a challenge, to say the least, and it definitely breaks down the weak, while still separating the strong willed from the dreamers.
But that brings up the question, do artists with college educations get looked down upon? Or is that still an idea of the 90’s era? Because in the past, the first argument against educated artists would be something along the lines of ‘they’re not real enough’ and things of that nature. Needless to say, going to college does not make you any less hood than the man next to you but it shows that you can handle yourself as a gentle man in a world that is run by those same people that you’d attend classes with.
The reason why I bring this up, is because there are artists who have actually graduated from some of the countries greatest schools and still get no love within the industry. The best example for this would be Kidz in the Hall. They graduated from UPenn and their manager is a friend of theirs (shout out to Dan Solomito). Their beats are crazy. Their content is great. They were even the first artists to have a record that was personally selected by Barack Obama for his election campaign. Yet they still get no love. Most blogs don’t even mention them in the same sentence as the Charles Hamiltons and Mickey Factz.
Peronally, I feel like you should have respect for anybody that has ever graduated college because not only is this an academic challenge but an emotional one. These people get to you after a while and staying sane is hard. I no longer wonder why Diddy and Kanye dropped out after one or two years. When you’re musicaly gifted, the classes don’t interest you and at this point in your life, you feel like you need to stop trying to satisfy everybody else and just do something that’s going to be productive. But I’ll go into detail about that in another post.
The main reason why I’m evening bringing this issue up is because I know a couple of very talented up and coming artists that are currently doing their thing while still being in some form of school. People like Dave Coresh, Mighty Infamous, Chuck LI, Tu$e, Truth, and XV are all some that I can think of off the top of the head. Even though Cory Gunz and Blu and the whole rest of that crew are this year’s new school, these kids really are the future of the genre. They have the music talent to make it and be successful. I just hope that they can make the right decisions, do what’s best for them, and make it to where they need to be. We need people like them in music.
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