Rap did not always suck. It did not always used to be about big money, big cars and big tits. It used to be about trying to make it in a world that didn't want you to. Yes, that often meant selling crack and killing the people that got in your way, but at least that provided for music and lyrics a lil' more elevated than "I'm hot cause I'm fly, you ain't cause' you not" or "Watch my feet, W-Watch my feet" repeated ad-nauseam.
To illustrate this point and to give people some awesome videos to pass around to their friends, every Wednesday I'll throw up an old school rap vid, with a little bit of background info and pontification to boot.
This week we start with Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones Pt II".
"The song is told from the perspective of inner-city youths engaged in territorial warfare and struggling for financial gains. I t does not, however, offer any apologies for its grim tone, nor does it offer any solutions to the problems it discusses. This factor plays a key role in its impact, as the intentions of the song, with its threatening perspective, is left up to the listener to interpret. Because of this, the song is one of the more thought-provoking, and complex hardcore rap songs to emerge in the aftermath of Death Row's dominance in mid-1990s Gangster Rap."
-- Wikipedia
I was 16 years old the first time I heard this song. I was driving my 1988 Chrysler Magic Wagon (affectionately known as the "Ghetto Van", ironic indeed as it served as the primary environment of my rap education) to school. I was late as usual, and in no hurry to make it to Math on time, considering that I knew I was never going to take another Math class in my life. Calculus wasn't for me. I popped in a tape my friend Faraz had made me. It was one of those transparent blank tapes that made you feel cool when you handled it. The hand-scrawled title read "Gangsta shit". At first I thought my stereo was broken. I just heard these hisses and clicks. But then a mix of voices rang out.
One voice was speaking dialogue, "Word up son, word. Yo I got the phone thing, know what I'm sayin'? Keep your eyes open". The other voice, more strong and engaging, blasted out a call to men I have yet to cross paths with (at least knowingly), "To all the killas and a hundred dolla billas/for real niggas who ain't got no feelings". And then the keys. The dark menacing tones of the ghetto were being played to me through one of the most terrifying piano lines I've heard to date. I was hooked. Where did these guys live??? Certainly no where near me. Who the fuck had "no feelings"? Talking about "realness" like it was a tangible thing you could touch, taste or smell? Later I found out that the opening verse of the song which has Prodigy (one half of Mobb Deep) spitting, "I got you stuck off the realness/we be the infamous, you heard of us/ official Queensbridge murderers", was a record label re-write. Originally Prodigy labeled himself and Havoc (the other half of the group) as "official white-folk murderers". This only made me love the song more.
I had tasted true gangster rap and it tasted like a caveman piece of steak on a bone flavored with gunpowder. I liked. Then I found out that Havoc and Prodigy were 19 when they wrote the song. 19 fucking years old, writing shit like "13 years in the projects, my mentality is 'what kid?' You talk a good one, but you don't want it/ sometimes I wonder, 'do I deserve to live?'/or am I going to burn in hell for all the things I did?"
The unfortunate part of the Mobb Deep tale is that this song, their very first "hit" song, was arguably their best work. Lightning in a bottle. But enough talking. Take a look at the video and remember that these are literally kids rapping. They just got their driver's licenses the year before shooting this. Unreal.
(Also, do yourself a favor and read over the lyrics as you listen to the track one time. So nasty. Also, D, when we're back in T.O., we're 100% rapping this at hip hop Karaoke)
