What I Want For Christmas

By Chuck D.

I was interviewing Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer Brian Wilson about his career and his latest CD release entitled 'What I really Want for Christmas' for my Air America radio show On The Real in December (shameless plug 11pm-1AM EST Sunday nights catch it @Airamericaradio.com). Given it was the same week that rap pioneers Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, Sugarhill Gang, and Afrika Bambaataa were unceremoniously bypassed for election to the same Hall Of Fame, I had to ask among my many questions:

1. What did he really want for XMAS? He promptly answered, in bling mode, a brand new Mercedes Benz. 2. I asked what did he think of rap? He answered he didn't think much of it, and that answer was expected.

Then he said that he didn't care for fakeness with the artform. Although I wasn't clear if he knew the difference between real and fake emcees and participants, that answer was respected.

Then I started to wonder myself about what I would like to see for HipHop/Rap in 2006 as if I had influence in the twenty-seventh year of RAP and about the thirty-third season of what we call hip hop. Again I thank Elemental for the printed opinion of this...

Some things.....

FOR HIP HOP TO GET OFF THAT STOP SNITCHING TIP... Thug sht is outta hand. Rap is bridging jail mentality straight into the middle schools via radio and video overdosing. There's a big anti-snitching thing moving in the hoods of America, but dig this - the term 'snitch' was best applied to those that ratted revolutionaries like Huey P Newton, Bobby Seale, Che Guevera to the fascist governments during the 60's and 70s. Let's not let stupid cats use hip hop to again twist this meaning for the sake of some 'innerganghood' violent drug thug crime dogs, who've sacrificed the black community's women and children. Not the same ... and rap needs to speak and protect the people sometimes and not contribute to genocidal systems. Also added to this I hope the trend of anti-lectualism and the dumbassification of rapcats reverses itself in the artform. I can't stand seeing smart, in many cases college graduates (whether they're interning, having a label/ management position, or even being artists) dumbing themselves down in order to sell what they have. Its absolutely cavemanish.

WHERE'S THE FEMALE RAP AND HIP HOP GROUPS?.... Cmon, ask anyone to name a current female rap group, and they'll still tell you Salt N Pepa for lyric's sake. The closest TODAY are Hip Alt squad Northern State 3, white chicks who roll it Beastie Boys style, maybe UK - Philly transplants Floetry.

I'll even settle for FannyPack of Pussycat Dolls as opposed to having another dude soloist shoved down my ears. Twenty years ago there were at least a few female rap groups from the UK, The Cookie Crew, Wee Papa Girl Rappers, and the Professor Griff founded She-Rockers all from London. Hip Hop can use at least another female explosion. Besides, how fresh can hip hop be if there's little female involvement into the cultural progress of it? Background video-chick wallpaper is limiting, while female engineers, label owners, and managers need to be infiltrated within it, without typical male supervision over it ...

CAN MORE MIXTAPE DJs GET A WEBSITE OR SOMETHING?...

I know it's a hustle but damn, can it be a business too? I'm tired of wack artwork, DJs yelling over the music, and the fact that just because it sells, it doesn't need any professional handling. I dig the MIXTAPE cats who at least are now figuring how to send mix sessions to your Ipod or podcasting and having people download from their sites. And to think that the DJs were always the first to use new technologies ...

if you know a DJ who doesn't know what 'Serato' is ...run from him/her ...

Another thing, just because one has a computer it doesn't automatically do the professional job. Pro-Tools is a start for someone beginning to comprehend engineering, but the basics of sound still must be learned. Photoshop is a tool as well, but art classes are advisable. There are basics to learn about sight and sound that cats need to learn beforehand. Symmetry is important in both cases.

NEED MORE INDEPENDENT AIRPLAY FOR VIDEOS AND SONGS Well we know the major labels have sucked up and dominated the promotional space, now independents need to know to build those other roads to play songs now increasingly video. IPODs will download video, but again the contractually agreed favorites have isolated this business to major label videos. Internet video is very key for indies to get around on a stream. Think also of territories to fill music up and head repeatedly into those markets. For the inter-pendent artists and labels, the web is the best cost effective way to get down and learn the record company thing. If you want to get in the game for money and fame then wait on line for that ubiquitous record deal at a shrinking major label nearest you.

LIKE TO SEE MORE LEGIBLE DIVERSE RAP INTERVIEWS Artist development went out in the mid-70's and from there artist had to fight nearly tooth and nail to keep a pace of explaining themselves and their art to a 'wanting- to - know' public. Outlets on television, radio, internet and press have cats sounding too similar to each other's stories. This is a cancel-out in itself. The NBA has the same problem - where before the players used to learn from college and their coaches. With the league grabbing players before educating them, the art of the interview shrunk in sports. You figure that with so many wordsmiths the artform has, that rap can do a better interview.

CAN WE PRAISE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY Everybody can't do and say the same thing...hello? Shouldn't we all be counting the quality in things as opposed to the quantity. I've used the metaphor of dog-food probably goes double platinum every month on cans sold. But just because it sold two million cans, does it mean you can compare it to the Cheesecake Factory? Plus you don't see the owner of ALPO wearing platinum, diamond encrusted dog food cans on chains talking about sales to the masses. If you ain't got a dog what does it matter? Little Brother, The Roots, Talib, Perceptionists - their numbers sold should be irrelevant to the mass dig -a- ble quotient. Art is not like a batting average. There is no way we should be comparing the sales from teenagers to the finer artistic aspects of the form. When MOS-DEF did the Denali commercial it was a nod towards quality cats and a dignified example of sponsoring something useful while making some income. Grumblings of some cats claiming sellout was foolish not realizing that whenever anything is sold over a counter it deems the product 'commercial.'

DECENT LINER-NOTES BY KNOWLEDGEABLE JOURNALISTS Well everybody that digs hip hop is NOT a teenager who doesn't care about the artwork and liner notes. I'm still diggin' the liner notes that really inform me about all the jazzcats in the 50's-60's. Hip Hop has to think ahead, and not always 'now', and inform the future. Either record companies don't care or they're assuming that black folks mainly ain't trying to read about anything they like. I say black first because from there lies a stereotype that the rest of the hip hop nation thinks is cool to follow. As in not reading or at least never comprehending the fine print. The DJs and the first initial journalists in the hip hop game had to get their knowledge on all the genres preceding it. Fast forward twenty years, there's a lotta cats that rather just draw from hip hop alone. It's limiting. You would think all these writers would put their mark on the liners as they do their pieces for the US magazines that pay their livings. At least the independents can start this movement in hip hop reading. Also hip hop radio could use more specialty shows and DJs that give the audience information instead of seeming like frustrated jox and jax. For once I'd like to hear a hip hop show that actually named the song and the artist as well as information. Then again here's another shameless plug, my radio show Chuck D's Worldwide Throwback and Underground Countdown does that every week on radio@AOL so peep it.

MORE BONUS DVDs WITH CDS I believe that USA rap can't afford to rely on VIACOM to play an artists video. Thorough DVD's need to be put together for each released artist. Do yall know how much money has been wasted by shooting videos and sending it to the abyss of TV stations that will really never play them. Also, if cats create their own world and stop kissing up to boardrooms that judge them, more art can explode innovatively. Also maybe some things can stay in their own adult zones, there's nothing worse than some thirty year old rapper with adult themes claiming that they have a teenage audience. Leave it to the DVD, I guess, as long as some fool doesn't watch it in their dashboard and steering wheel while driving...

CAN WE RE INTRODUCE LIVE SHOW TECHNIQUES? The mics shouldn't be security blankets during shows. Artists don't need a mic in order to rock a show. All the crew doesn't have to be on stage. And they definitely all don't need a mic. Sometimes the emcee needs to put it down and project to the crowd. Telling the sound man to turn it up, is a blanket and a thumb in the mouth. By now there are loads of DVDs and VHS tapes that've documented classic hip hop, R&B, and Rock shows. Back in the 90's rappers had as good of backup dancers as MOTOWN had in the sixties. They learned from that. Big Daddy Kane studied Otis Redding, and James Brown, The Furious Five studied the Temptations. Also to go along with this the art of background vocals in the music itself is severely missed as well as the absence of the guitar. Hip hop is the introduction to the world of music as it started from the DJ playing recordings, and the emcee rocking over them. The audience was awestruck by this efficiency in its beginning.

The past ten years awe has seen the area of wealth, celebrity, and hype replace performance. Cats with top ten records seem to think that stage pyrotechnics and expensive tricks can replace sweat and soul. Wrong. Sounds like pavlovic conditioned call and response to me because really what does this have to do with doing a great show? The audience in hip hop must again be awestruck.

GROUNDWORK FOR HIP HOP HALL OF FAME Well we're waiting for the Bronx to form the Hip Hop Hall Of Fame, but there needs to be a virtual one at least, and maybe various satellite locations until the one in the Bronx is set off the right way. Think about it - thirty years - cats in the hip hop game ain't all kids. Laziness, inner and outer negligence has hip hop fans broken when it doesn't get acceptance such as the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame omission. This maybe is a call to a governing organized body to make it happen. It's time for some of us to grow up and make it happen.

INTERNATIONAL RESPECT The second biggest hip hop nation on earth is France. They just had a political jump-off in that country where the government blamed the rebellion on the high tech cellphone network and rap joints. With this in mind American unpolitical rapscene seems to the world to be happily nestled under Bushnutz. With this in mind, BRAZIL has more blackfolk than the USA, thus maybe they're a step ahead of American rap although it's in Portuguese patois. Growing movement in ASIA, AFRICA, and AUSTRALIA, have gained momentum on the USA while the EUROPEAN spread has dominated all the other remaining founding elements of the genre outside of the emceeing. Is it only a matter of time before USA rappers start resembling the US Olympic Basketball squad that returned with their crossovers stuck between their legs? Answer me this: How does the arrogant rap American judge an international emcee that can flow fluently in 3-4 different languages over dangerous beats, emerging from a REAL war torn background and past, and yet keep it very hip hop?

R.I.P. Richard Pryor ..Another TDome will be turned around before year end.

MIstachuck@rapstation.com www.publicenemy.com