Blessings y’all
This is Mu, new edition to the LoveSoul family. I’m a recently turned 18 year-old musician, artist, and writer gone rogue in Detroit. I’ll leave it at that.
So I’ve just moved to Detroit, going to be doing college over here. And as a creator, I’d like to take the time out to give my thoughts and blessings to the great J Dilla and speak on some truth. And even though it’s not february, when it comes down to love, life and music, J Dilla manifested his perception so well that it kicked off a generation of artists that were inspired to find their style, and their voice amongst the mediocrity that plagues modern hip-hop music and culture as a whole.
As much as J Dilla’s music was influential, there was another quality within his sound that sub-consciously resonated with hip-hop heads. It’s a quality unique to those who seek and discover their own ‘some kinda’, it’s called soul.
We live in a world where artistry is undermined by the ambition of financial success and while the reality of paying the bills and such exists, one must question the honesty and love in their work, whatever it may be. This concept exists even outside of music. Today most of the honesty in art is diluted because of money. Shallow ambitions bring down the quality of the art, and put shame to the craft. While many artists in the hip-hop music industry become slave to finance and fame, few individuals truly find their own creative nirvana without sacrificing their identity or their soul.
J Dilla was that man. He was the type of guy who walked on this earth uninhibited by the industry in which he took part of. He wasn’t Kanye famous, but not even Kanye himself would ever earn that type of global, if not, total respect. Hip-hop is too divided. It’s too subjective and that is only natural. Hip-hop contains a little something for everyone. However, there are such individuals who gain respect from the majority of the hip-hop community. And they aren’t the artists as in MC’s, Entertainers, or Singers. They are Producers. The people who score the soundtracks of life and above all else are respected for their craft because without producers, without J Dilla, a lot of thing’s would’ve happened and a lot of things wouldn’t have.
Hip-hop, in a sense, is a living, breathing entity. Perhaps an organism. It’s the child of love and hatred, of Soul. The good and the bad, and for what its worth, it’s irreplaceable, infinite and immortal. Just like the names on this earth that really make a difference. And if you take the soul out of yourself, then you are taking the soul out of hip-hop and your name wont hold any worth. So my message to everyone who creates is: don’t treat the hip-hop art form as if it was a hustle. Because it aint. It’s an art, and that title demands respect from those who partake in it. It’s a lifestyle that demands the individual to be real. Hip-hop isn’t a game, it’s a philosophy and it gave us a voice, so if you have something to say, something real and honest; a vision. You hold on to it and you embody it. That’s why the underground exists because there is such a side of hip-hop that embraces a creative and more expressive side without starving.
It’s right here, and we are all in the same boat. We are a community, and we don’t compete, we collaborate. We are growing. This is our manifesto and always stay humble because above all this is hip-hop, you owe it, it does not owe you.
//Mu
