STUDIO83

I am a staunch hip-hop head, a genre that is all about what you know and what you have been through more than where you want to be in the future. It is a field filled with debate about who is the best in the different aspects of the genre most notably being emceeing, in that aspect everybody values their opinion most, being all because different things appeal to different people as the cliché goes “different strokes for different folks”, but they are however a few that can influence the most of us into defiance against our true feelings about certain emcees that being because those individuals have been around more than most of us, which brings me to the matter at hand, could age be really the basis of ones judgement nobility?

I was born in the 90s when hip-hop was just stepping into its prime, that era is home to some of the greatest hip-hop moments in all aspects of the genre, the greatest beef (Biggie vs. Pac)

has emerged in hip-hop was from that era, best lyrical album (illmatic by Nas) and arguably the best collaboration between a hip-hop artist and an RnB artist (method man and Mary J Blige) those and many more, but when all this happened I was just a toddler if not an infant, but it has been expected of me to know all this information and to my fellow hip-hop heads expectations I did not disappoint I knew all that and tons more as though I were there when it all transpired, still get slack when I do not know a 90s clique that got very little exposure on the mainstream, I mean it is good enough that I indulge in wanting to know about things that had no effect on me when they actually happened but I do so because it shaped the sound that I bop my head to now, excuse me if I sound like I am implying that am doing you a favour by listening to music from your era, No! I do so for my own musical enrichment and fun, and maybe perhaps to fit in with the older heads hip-hop is just like any other field in the world you have to compete for recognition and props in this case, I still get bashed and doubted if I openly bop my head to the more current hip-hop joints that blaze up the airwaves, it is the sound of my age it is meant to appeal to me, shoot me for the sounds success of appealing to me.    

I am first born child at home this has always meant no big brother to school me on what was right from what was wrong in both life and hip-hop, my only hip-hop class was my cousins holiday visits that being when they decide to visit, it was left entirely up to me to educate myself and I did, but you still cannot compare me to you, when I was 12 Lil Bow Wow was the hottest thing around unlike with you where it was Rakim, there is a saying that says that foundation is the most fundamental in growth, what you learn at an early is more likely to stay in your mind forever so that is why I remember the lyrics to Nelly’s E.I so vividly, then for me hip-hop was just hip-hop I bopped my head to anything that was boom-bapish, and I was hardly exposed to street ciphers my only exposure to ciphers was on TV mostly on shiz niz, and I only moved up  to GP from Limpopo after I matriculated last year so this obviously means that I missed out on the historical sessions at the famous Le club and also the cipher session in Ghandi square known famously to be the battlefield where greats like Adamus and Ozmic sharpened their assegais at.

But do not get it twisted I know my hip-hop I am pretty sure that some dudes from the old school would be puzzled if asked about Paris, the rapper not miss Hilton, I know for you old cats it is a trip through memory lane, but am still making brand new memories to dj jazzy jeff and the fresh princes music

I with no shame admit that I only came know ledged that there was local mixtape called motherload almost a decade after it was released through a local hiphop magazine, and came across most joints from the 90s in the 2000s, but am glad for some of the emcees that are still holding it down making up for all that I missed out on first hand, I mean Mr.wouks is my Crazy legs, Last Days Fam is my tribe called quest, Ootz is my Dj première, Slikour is my Nigga, Nthabi is my Queen Latifah, Amu is still my Amu, Drake is my latest craze at the same time with Termanology. I can never go wrong with Pro be it with or without the verb,  way I can never go wrong with Wu tang and e.m.c, I love hip-hop both old school and new, and know just about enough to survive the debates in the circles that I hang within and make some heads go into a little corner of shame, so much for being a 90s kid.

Writer:  Mokgethwa J. Machaka