Recently I stumbled upon a Village Voice review of a Tribe Called Quest’s album, written by Greg Tate almost a decade ago, when Tate was a younger man.
I was struck by how different Tate’s outlook on the culture was back then, and how similar his observations are to how I and my friends feel about the music today. Did he change or did the music change? I'll let ya'll answer that in the comments or own your own sites.
If you’re not familiar with Tate’s current slant on hip-hop, read my dismantling of his "Hiphop Turns 30" piece in the Village Voice, where I argue that his age has disconnected him from the music, and his nostalgia of the past has made him bitter.
Then come back and read the excerpts of his Tribe review, and consider if ten years ago he would have been agreeing with me (there's no copy of this on the web. You just have to trust me).
Young Tate on the essence of hip-hop:
"What is a hip-hop song? A thematically coherent essay in rhyme form. It doesn’t have to get any deeper than Special Ed singing I’m your hero, your idol, your highest title, and that whole willie bobo; it just has to sensibly, catchily flow."
Young Tate on “conscious rappers”:
"In the guise of being at war with gangsta rap, they’re really at war with their own hip-hop irrelevance. Not hip-hop as defined by the industry controlled masses, but hip-hop as defined by the ancestral Afrikan muses."
Young Tate on “positive lyrics”:
"I for one am sick of hip-hop lyrics about the sorry state of hip-hop in general, and other rappers, phony or otherwise, in particular. By the third song, Beats, Rhymes and Life has smothered the life out of this straw man."
I’ll shut up now. I think I just ruined ever getting another invite to a book release party in New York.
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