Ice T and KRS-One.Photo:Erika Goldring/Getty, Shareif Ziyadat/Getty
Erika Goldring/Getty, Shareif Ziyadat/Getty
Hip-hop is turning 50 years old this year, and perhaps no one is more astonished at its staying power than the artists who pioneered the genre.
During the Essence Festival of Culture, taking place in New Orleans through July 3, legendary rappers KRS-One andIce-Tspoke to reporters about the trailblazing genre and how it’s transcended to become, arguably, the most influential genre of music.
“Fifty years ago, some of us knew this was going to happen, most of us did not know to the magnitude it would happen,” admitted KRS-One. “But 50 years later proves that first of all, you can do anything with your mind and secondly, culture is probably the most magnificent strategy for human development known on the planet.”
“We say education, health and medicine are important but culture, community, family and teamwork are also important and hip-hop proved over a 50-year period, that we have the ability to govern ourselves,” said KRS-One.
“This [was] a different take on the African American experience. For the last 60 years, African Americans tried the integration thing, African Americans have tried the voting thing, tried the economic thing and we keep winding up in the same position. Hip-hop is a little different. We tried the character thing, where we changed what we were going to express and that seems to have pulled us from sickness, hatred, ignorance and poverty to health, love, awareness and wealth.”
For Ice-T, who released his first albumRhyme Paysin 1987, the wonder is in the fact that hip-hop has become so influential, even though the mainstream initially thought it wouldn’t get anywhere.
Ice-T in the Essence Fest press room in July 2023.Marcus Ingram/Getty
Marcus Ingram/Getty
But perhaps because hip-hop is a young person’s sport, according to the rappers, and has lost its way in recent years. KRS-One shared that what was once an avenue to speak truth to power and bring awareness to the state of Black America has largely morphed into a cash-grab genre, with some artists prioritizing monetary success over their messaging, a transformation the rapper finds deplorable.
“Real hip-hop is free. We ain’t with no corporations, we ain’t messing with none of that,” the “South Bronx” rapper said. “We built our culture from the center, now we’re billionaires. We don’t [care] what people think about us.”
For Ice-T, the problem seems to be in the regression in the purpose behind the music. Unnecessary drug usage, shootings and incarcerations are all tribulations his generation purposefully attempted to steer away from, but are ever prevalent in some of today’s music.
“I think people from my generation are really upset with what’s going on with the youngsters because every week somebody’s going to jail. People are dying off drugs, killing each other,” he told Kia Turner ofOkayplayer.
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“My generation, we lost Tupac, we lost Biggie and we got the memo. Everybody calmed down. We all figured this out: We [were] rapping to get out of the streets.”
He continued: “But the youngsters who are out here behaving like that, these kids are millionaires so I don’t know how many young people gotta get lost, I don’t know which one might trigger that message, but I think it’s time for this generation to get a hold of itself.”
source: people.com
