Industry

The thing about loving to read at such a young age was that my imagination was virtually boundless. I was fascinated by more than just the brightly colored superhero costumes and the action sequences playing out on the panels. What caught my attention was the great philosophies that were written into the story lines. There were real life lessons to be learned; lessons about racism, sexism, religion, economics, politics, family and more - and all in a very entertaining context. This was especially true of Marvel Comics, one of the major influences on me as a child as far as ethics and justice. My sense of right and wrong was pure at that age and remains affected until this day. Of course, good and evil are not just black and white but obscured by a trillion shades of grey. In many ways, so were the stories in Marvel Comics. After all, Spider Man was a misfortunate orphan, The Hulk was an abused child and there were other heroes with problems. These problems felt similar to the ones that you or someone you knew where going through. That is why no one can ever tell me that the comic book and graphic novel art forms, especially the ones involving heroes and villains, aren’t true art. Not only do they serve as entertainment, but they intrigue us and make us wonder - and that’s what art is. I feel the same way about hip hop and about music in general.

When I was about 12, I heard a Run DMC song called “The King of Rock” and I knew what I wanted to be - an MC.  But I wanted to be a real MC like Run DMC, Melle Mel or a few others at the time. These guys seemed bigger than life and their words touched me. To me they were saying more than just what was coming out of their mouths. Their attitude spoke to you; the swagger that they had at that time was unlike anything I had seen. And these were black men. It was like somebody found a way to portray the same purity of philosophy with rap music that pioneers like Stan Lee did with Marvel. The same intrigue that I had for comics lured me to rap music - I will always have a love for both. I used to look at the comic books and draw re-creations of the pictures that I liked. Eventually I felt that I had my own voice and began to create my own characters. When I did, my art poured from me.  I’ve been drawing ever since. With hip hop I would rap along with my favorite MCs until one day I started to freestyle. The reaction from my schoolmates was like, “Damn! You can really rap!” So I began to write, though mostly I would freestyle.

At first I thought that no matter how badly I wanted it, I couldn’t be a rapper. I wasn’t from New York or, later on, Los Angeles. Then a fantastic thing began to happen -  hip hop gained momentum with a snowball effect like no other. All of a sudden there were companies showing interest in other young up-and-coming artists from other cities, and I was able to get my voice out there. When I got a chance to work on Outkast’s “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” album, I was so happy to be involved with something so great that I didn’t think about chains, houses and shit. All I wanted was for everything me and my folks (The Dungeon Family) touched to touch others, and for all of my brothers to help one another to be successful in their art. We were on the right track at first, because it was strictly about the music. The plan was for every DF member to feature all the others on their records - this would help everyone. The problem was that after some of us saw success, other people got in the way of our original plan - record executives, management and family were a hindrance to our pure concept. The sad thing is that, for all the good we did, there remains a negative mark on our record because obviously we were not all abiding by the same creed.  We set a bad example, which is the one thing I never wanted.

My disappointments with the music industry may have started with my own crew, but they continue in many of the artists out now. I’m not talking about lyrical content, degradation of women in videos or any of that bullshit. I’m talking about fake ass MCs rapping about a bunch of activities that they never experienced and sending out the message that it’s cool to be fake and an asshole. Well I got news; it ain’t cool, and half of these suckers need to be beat with a mic instead of rappin on one - that’s real. I’m not one of these clowns that says he wants rap to be like it was with regards to sound, because now the sound quality is better. But because something sounds better and looks better doesn’t make it better. You can make money with your gimmicks, and you can impress fools with your jewelry, but no one can fool themselves.  No matter how good you act, niggaz are going to know if you are soft.  So keep all your bells and whistles and give me some real hip hop. After all, the music comes before the industry.