The Grown & The Hip Hop…

Whew!

Finally! Whew! A break from it all! It’s funny how my body doesn’t know how to sit still and relax. I’m always ripping and running, so much so that when it’s time to chill, I find myself pacing the floors of my apartment looking for things to do. I just can’t sit still!! The night before last I had to literally turn off all the lights and force myself to fall asleep. I laid in the dark looking at the ceiling, until I eventually dozed off. I must practice some relaxation techniques, If anyone has any suggestions, please don’t be shy about sharing.

Outside of my that, I have been accomplishing some things. I’ve been experiencing a new “state of mind” I guess we can call it. It’s like I’ve hit some heightened level of consciousness, filled with new perspectives pertaining to my life, and just life in general. I guess I’m at that age where the things that seemed to matter, just don’t anymore; yet some things I never thought about now have high spots on my priority list. I heard that’s what happens in the wonderful world of “Thirty-something”. I guess MOM, was right.

On the creative tip, I’m feeling really good about the space that I have been in lately. Listening to music again and writing. I am seeing a new change in hip hop and happily so. It’s the bourgening of the 30+ emcee. Not just age wise, but topic and image as well. I noticing the embracing of maturation and the embodying of that maturity, creatively.  Now that’s DOPE! (And about time!!!)  I always hated the way that artist, dumb themselves down, or adopt a immature “look” to try to stay relevant. I feel that as other genres of music, hip hop should be able to be expressed and enjoyed at any stage of life. It’s that forever young, peter-panish mind state that has the whole genre EFFED UP! In no other genres of music do you find such idiotic limitations! Needless to say there are many artist, lovers, and fans of the hip hop art form, that share the same view. Thankfully.

On Facebook this week… (sounds like a soap opera re-cap, lol)…  I ran across a post by one of my FB Friends, Rob. He was on a rant about the topic of “AGE-ISM in HIP HOP”. What he had to say resonated strongly with me. I wished there were more ears able to listen to what the brother had to say, so I posted it below…

“What’s on your mind Just to encourage everyone Speak life people, Proverbs 18:21 the tongue has the power of life and death. People everywhere need to stop telling people they are too old to sing, rap, do poetry or speak who made you GOD? Its a market for everyone If you want to speak economics. I wish many of the living legends would …be….still speaking or doing music because they seen a lot and many of them have.” – Ronald P. Boone Jr.

He went on…

“Age-ism in music? Age-ism is everywhere folks. In the work place, in sports and of course in hip hop or any form of music. We are an out with the OLD in with the NEW world. But as we go through life we realize NEWER isn’t always better. We find ourselves saying, “Back in the day, bah, bah, bah….” All young artists should route for old artist to have long careers. If you play them out, what kind of future do you have?” – Ronald P. Boone Jr.

I could not agree with him more on this! He’s so Right!!

For years I personally struggled with this very issue, as well as many of my artistic peers. In the genre of Hip Hop, many highly creative people who turn 30, regardless of skill or mass appeal seem to get casted off into Oblivian, simply due to age. Then the one’s who manage to remain, do so by denouncing their peer group, to shuck and jive for some snot nosed kids. This is totally not the way things should be.

Fortunately, The Roots, De La Soul, The Foreign Exchange, Nas, Andre 3000 and Q-Tip are just a few examples of the ever changing, growing, “MATURE” Emcee’s & Hip Hop groups, still around today. They reflect a small consensus, of what at this point (with the Hip Hop Culture itself being 30+) should be much much larger. But, I’m happy to announce that I see a change on the horizon. I think people and artist are finally waking up, and desiring to hear a wider array of views and topics in music. Happily so.

With that said, for quite some time now I have been exploring the topic of “ADULTS in Hip Hop”. And desired to create a platform to DISCUSS, EXPLORE and DISCOVER great music by creative adults of the Hip Hop Culture. Hence the birth of GROWNANDHIPHOP.ORG.

Also, over the next few weeks I will be re-organizing this site http://www.indeedlove.me and separating the hip hop portion from here. When I created this blog, it was for the purposes of motivating and sharing from a more personal aspect of myself. So although hip hop is a major part of my life, it is simply “ONE” component of many that makes me up as a woman. Being so, I don’t want the topic of Hip Hop to overshadow my main objective and purpose of creating Indeedlove.me, which is to encourage everyone to simply live YOUR LIFE, doing the things that YOU LOVE… sharing with and helping others along the way.

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Indeed ❤

Check out this clip of Black Thought from THE ROOTS, discussing being a grown man in Hip Hop…. Enjoy.