post009: “no cities for old men who like rap”
Eyedea was found dead this past weekend, he died in his sleep. If you are reading this blog, you probably know exactly who he was and the legacy he left behind. The crazy thing is that in his passing, he will be looked at as the poster boy for all things battle rap related and anyone remotely associated with him will be placed under the same microscope as him. People are going to look at every single battle he was in and automatically vote him undisputed champ of everyone and thing in that world. They will probably go to his records and give them the once or twice over and decide that he was the best rapper that ever came out of the 90’s, not just the mid-west. As the surface cools off and people of merit get over their shock, lots of testimonies will be laid down on how much more he had up his sleeve and what the people missed out on, etc. All of this shit sucks.
Why I say that is because it took the dude DYING to wake motherfuckers up on how great he was. This is basically the bar that most people want to set when it comes to the idea of a true legend. Now that we know that a living legend is a crew that originated in northern california, there is NO opportunity for another person to come out of the ether and wow the people if he is over the age of 24. That’s it, show’s over. People are only checking for rap dudes if they came out of the ground directly in front of them or if they are being put into the ground directly in front of them. All the hard work, classic material, indelible personalities and other things that keep you actually involved is the main shit that keeps your favorite rapper somewhere way off the shelves. This is while some random who started doing everything last week makes a song for fun and people just jump on it BECAUSE it’s new. never mind good, just new. Then you got dudes like Eyedea where it took 10 minutes for me to figure out if he really passed away because he reinvented himself so many times, people literally lost count.
It used to be a thing where you worked towards a long career, did the most and people appreciated it enough to keep you running for it. Now it’s the exact opposite, you have to drop stuff hourly to keep your OG existing fans INTERESTED or else they will just wander over to something that is calling their name louder from the shelf, blog, whatever. If the world has turned and left me here, fine. However, how did the world turn and leave a slew of talented motherfuckers by the wayside, only to wake up hooked on drugs, under trains, in foreign countries with no way home, dead, etc…
How the fuck did it turn into THIS?
(easy. look at the dudes making records pop up in front of you. look at the dudes booking shows every week. fuck it, look at the dudes grabbing songs for TV and movies and if you don’t like the look on their face then shoot them. it’s all their fucking fault. when it’s all about building it so s/he will come, who is the one watching the gate and letting the people in? only rock groups can come out of nowhere, play shows in living rooms, get money from strangers on sites like kickstart and turn into millionaires overnight over a song. everyone else has to get in line and wait their turn to be HNIC or HWIC on the microphone. unless you are in some band all of a sudden, then you just do what I said before and before you know it, you will be the apple in the eye of the “old white man on the hill” that I talked about on STREET/CARNAGE.
I just had to vent before the coming hot air storm. Rest In Peace Eyedea.
