Hip-Hop music got all fucked up when people started breaking it down into genre's. When you listen to music, you listen to what appeals to your ears, rather then it being classified as underground, Seattle, gangsta rap.
In the early stages of hip-hop, it didn't matter that KRS-One was positive East Coast hip-hop and Ice-T was West Coast gangsta rap. What mattered was that these artists were making good music. It didn't matter that NWA was gangsta rap, and Public Enemy was political hip-hop, it mattered that the shit was solid music. Maybe some of you are to young to remember these times in hip-hop.
Classification in genres has somewhat runied hip-hop, and cost alot of artists money. There were times when E-40 would be on the bill of a show with Gang Starr, but these days are over, because now people think that these two styles of music shouldn't be on the same bill. There were times when Easy E would be on the bill of a show with Run DMC, and this was because people just wanted to hear good hip-hop music.
It's a shame that people want to put titles on music, and brainwash the consumer into being a fan of one genre of hip-hop. If you own Jay Z, you should be able to own the Mob Figaz, and not have people question why you are listening to these so-called different brands of hip-hop.
Good music is good music, and that is all that matters. When I got into the music store, I don't look for only one style of hip-hop, I look and listen for shit that sounds good. When you play something in your car, you don't play it because it is so-called Bay Area underground hip-hop, you play it because the shit bumps, and sounds good to your ears.
All of this genre stuff is bullshit. I want the same people that buy Talib Kweli's album to buy my album, not because my music is similar to his, but because my shit sounds good, like his shit sounds good. All of you so-called artists are sadly mistaken, if you are only making music for that 1 fan out there with horse blinders on. I'm not making music for gangsta rap fans, east coast underground fans, backback rap fans, or NW hip-hop fans. I'm making my music for people that want to hear GOOD, QUALITY music. And if you are an artist, I would think that you would be trying to accomplish that same goal. Music is bigger then just the genre classification.
