@ celsolito:
im saying there's nothing i can do to change
they minds but make the music i make, let that
speak for me & nevermind the rest. if folks don't
feel it, fuck it, then. shrug it off & keep riding.
i don't mean it as a personal 'fuck off' to anybody
outside of the west. if i did feel that way there's
plenty of muthufuckas here in the west that don't
support us or feel us, not just outside of cali.
when that happens there's a few things i see
that are in play:
1) the culture here is no longer sustaining itself.
when any culture becomes worldwide (bandannas,
house shoes, lowriders–all distinct cultural developments
by & from the west) it risks losing it's own identity
to the bigger masses out there, which i think has
happened in cali. don't exactly know why, but
there it is.
2) as the culture is absorbed/assimilated into
the bigger picture our culture in turn starts
absorbing everything else around it in the
absence of it's own brand/identity.
& many of those things that made the west the
West are now assimilated into the bigger picture.
because cali has such a world-wide appeal it
was inevitable. there's muthufuckas over in
Japan paying $30,000-$50,000 for classic lowriders;
over here, we got the 'fast & the furious' car culture
picking up speed. some kind of exchange is going
on. until it's done i don't think the west is gonna
be exporting many influences that will be
noticeably Western. I think the influence of
the west is going to continue, but not with a
giant 'W' stamped on it.
We don't hear from the West or think of the
west in the lime-light because it IS the limelight.
it has had a major affect on everything around you.
people world-wide say 'fo sheezy.' see what i'm
saying? we've been fighting for recognition, got it
a while back, & kept on going. is this good or bad,
i don't know. look at 4 of the dominant forces in
hip-hop today: eminem, dr. dre, jay-z, ja rule.
dr. dre: from the west. eminem: trained under dre.
jay-z & ja rule borrow heavily from the west: tattoos,
bandannas, etc. 50 cent takes some heavy cues from
west coast hip-hop. When's the last time you heard
an east coast rapper drop a hot single over music that
sounded east coast? when's the last time we heard a
# 1 jam from dj premier or the trackmasters? dre is about
to put out rakim, the God from back in the day, & ice-cube, on
his label. overall it's been west coast funk that has outlasted
east coast jazz in terms of influence. neptunes play it both ways,
haven't heard from swizz lately....
who's to say we ain't in the driver's seat?
