Recently during a show in Williamsburg Brooklyn, Trinidad James for some odd reason felt the need to voice his opinion on the state on New York City hip hop by stating:
“I remember when New York ran this shit dog. When Dipset was fuckin turned the fuck up. Oh my God. I gotta wear my bandana on tilt like Juelz. What the fuck happened, dog? What happened? I remember when New York rap was the shit. And us in the South, us bammas, we was like ‘what the fuck’ and we just did our own thing. But now we run y’all musically. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. That’s crazy, my nigga. That’s crazy. I’m not trying to start nothing, but if you want to do something we can do something cause I don’t give a fuck. I looked up to New York music. And now every nigga that’s really poppin’ out of New York, you might as well tell they from Atlanta. ‘He from Atlanta. He from Atlanta. He from Atlanta.’ I’m just putting it out there. Y’all got more bloggers—y’all got niggas interviewing more popular than niggas that’s rapping.”
Even though its coming from Trinidad James does this mean his point isn’t valid? Being from New York myself when I first heard about what was said I was more mad than anything, but after really thinking about it he might have spoken some truth. Even though New York does have a couple artists that are on the verge of breaking through (Action Bronson, ASAP, Joey Badass and most recently with a strong project Troy Ave) NY doesn’t have an artist that you hear on the radio on the regular, there isn’t even a NY sound on the radio. Depending on who you ask , some may say the radio doesn’t “break” any new artist, the radio says the artists just have to make better music. But it’s more than that, the blame can be put on the radio, the artists and us fans. As fans we hold the most power, we can easily make or break a record easier than any DJ can, if we supported our favorite artist or genre by buying records and going to shows, we wouldn’t be in this same song or same type of song 5 times a hour radio format. New York being the mecca of the culture, we definitely need some kind of fresh presence heavy in the game. So personally Trinidad James and Kendrick Lamar really didn’t offend me, as a fan of the culture I just hope it inspires and lights a fire under the city that we haven’t seen in a long time.
AND of Course “This is WHAT’S HOT IN HIP HOP! IF ITS NOT HERE ITS NOT HOT!
