In response to complaints about Denver Posts Local Music Article

If you Guys want real progress you have to go after it yourself.
You can't sit back and wait for the Denver Post, channel 9 news, Fox news etc to decide they want to do a story about Denver's Hip Hop scene and then complain about it. You have to be the ones banging down their doors incistently til some one writes the story you want written. I have hung out with a few of the hot local DJs, DJ Big Spade, DJ Emir, DJ Chonz etc... and I have seen some local cats trying to sell their CDs To these DJs and they always say "look I'm DJ this or that I play at all the clubs in town and also make mixtapes that travel around the world etc... If you really want to do yourself a favor just hook me up with one of those CDs, I'll even trade you a CD for a Mixtape."

Believe it or not Half these local artists wont even do a trade "I can only let it go for "5 bucks"
"Oh I don't want that I Just want 5 bucks"

What? Are you serious? Come on now, I've seen the local DJs hand out CDs like they're tic tacs, The Radio Bums once handed out over 10,000 cds at summer jam, and I know DJ Emir has done several thousand at a few events as well. It's about promoting yourself virally. The DJs market themselves better than the local artists do!

If 10,000 people are out there listening to your CD there are at least 30,000-70,000 or more that are hearing it and feeling it. And out of that bunch there might be one that has the connection needed to launch you to the next level.

Even main artists like Akon, Ludacris and Young Jeezy all send out thousands of free CDs trying to get the word out on the streets and also into the right hands. Now if you have the opportunity to hand it directly to some of the larger DJ's in town and instead you get greedy and think "I'm the man... these DJ's should be buying my shit" then you truely are an idiot, you don't deserve to be heard and because of your attitude you most likely will never be heard.

And as far as being a purist talking about "That's not Hip Hop, blah, blah, this is not Hip Hop" wake up! It's all hip hop. Yeah most of the stuff that gets played on the radio doesn't have the lyrical depth that some of the previous eras had like Pete Rock CL Smooth Reminisce or Das- EFX, Guru, Daddy Kane, Grand Puba, etc... but it's now more of a fast food industry, they serve up a formula they can make and sell quickly and cheaply. There are good lyrics still out there and yet most of the public still eats up the crap.

It's the same as fast food. You have good Filet Mingnon, Lobster and steak But most of us eat Mcdonalds, Taco bell and Wendy's more often... we don't have the time to eat and digest the the richer foods, same goes for Hip Hop most people don't take the time to digest the complex lyrics and lyrical styles they want songs they can easily sing along to that's just the nature of the game.

Hip Hop is a broad term, a way of life that encompases B-Boying, Emceeing, Deejaying, Urban Fashion and Graffiti. as KRS One stated "Rap is something you do Hip Hop Is something you live" Hip Hop is like a huge university, you can have smaller colleges within the university, so Crunk can be considered a college within the university of Hip Hop as can East Coast and West Coast etc... Dissin any particulasr category just says you want to hold back progress, Your trying to hold back evolution. As one genre will eventually breed another genre and eventually we will have expanded to where new styles emerge that perhaps you do like.

A ton of the newer Commercial Hip Hop like your Kanye "Stronger" and your Timberland "The Way I Are" seam to be taking sounds and styles from the Techno genre to create new dancefloor Hip Hop hits. It's called evolution. I'm going to be honest here and just say this... Many Denver local beats haven't evolved, I have been hearing similar stuff from local emcees for about 10 years now. I guess that's just the "Denver Sound" but it just seems like no one travels or links up with other scenes to expand their abilities and their sound. There have only been a few that have stood out. One of them (The Funkologist) has moved to California for the time being, the rest have made it onto a few DJ Mixtapes.

I used to like underground Hip Hop music more than the commercial stuff because it had better beats and better lyrics, truth is these days the commercial stuff has better production behind it. The underground beats have been weaker in the later years. They all sound outdated and either lack innovation or sophistication in their execution.

If you can't make at least a few Dancable hits then most likely you will never make it out the basement, cause no self respecting DJ is going to be able to help break a record that has no potential. You can have a back packish sound for all your stuff but you still need something that gets your foot in the door. And your back packish stuff should still be hot not just mediocre. Take a listen to a few tracks by Helter Skelter and Smiff n Wesson and you'll hear some cool lyrics mixed with some hot beats, yet even they didn't really get pushed hard enough to make it huge. But the thing is you need both lyrics and beats as well as a good concept for each song. Think localy and you won't make it. Think global and you might just make a big enough splash.

The Hip Hop Jedi