I think Hip Hop is overrated now adays… Theres just too much of all that “commercial” versus “true school” and way too much emphasis is being placed on being “real” (whatever the hell that really means) that to me it seems a lot of folks, miss the point entirely.

I just saw this comic called the Hip Hop Chronicles. I’m not going to talk about the comic itself, I’ll leave that to people like Spaceboy. An aside, the comic industry in Nigeria really seems to be booming right? Anyway what stood out to me while reading the comic was  the direct reference to Idris Abdulkareem and how he was supposedly ruining hip hop.

My take on that is that music as a whole is nothing more than a form of entertainment. Yes, music can take you places, expand your mind, teach you new things. Hell, some people claim to have reached enlightenment from listening to music. Cool.  But the fact remains that music that does not entertain is worthless. End of story. It doesn’t matter how “deep” it is, or how many metaphors are used, or how lyrical the artist is.

So who exactly gets to judge what “real” hip hop is? How exactly do you rate music that thugs with nothing relate to? Who honestly is the better musician, Idris Abdulkareem or Sauce Kid? Rugged Man or Modenine? MI or Eldee? Don’t read to much into the particular comparisons I used, read carefully, I said “better musician“.

Its pretty clear I think, who the better MC’s are but who has touched more people? Affected more lives? Positively or negatively? Who has directly or indirectly contributed the most to Nigerian Hip Hop? Who has helped to grow the industry? And most importantly who entertains the most and widest variety people?

This is going to sound extremely hippy and shit but honestly there is a beauty in all forms of expression.  Its all about how you as an individual perceive it.

Live and let live.

Ps. I really am a nice person…