Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, HipHopDX used to host blogs. Through Meka, Brillyance, Aliya Ewing and others, readers got unfiltered opinions on the most current topics in and beyond Hip Hop. After a few years, a couple redesigns and the collective vision of three different Editors-In-Chief, blogs are back. Sort of. Since our blog section went the way of two-way pagers and physical mixtapes, Twitter, Instagram and Ustream have further accelerated the pace of current events in Hip Hop. Rappers beef with each other 140 characters at a time, entire mixtapes (and their associated artwork) can be released via Instagram, and sometimes these events require a rapid reaction.
As such, we’re reserving this space for a weekly reaction to Hip Hop’s current events. Or whatever else we deem worthy. And the “we” in question this week is myself, Andre Grant, and freelance writer Ural Garrett. I serve as HipHopDX’s Features Staff. Aside from tackling stray topics, I may invite artists and other personalities in Hip Hop to join the conversation. Without further delay, here’s this week’s “Stray Shots.”
Is This The Fall Of Bobby Shmurda?
Ural: Wednesday morning felt like a huge win for Hip Hop when weekly numbers determined J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hill Drive debuted at number one. There was a sigh of relief almost considering the climate of the culture this year. Ironically, something else happened that same morning. Bobby Shmurda found himself along with members of his GS9 in New York’s Quad City Studios and facing some serious charges. By serious that means charges of conspiracy to commit murder, assault in the first degree, possession of weapons, intent to sell and possession of narcotics and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree on two counts. This comes after getting arrested twice already this year for felony gun possession and marijuana possession.
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Talk about a fast and steep fall from grace.
It was only July when Shmurda found himself signing a lucrative deal with Epic records after “Hot Nigga” went viral. Before then, everyone from Drake to Beyoncé found themselves adding to the hype by incorporating the Shmoney Dance during various appearances. The various remixes, memes and everything in-between were a perfect storm for the 20-year-old.
Meanwhile, Shmurda posted and quickly deleted a message on Instagram blasting his label in October. The next month, his debut EP Shmurda She Wrote sold an indescribably sub-par five thousand its first week. Assuming Shmurda probably signed a shitty contract, the ending of his 15-minutes of Internet fame and the fact that he wasn’t paid much, going back to that street life made every bit of sense. What other reason could someone in Shmurda’s position still partake in that lifestyle after presumably being offered the “opportunity of a lifetime?”
That’s because it wasn’t. Shmurda is a casualty of an industry that loves to swallow desperate black men in horrible situations and spit them out at the moment of irrelevance. One can’t find much confidence in their label situation if they’re still pushing narcotics and around the possession of 21 guns. Despite Epic paying his $2 million bail, one can foresee this going the way of Trinidad James and Chief Keef. Epic didn’t care much about his lifestyle outside of whatever monetary gain they could get; similar to Pitchfork and Interscope thinking it was a good idea for Keith Cozart to conduct an interview at a firing range. In an age where blacks fight problems with police brutality, discrimination and a whole bunch of other racial issues, situations like these doesn’t really help. All that dancing on tables in front of executives was all fun and games until shit got real. Here’s hoping he goes the Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne route and records enough music to get through his possible jail sentence. Lesson for struggle rappers everywhere who glorify lawlessness; better hope police don’t start over-relying on Rap Genius.
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Sidenote: Somewhere in America, some idiot is printing “Free Shmurda” shirts as we speak; even more idiots are hashtagging #FreeShmurda.
Andre: I’m just going to go ahead and say that this is a kind of tragedy. The dancing man from all those playful Vines and the turbid, leaked video as studio watchers stopped and gazed has now found himself in a type of hot water reserved for bond villains, crooked cops or the mob. Everyone will wave their flag of self-righteousness now. We are those studio watchers, too. Everyone will say he was stupid or that he had it coming or, “Why would you need that many guns, anyway?” But when your favorite rapper spits something akin to “What do you think all the guns is for…” you, we, nod slightly, smile, spill our drinks and keep dancing. And, no one can say his wasn’t a meteoric rise.
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This is the America that does not indict police officers when their targets are, well, Bobby Shmurda. And this is the America where they roll out looking like video game end bosses when people are peacefully trying to protest. But, I digress. Bill Bratton, the resident watchman of New York City’s boys in blue had this to say about (Ackquille Pollard) Bobby and his GS9 compatriots, “These are bad people,” Bratton said at a press conference. “They shouldn’t be celebrated.” This according to the New York Daily News.
Let’s talk about Bill Bratton. He’s the kind of person you’d find in a Scorsese film. Hard-nosed and sardonic, Bill thinks he and Guliani were the one’s who cleaned up NYC in the early to mid 90s. He’s from Boston, and he even has a paper you can find online called “Zero Tolerance: Policing A Free Society.” Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Whatever. De Blasio picked him up to gain support from the elite quacks that really run New York City. It’s a mistake he has already come to regret.
This is bigger than Bobby Shmurda. It’s bigger than the lame duck single that was “Bobby Bitch” or the fact that his rise was fueled by social media. It’s the refusal to see. An article about how Al Capone could have escaped Alcatraz was written two days ago! There’s a mythology to the “gangster.” The guy or guys or woman or women or whoever who step outside of the bounds of normal law abiding citizens and do what they feel they must. The one’s who are celebrated wear suits, not G-Raw, though, right? And maybe these are bad people doing all sorts of misdeeds. But, like Bobby’s oversized lawyer (Howard Greenberg) had to say to the press last night, “My guy has the world in the palm of his hands. He needs to commit crimes like I need to fly the space shuttle.”
Sidenote: Everything was all good just a week ago.
Ural Garrett is an Los Angeles-based writer and photographer. For the past several years, he’s written for numerous publications ranging from HipHopDX to SoulTrain. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
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Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones•
