So if you haven’t heard by now, the VH1 Hip Hop Honors are back. And with that also came the trend of hiring today’s rappers to pay homage to a pioneer whose lyrics they don’t know. There’s fumbling through a word or two. There’s the Lupe Fiasco head scratching moment when he forgot ATCQ lyrics. Then there’s Rich Homie Quan. There are few things sacred in Hip Hop: the lyrics to Notorious BIG’s verse on “Get Money” being one of them.
Before you can really address the man who from here forth will now be affectionately known as #RichHomieKaraoke, one has to really wonder who made the call to choose him as the artist to honor Biggie’s verse. Were Lil Kim and Diddy consulted? How did that conversation go?
Diddy: “So Lil Kim will perform one of Hip Hop’s most iconic songs ‘Get Money’ after being introduced by the woman whose man she was sleeping with. It’ll be perfect.”
VH1: “Yeah yeah cool, but instead of actually having Junior M.A.F.I.A. come out and perform with her, let’s hip it up. Let’s use this show which appeals to an older demographic to reach the kids this show isn’t meant for.”
Diddy: **stops mid-bite into his slice of cheesecake** “You want to replace Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Biggie with Da Band or something?”
VH1: “Got someone even better: A person who couldn’t possibly relate less to this generation of music. Young Thug. Nah he’s probably busy. Who’s that other guy? The feeling some way or another type of guy. Rich Homeboy? Perfect. We’ll throw some #FFFFFF white skinny jeans on him, a Coogi that was ran through the dryer and no one will notice he’s not the Notorious One.”
Bruh.
Let’s assume for a second that #RichHomieKaraoke wasn’t a Biggie fan growing up. That’s fair. I wasn’t necessarily one either as a kid. I’ve always gravitated toward West Coast Hip Hop as a youth. You better believe I know the lyrics to “Get Money.” Biggie has two arguable top 10 Hip Hop albums of all time. There’s no excuse. He literally “got money” to perform this verse. How hard would it have been to hit up Genius and rap along to the song while reading the lyrics until you got it down?
“Play Nintendo with Cease at Alamo.” Why the fuck would Lil Cease and Biggie be playing Nintendo at the car rental spot? Just how long did it take to rent a car in 1995 that car rental spots had video game systems hooked up for patrons to play?
SOMEONE PLEASE FIND JA! WHERE IS JA RULE TO MAKE SENSE OF THIS?
Rich Homie Karaoke’s fall from disgrace to Lupe Fiasco levels of low continue to shine a spotlight on the disconnect between Hip Hop generations. When anybody who calls themselves an MC can’t even mumble words to even resemble the lyrics of one of the iconic songs of your profession? That’s a serious problem. Hell, do you think anyone actually knows a Bone Thugs-N-Harmony lyric? No. But we all can mumble the right pattern until we get to, “AND I MISS MY UNCLE CHARLES, Y’ALL!”
In 2016, it’s almost worn like a badge of honor to disrespect a generation of Hip Hop you didn’t come up in or can’t relate to. Who is responsible for bringing up the current generation of rap and rap aficionados? At what point does personal responsibility and being a true master of your craft come into play? There’s simply no excuse for what happened on that VH1 stage. Hip Hop is the only genre of music where we discard our legends with the trash.
We often like to ponder what things would be like if 2Pac and Biggie were still alive while today’s generation has all but written off ATCQ, De La Soul, and the likes. I say “all but written off” because I don’t honestly know more than five kids of this generation who can name three songs from A Tribe Called Quest or a single De La Soul song.
And that’s disturbing.
On the other side of that coin, however, you have a genre of music whose pioneers could care less about connecting and building up the new generation. Can you honestly expect a kid growing up in New Orleans, 30 years your junior, even having an opportunity to know who the hell Showbiz & AG are? Knowing what a Large Professor is? How could they? That’s not only a period of rap far removed from their generation but also from their lifestyles. How can you fault them?
Could you imagine Isiah Thomas slapping the ball out of Chris Paul’s hand and saying, “You could never be me little Jody?” Do you think Jim Brown sat on the sidelines of Detroit Lions games and said, “Who is this Barry Sanders punk? What does he know about running the ball?” No. In every other form of entertainment, in every other genre of music you have the legends that are active in the growth and development of their craft.
Why can’t we have that in Hip Hop? I ain’t got the answers, Sway, but maybe you can chime in with solutions in the Community Section.
They should have gotten Joey Badass, an actual Brooklyn rapper.
They should have gotten Desiigner, an actual Brooklny rapper. #sarcasm
Desiigner isn’t a rapper nor an MC. #nosarcasm
Not to support Desiigner or anything but for some reason I bet he would have learned every. fucking. lyric if they had asked him, just for the fact that he comes off to me as someone who wants to be liked. Fuck RHQ for this. (It’s my first time seeing it)
word but cuz Joey’s not as big in the mainstream as RHK, they overlook him. i swear, hip hop does itself no favors
Joey Badass would have been a perfect person to have do that verse.
rich homie always has an excuse fir why he blows just like after that westwood freestyle, it doesn’t matter that much since he is on par w most of his contemporaries.
Actually, Jim Brown called out the Browns’ draft pick of Trent Richardson. He said dude is nothing special, and by all accounts it’s been proven true. You can’t build up something without talent. That’s fraudulent. There are certain things that should always be true. I want my quarterbacks to be able to throw. And I want my rappers to be able to rap. If that’s too hard of a concept, then hope is loss. Besides, most people don’t have a problem with Kendrick or J. Cole.
The metaphor of Jim Brown was just a metaphor. Yes in certain situations I know a legend in sports may not like a current player but for the most part you don’t see legends in sports openly attack, disparage, disrespect, or disregard today’s players unprovoked or for no reason.
Jim Brown criticizing Trent Richardson wasn’t unprovoked, it was him being asked his opinion and giving it.
Shit I made my $ and gave up on rap hip hop round 2000 props for trying to hold onto it but Krit & RTJ the only “new” cats I bother to listen to & if they have a feature I’ll give whoever’s in the verse a shot & Lupe actually had some decent but it is what it is man when in Rome get. $ all these skinny wearing ignorant folks hella fruity to me I don’t even mess with women that jam to some of these cats
& killer Mike the only cat from the 90s coming consistent need bun & outlast to drop something to show these fool faces deeply rooted shitsss in most recorded last year
lol this fool rich homie quan – man the south really setting hiphop back unless its talking about it “going down in tha trap” or “bad bitches this and that”. why they so foolish down there? Nick Grant is a fresh voice from the south but them fools cant even see it.
Does anyone have a hot bar from quan that they can quote ? my nigga my nigga ?
Well Rich Homie is only a year younger than me, and to tell the truth I understand. I’ve only heard ‘Get Money’ a handful of times, growing up how the hell am I supposed to get my hands on Junior’s “Conspiracy”? Why would I even want to? Maybe have him perform a song off “Ready To Die” or “Life After Death”, and he’ll be fine.
This article ended as dumb as possible. There are gonna be people that say no one matches Jim Brown. There are gonna be people that say no one matches Barry. No one matches Adrian Peterson, etc. Impossible to compare generations. That’s why ESPN has been running the Jordan vs Lebron story for the past 15 years. Not to mention, knowing Large Professor lyrics are a bit different than being paid to know Biggie lyrics. Come on bro. BIG is a top 5 MC period and he was being paid to know the song. If they want to make an athletic comparison, it would be like Lebron playing a tribute game for Magic Johnson and having him shout out the Celtics. Cmon man.
Man Rich Homie just tried to turn it into a trap song. He really did nice tho: “Get Money, Yea, Hands Up, Yea, Yea, Yea.” #SuperFutureLyricalLevel 4REAL.
wrong about the jim brown comment, didn’t he threaten to come back when Franco was getting close to his record
fuck all you kids after year 2000.
you’re not hip hop 4 elements and the beatbox.
get the fuck out of the culture.
stop rapping
stop making beats
just leave.
you can’t freestyle and you all look ugly af
you don’t have street slang
you don’t have respect for the black motherfuckers that all made a milli albums for you all to listen to in the 1980s and 1990s
you all can’t make music and can’t fucking sing or hold a note for 4 seconds to save your lives and you all are so socially and intellectually dumb that none of your “lyrics” will ever be remembered in musical entertainment history because it’s not about who you are (anyone can sing) it’s about what your LYRICS are? (is your song good? do you have any actual lyrical content wordplay? styles , flavor , funk , rhythm , grace , beauty , poetry , language arts , science , mathematics , geography/geometry , detail display designs , song structure , creative energy , it’s mostly the voice (GURU) , sounds and sequential syllables , volume , voice , artwork
please.
you all are ruining the hard work of the last 5 generations of blackpeople before you all.
you millennials are not entitled to one fucking pink penny. work and earn your worth and position , or GET THE FUCK OUT OF LIFE
FUCK YOU.
and if you don’t agree , nobody gives a fucking god damn shit about you anyways , cuz none of you young fucking punks or stupid fucking losers ever respect your elders or anyone who gave you everything you have , so please , if you know what ‘saving face’ means or having a shred of dignity (self-respect) then ALL OF YOU EITHER MAKE BETTER MUSIC THAN THE LEGENDS OF THE PAST IN THE GOLDEN ERA (1990s) and THE OLD SCHOOL ERA (1980s) or , in the name of black jesus Christ almighty , GET THE FUCK OUT OF HIP HOP CULTURE. ALL OF YOU.
.
the end.
or love and be like us but as yourselves. we don’t need 100 other versions of all the MCs before us. be unique and original. and you might earn some love back from people who done everything you think you discovered 25 to 50 years before you , and know more about the artform than you did before you were born. It’s all about knowledge of the funk beats , rhymes and life. have some soulpower and some superstyles. if you don’t you are weak and boring and no one will listen to punk youth who got no fucking sounds and stregnth and look ugly as shit. Get some power. Be big. be strong. be adults. be kids. just be flavorful and funky fresh
or else you will be forgiven and forgotten forever. as none hit wonders. lol LMFAO. ha ha ha . pure jokes , yo. word/life, star.
Conspiracy (some black angel that all the devils want to kill for loving everyone except the worst people)