Diddy has voiced his issues with the lack of identity in New York Hip Hop, and he believes the Big Apple has to stop biting other regions.
During a recent conversation with Funk Flex on Hot 97, the Bad Boy boss admitted he’s tired of New York City being in “last place” and urged the city’s rappers to step up and embrace their roots.
“New York, we’re in last place,” Diddy said. “I’m here to tell y’all, and that shit comes to an end today. We’re gonna start doing us. The way you hear the beat in your head, do you. The way you move, do you. The way you dress, do you. Don’t be doing them, God bless them.”
He continued: “A New York cat is not supposed to be following nobody nowhere for nothing. Because we come from a rich culture of artists and designers and creatives. New York was always leaders, and we don’t blend in, b. We from New York, the fuck?”
Diddy stated his intentions to lead the way and set an example for other New York artists to follow with his own upcoming music. “That’s what I’m doing. I’m going to lead the way,” he said. “I’m doing me, New York, unapologetically.”
Diddy echoed a similar sentiment during his interview with The Breakfast Club on Wednesday (October 5), where he specifically addressed the influence of trap and drill — sub-genres synonymous with Atlanta, Chicago and London — on New York Hip Hop.
“I’m here to deliver a message to New York artists,” Puff began. “We have to press the hard reset button and get back to being us. I love that we know how to rap on trap beats, I love that we know how to rap on drill beats from London, but what are we rapping on that’s coming out of this city? I don’t want to sit back and see my city stay in last place and keep on following what everyone else is doing.”
He added: “We the swag, we the alpha, you know what I’m saying? The alpha and omega, we started it. And no disrespect to nobody else, we should be competing from New York in a way you have to figure out, ‘Ok, this is what’s going, that’s going on. How am I gonna produce something that makes our people move so we could do us?'”
Diddy’s comments come on the heels of a long-running identity crisis in New York Hip Hop. Despite birthing the genre and reigning supreme in the ’80s and ’90s, the city experienced a decline in the mid 2000s when Atlanta and other southern cities such as Miami, Houston and New Orleans began to dominate the charts, clubs and airwaves.
Since then, many rap stars from the Rotten Apple have been accused of adopting the styles of other regions, from Dipset embracing the South to A$AP Rocky’s Houston-inspired sound to the Chicago and London-influenced drill wave that dominates the city today.
Diddy Clarifies His ‘R&B Is Dead’ Comments: ‘It’s Not Disrespect’
Fellow New York rap veteran Fat Joe also shared his thoughts on New York Hip Hop’s demise on Instagram Live in July, and blamed the egos and rivalries in the city in the 2000s.
“New York Hip Hop was destroyed single-handedly by ego,” he declared. “The South saw how we fucked it up — meaning Atlanta — and they cliqued up and said, ‘We not gonna make that mistake.’ We got Roc-A-Fella, we got Ruff Ryders, we got Terror Squad, we got G-Unit, we got Dipset.”
He added: “As soon as muthafuckas started getting hot and started getting a different type of money, they started feeling like they that person, they that guy. It’s so many Kings of New York. Even me — every week someone said they the king.
“That’s all ego. It fucks up your ability to work with each other, to get money with each other, to embrace each other, to come up.”
New York is a melting pot.
How is it not going to be influenced from every side?
Bc NY culture is Black culture. It’s a melting pot of other nationalities and races copying and being influenced by black culture. When black NY culture strayed away from what made it so influential to copy the southern trend they lost their creativity.
It is too much money in the machine. New York rappers stuck together in the 80s and 90s because they had to. Now nobody is really working with each other due to money and ego. Think about it…why isn’t there a Jay and Nas EP? Or Fat Joe featuring Joey Badass album? Or Raekwon and Mos Def album? New York did it to themselves.
He’s right. But a little self-critizism wouldn’t hurt tho, as he did nothing for NY hiphop with that jiggy pop shit. Chasing the duckets in his own era, now that he’s loaded, rooting for culture and authenticity. Sheesh.
STFU, Diddy. You’re the reason NYC Hip Hop is half dead in the first place. You r**** Biggie and his family out of his money while he was alive then when he was getting close to leaving an making some real money you set him up to get killed and since you own all his masters and publishing, you profit off his estate more than anyone else. Then you sign all your other Bad Boy artist to shady deals and never allowed them to grow or showed them the rules to the game like most people would. You use them to ghostwrite for you for your albums and then throw them away. You also adopt all these stupid fad trends,reality show BS and dances in and try to incorporate them into hip hop too thinking that shit is going to be the future when it’s really just garbage in the first place. Try being a stand up guy for once and stop being such and egotistical money grubbing power hungry diva, then maybe NYC would be more than just Nas, DMX, Jay-Z, What’s left of Biggie’s legacy after you r**** it, Jadakiss(The Lox), Rakim, Run-DMC, Lloyd Banks, Raekwon, KRS-One, and LL Cool J.
Also, French Montana is absolute garbage. That’s why he’s been the only Bad Boy Artist that’s been signed to your record label for so long cuz he’s sucks ass and he’s too stupid to realize that he’s getting fvcked out of his money.
It was bound to happen. The 90’s has passed. The only thing constant in life is change. Music has always been something that evolved. Artists are wise to adapt.
Y’all still using that picture lol. Dude looking at Diddy like “Imma smash the shit outta that later.” C’mon.. Take That…. picture down already. Y’all going to give Fabulous PTSD…LMAO!!!!
Bruh they know what they doing lmao
Brooklyn Drill, Trap, Scream, and Mumble aka Cloud Rap contributed to it’s congestive heart failure.
How is a person that can’t rap, be the person that saves NY Hip Hop, gtfoh. He had the same complaints with r&b and he can’t hold a note. NY been lost they identity, drill rap, bloodin and crippin, they been trying to fit in. Blame the internet and streaming, nothing’s regional anymore, everything is accessible.
Well the problem is at one time you wouldn’t even listen to the rapper that was not in your part of town oh he from queens he from Harlem ect. That took the city apart
They shitted on every coast for so long. I know it hurt there soul that young rappers don’t wanna be like BIG or Jay, they wanna be NBA, Durk, Cheif Keef, Atlanta rappers. Hurt they soul country boys took there rap game All that hating caught up.
No u know wats hurtn us northern bros is that wen we had it we neva stuck together as the south does remember that ,I wanna big up the other coast for learning from our hiccups also he’s saying not to follow the coasts bc he n jay n others r the reason y northern rappers r last
That napoleon complex gating caught up to them.
Just hear black men here, from single baby mommas getting horny! yet he’s just raising these same blackmen to do better for their own life.