Lest We Forget
Yes, y’all.
Did you catch Jel’s post on Instagram this morning/last night?
The post received a strong response. Lots of discussion in the comments. It really got me thinking…
What does it mean to be remembered? How is music from the past commemorated? Books, of course. And these days there are various podcasts and YouTube channels and whatnot. Funny enough, the earliest days of hip hop (what happened back in the 70s and the first few years of the 80s) are quite heavily documented. Are they documented well? That’s debatable but I’m grateful for the efforts, I suppose. And, of course, there’s always an exhausting amount of discussion about what’s happening in hip hop today - especially mainstream stuff. But the time between the old school era and what we might call the blog era or YouTube era is pretty much a giant black hole.
I can understand Jel feeling like Anticon has been forgotten. But I think the same could be said of other crews and indie labels of the era. When/where do you see any of these names being discussed or lauded:
The Visionaries
Oldominion
The Molemen
Rebel Alliance
Natural Elements
Living Legends
Dälek
Jedi Mind Tricks
Hobo Junction
100X
Remember Peanut Butter Wolf’s first release? The Step On Our Ego’s EP? Where are those artists now? Where are their flowers? And the above mentioned crews all came from large urban centers. Regional scenes further afield? Forget about it. Dust.
The problem doesn’t just affect underground hip hop. So many names from the 80s and 90s have been forgotten including some that were signed to big labels.
Funkytown Pros
Hard Knocks
Black, Rock & Ron
Divine Styler
Troubleneck Brothers
Double XX Posse
Son Of Bazerk
Hostyle
Lakim Shabazz
OG Style
Dred Scott
I could go on and on and on…
Meanwhile we now have a hip hop hall of fame that just indicated Sweet Tee. No shade but she released ONE album and had one memorable song (It’s My Beat, which is certainly dope). Aesop Rock has released 16 albums by my count and although I’d consider him a hall of famer, I’d be shocked if he were ever inducted. But I digress…
As Jel suggests in his post, Anticon was different. The artists on that label pushed the boundaries of hip hop far beyond anything that had been heard before. There was some true innovation happening. Shouldn’t that count for something? Several people who commented on Jel’s post suggested that the influence of Anticon can been seen and heard far and wide today and I agree with that. I hear it all the time. Maybe it’s indirect in some cases, but it’s there.
Take Jel himself, as a prime example. He was the first I ever saw to tap out beats live on a sampler - to truly use it as an instrument. I first saw him do it with the SP-1200, which is mind-blowing. And then, of course, he did it with the MPC. For a while there, he was the only one doing it as far as I could see. A few years later I saw AraabMuzik doing it and now it’s fairly common practice. Whether or not people realize it (and most don’t) it traces back to Jel.
I have a line in a song somewhere where I say “sign Kendrick Lamar to Anticon - it’s not weird”. I remember listening to one of his albums a few years ago (Mr. Morale, maybe?) and thinking, “this doesn’t sound too far off from what Anticon was doing 25 years ago.” That may sound crazy to you but there are experimental elements to some of his music that echo what the weird kids were doing a generation or two before. Was Anticon on Kendrick’s radar when he was a kid? I’d love to ask him that question. But even if it wasn’t, I would bet that it was on the radars of some of his influences.
I work as a media insider for my day job now. I’ve seen how it all works. It never ceases to amaze me how far one person’s idea or opinion can go. As I’m writing this, Jel’s post has 742 likes and 139 comments. All it takes is one person. If one person who clicked that heart icon or wrote a comment started a YouTube channel or a podcast or wrote a book dedicated to underground hip hop in the late 90s or whatever, the whole narrative could change. Sometimes I think about doing it myself.
Someone has to be the one to tell the stories, y’all. Otherwise, important art can and will die. Let’s not let that happen. Who’s with me?
PS - I should shout out Open Mike Eagle whose platform is growing more and more every day and he does give love to Anticon sometimes. His takes on all things hip hop tend to be very much on point. Much love to Open Mike Eagle.