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Even though its been out for a couple of weeks, I finally saw the Busta Rhymes video for New York Shit last night. The video was good (a lot of the footage is from this year's Hot 97 Summer Jam), but I have to wonder if these are the people we want repping New York rap if its going to reclaim its status at the top of the game. Swizz Beats certainly isn't the producer that makes me think New York is on the comeback, and Busta Rhymes and Papoose aren't going to be the MCs to carry the city on their shoulders.
It was interesting to see the selections made for the video to highlight other artists who are on their "New York Shit." Q-Tip, Rakim and Big Daddy Kane made it for the video, but that's about it for any substantial New York MCs. My guess is that Jay-Z can't afford to show any signs of regionalism now that he's the president of Def Jam, and he was probably too busy to appear in the video anyway. Busta is on the same label as G-Unit, yet 50 Cent wasn't in the video, which seems like an admission that few hip hop fans in the NY identify him with the city. ODB gets a shout out, but nobody else from the Wu-Tang appears. Ghostface has been doing his best to rep NY rap, but he didn't make the cut for the video apparently. Nas? Mobb Deep? M.O.P.? Fat Joe? Nope. KRS-1 makes it onto the remix of the song, so we can assume he would have been up for the video.
Kid Capri, Kay Slay, Flex and Cipha were some of the DJs that were shown, but if there's one DJ that embodies New York rap it would have to be DJ Premier. Where was he? I suspect the average hip hop fan, New York or otherwise, don't even know who a lot of these people in the video are. Good thing their names were all written on the screen, I guess.
The absence of these artists makes me think one of two things: either most of them aren't buying into the whole regionalism movement, or (more likely) they don't think the time is right to start up a movement for NY rap's comeback. The final two months of this year are expected to see releases from Jay-Z, Nas, Saigon, 50 Cent and M.O.P. I think those albums will be a lot more effective than Busta's attempts to bring NY back.
Joe Budden did a New Jersey version of the song which I like better than Busta's. If you're not from Jersey, though, most of the references Joe makes are probably meaningless to you. Have a listen:
New Jerz Ish
In other news, the long-delayed Pharrell Williams album has leaked out onto the internet. I don't get down with the p2p game, so I haven't heard it, but reviews I've seen on various blogs so far have not been very positive. Pharrell has never shown anything on his guest appearances to suggest he has the potential to be a great lyricist and Can I Have It Like That was borderline pop music, so I'm not entirely surprised by the reviews. Still, I suspect at the very least the album will have some good beats on it and I'll most likely pick it up when it comes out. You can read Byron Crawford's review here, and hear a few of the tracks from AmIHigh.
7/19/2006 10:20:52 AM posted by Fresh