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Being Open Minded

© Steve Juon

Yet again, the rec.music.hip-hop newsgroup forces me to respond.

> I don't want to butt in. But who the hell would want to listen to a > all-southern show? How many *dope* southern acts are there?

Here we go again.

Big Mike, Bushwick Bill, Da King and I, Danja Mowf, Eightball, Fesu, Ganksta Nip, Geto Boys, Goodie Mob, K-Otix, Mad Skillz, Mass Influence, MJG, Mystikal, OutKast, Organized Noise, Willie D, Y'all So Stupid, need I really go on naming names? You could easily fill a show every week with dope artists from the South without even using No Limit (although Mystikal did switch from Jive, but I liked him before that).

Closed minded ---. Why am I thought of as the asshole? Cause people like this PISS ME OFF. "Oh why should I listen to any shit from the South/East/West/Midwest I'm from the Midwest/West/East/South and THAT SHIT IS WACK."

If you can't have an open mind and appreciate hip-hop no matter where it comes from, you deserve my middle finger and THEN some.

Since when did the fact that hip-hop started in the Bronx make it a fact that you can only appreciate hip-hop FROM the Bronx? If we're going to be quite technical and literal about it, then you have to go to the West Indies and Western Africa because the oral and rhythmic traditions of those cultures (especially the griot, or storyteller) gave birth to hip-hop long before it existed in it's modern incarnation. So therefore, you can only appreciate rap that COMES from the continent of Africa because that's where it started - now do you SEE how the logic fails?

I think Rakim said it best: "It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at."

Peace, Flash

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