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Hip-Hop is not a taco, it's food for your SOUL

© Steve Juon

People talk smack about capitalism ruining everything but I don't honestly think Mos Def sat in his bedroom and said, "Hmm; I'm gonna record this great song, but I don't want anybody to hear it and I don't want to sell any copies of it because capitalism is evil." Fools gotta EAT. We sell out our beliefs every day to earn bread and water money and the only difference is how far we're willing to go; just shades and degrees. Aceyalone and Ice Cube are one in the same because they both make money. Cube might make more because he's more commercially acceptable but that's his choice and I don't hate him for it; in fact lately I think he's been making some good shit. As much as I yap about Puff Daddy making bad music I can't blame him either because he wants to eat too. The term "starve for your art" is misleading because almost NOBODY starves for their art for real. Some people make enough money for three meals a day, some for two, and some who are REALLY uncompromising might eat one a day because their work is so obscure and unaccesible only diehard supporters buy it - but if you're really STARVING then either your shit's so wack nobody buys it or you just don't know how to sell it. People like that shouldn't do art for a living anyway.

I'm getting a little off the point here but I think you see what I mean. If you can convince the "20,000 emcees" to not sell their records because capitalism is evil and all move into a commune where they make pure hip-hop just for themselves and nobody else, more power to you. People like capitalism though. They like earning money and they like spending money, and that's why it works. Basic human nature makes us want to eat, and to do that you need money. After you satisfy that, if you have money left over, you want material posessions. After you satisfy that, you put away what's left for the future. We strive for higher levels of satisfaction because we're allowed the chance to. Communism doesn't allow that. It says "be happy with nothing and share with everyone." That's anathema to basic human nature.

Artists are DRIVEN by a need to create, and then they may (or may not) create art purposefully. If you don't have that inner drive to create, you won't do it. Some people just don't have that drive, some have a little of it, some are so overwhelmed by it they can't live unless they are constantly creating (Prince, 2Pac, et cetera).

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