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Another Thought
Process Edition:
“A Rapper’s Rapper”
Written by: Jay Howard
Rapindustry.com
Disclaimer: This article is strictly
based on MY opinion. I realize that this may not be the feelings of you, the
reader. You are entitled to your opinion on this subject matter.
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“A
Rapper’s Rapper”
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The Grammy
Awards. BET and Movie Awards. Vibe Awards. Source Awards. Whatever awards
show that any TV network, magazine, or music committee feels like assembling
together and broadcasting we end up watching it on television, reading about
it, or hearing about it later. Many times as fans we watch these awards shows
and when someone wins an award (or loses) are feelings are “WTF?!?!”
Even artists themselves often feel cheated from the results of these shows.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP), 50 Cent, Kanye West, etc. and many others have
protested against the committees or individuals who run the shows, voters,
or whoever they actually feel is responsible for their loss.
So what if there was a so-called “Rapper’s Guild” or a “Hip-Hop
Union” that could host, sponsor, nominate, and vote for their own awards?
The entertainers in Hollywood have already put this idea into motion and recently
held the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild award ceremony. I am not sure on
the details and/or stipulations of the show or the voting, but hip-hop artists
could take this idea and put it into motion if everyone put their heads together
and made it happen.
One of the reasons I propose this is because, yes, many times people are biased.
Artists are often their own best critics, and could also show respect and
love for other artists through this “awards show”. Why should some
members of a Grammy committee that might only pick up five rap albums a year
decide who deserves Hip Hop Album of the Year? The Source was accused of being
biased (and later attacking) against the Aftermath label and all of its artists
a few years ago, and if they had hosted an awards show during the time, many
well-deserving artists undoubtedly would have been shunned in the process.
In addition, many times media outlets such as TV networks often shove the
same rappers down our throats repeatedly and overlook many lesser known artists
and underrated talents that deserve their shine too. I remember an issue of
XXL a few years ago where random rappers were asked to pick their “starting
five” of best rappers. It was interesting seeing the responses of many
of the rappers and seeing who they respect and why. It was a lot more enlightening
for me to see how rappers felt about other rappers, then seeing how the magazine
feels about the rappers because this is the point of view is always accustomed.
Yes, Lil Wayne is a hot rapper right now, but the need to have him in 20 magazines
a month and on TV every 3 seconds is not hot. What is even more absurd is
the fact he has not even put out a new studio album in over a year. I’m
not hatin’ on Wayne, but another rapper that puts out hot music and grinds
hard such as Lupe Fiasco for example deserves shine too. Rappers like T.I.
and Young Buck listened to UGK for years and looked up them when they were
coming into the game, but some of the bigger media outlets such as MTV and
such never caught on to the group until the last few years (or when Jay-Z
did the “Big Pimpin’ video), and its unfortunate because a classic
album like Ridin’ Dirty never got the shine it deserved until after the
fact. A posthumous rapper like Big L, who didn’t receive much love mainstream
(but is constantly praised by his peers as one of the greatest) could get
some shine on a bigger stage, as too often rappers such as L, receive credit
to late and are overlooked by a national audience. Although some rappers prefer
it that way.
The “Rapper’s Guild” could only be successful (and more importantly,
different from other award committees) if there were particular guidelines
and stipulations that would help everything go smoothly. For one, only allow
rappers, producers, and artist moguls to nominate and vote for artists. When
I only say artist moguls can vote, I mean artists/executives. This would mean
moguls such as Diddy, Dr.Dre, Scarface, Jermaine Dupri, etc. would be legible
while others such as Steve Rifkand, Dame Dash, or Lyor Cohen would not. While
it might be unfair that someone who is obviously in touch with the music and
culture like Dame Dash wouldn’t be able to vote, some random bigwig exec
at a label that has alternative music, rock, and pop on his label and just
wants to vote for something because its hot on MTV (I.e. Jive, Columbia,)
would not be eligible to vote. Record label executives that aren’t artists,
A&Rs, managers, promoters, and others would not be allowed to nominate
or vote for artists. No magazines, no music journalists, no critics, no fans,
only rapper‘s and producers past and present could exercise power. “Old
school” rappers can also vote/nominate for talent, even if they’re
not active artists anymore (Kid n’Play or CL Smooth for example).
Another rule that the Guild can put into place is that only rappers that have
been in the game for a certain amount of time or been accepted into the guild
can vote. This action would avoid having potential “one hit wonders”
or artists that have little sense of history watering down the guild . No
offense to rappers like Soulja Boy or Lil Mama, but they would have to be
accepted by their peers first, or release a certain amount of albums to be
able to have power in the guild. Maybe in the beginning for the first year
each record label could designate a certain number of rappers that would be
the representatives from their label to comprise the guild and each year add
more. For example, if the label was Def Jam, the representatives could be
Jay-Z (music mogul remember?) Ghostface, Redman, Black Thought, Beanie Siegel,
and LL Cool J. One possibility could be to let each label only pick certain
artists to represent their label and every year enlist a different set to
vote, with rappers making repeat appearances only every few years or so. If
we still stick with the Def Jam example one year the Guild could be the aforementioned
artists and the next year it could be Nas, Method Man, Memphis Bleek, Redman,
and Ghostface. Red and Ghost would only be allowed to vote/nominate two years
in a row and the next year they have to sit out or they could alternate years
and pick different voters/nominators each year. Smaller labels could be granted
more flexibility, (for lack of members to rotate each year) sort of like in
the presidential race where each state has a certain number of delegates to
vote. This would prevent the biggest crews or labels racking up the most awards
and you could make a rule to prevent artists for voting for themselves. They
can however nominate themselves for awards, but cannot vote for themselves.
Give the artists a limit such as 3 categories they can nominate themselves
in so that someone such as 50 Cent doesn’t fill up the ballot list with
all the things he thinks he was the best at. This would make the voting fun,
as a rapper that feels his/her album wasn’t promoted right or received
enough attention could nominate themselves, yet they can’t vote for themselves.
The Guild could make the nomination announcements a few months in advance
to the actual awards show to give artists time to listen to albums that they
might have overlooked in their busy schedules.
Different categories in the Guild could be the same as many of the other awards
shows such as Best Album, Best Group, Best Song, Best Independent Label, Lifetime
Achievement Award, Rookie of the Year, Best Video etc. They could also borrow
categories from other awards committees like Lyricist of the Year, Cameo King/Queen
of the Year, Executive of the year, Best Collabos etc. In addition, awards
for producers could be more abundant as many times awards shows such as BET
and MTV overlook the producers that create the sounds capes for the hits we
know and love. Performances could be done between awards presented and one
lucky or charismatic artist could host the show. No actors, MTV Djs, magazine
editors, or models etc. would host the event; strictly a show for artists
by artists. No offense to the Chris Rocks and Ben Stillers of the entertainment
world, but I would love to watch two charismatic artists such as Ludacris
and Missy host a rap awards show for two hours instead of a network picking
whatever entertainer they think is “hot” at the time.
This idea could help hip-hop because it would give more recognition to artists
and projects that the media often overlooks such as the aforementioned example
of UGK’s album Ridin Dirty. Also, it would give more credibility to awards
that artists are nominated for and receive. I would imagine a rapper/producer
like Kanye West would be much more pleased to receive an award from his peers
rather then a Grammy committee or TV network. The fact that artists within
the game are picking favorites could allow some more validity to the awards
received. The list of the top five rap albums of the year that the Grammy
committee creates would undoubtedly be different from the list that the guild
creates. The guild could also bring about more “friendly competition”
amongst artists, which would in turn result in better music being released,
which would be good news for everyone.
Hey, my idea might be a good one. It just might work. Maybe there is already
some type of guild out there or organization that I don’t know about
that is similar to my idea. The annual Justo mixtape awards is a favorite
among artists in the industry and has been going strong for years. It might
be a bad idea, which could create more hatin’ in the game and be disastrous
for the culture. If it is a good idea, maybe some powerful people could bring
it to life. All in all, we can only dream can’t we?
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