I wish I could have been a fly on the corner of Sedgwick and Cedar in the late 70’s. I can see it now: chilling, in my B-Boy stance, watching Kool Herc spinning vinyl, while the birth pains of the new born baby named hip-hop blast through Herc’s parents’ speakers. I wish I could have been there It would have been an amazing opportunity to be that fly, don’t get me wrong- I’m fly, sitting there for hip-hop’s umbilical cord being cut, just so I could ask the crowd: “are all of yall some followers?”

Whether the chicken or the egg came first is a debate for the ages, but there is no disputing rap icon Jay-Z’s stance on followers. The owner of the recently liberated Roc label, has rocked the world again with his recent release: Death of Auto tune. As if his rock-star-Jimmy Hendrix-esque tiny afro, and complimentary dark glasses didn’t clearly convey that Jay’s roguish swag; this song and does.

The song sounds like a stab at a certain artist, but really, it’s a general stabbing of generic artistry. His demands are simple: rappers, just be an artist. Not pop artist, not a trend follower, not a ring tone salesman, and not a dancer, definitely no more dancing rappers (maybe the last one was my point). In other words: think for yourselves.

But the fact that Jay-Z is saying, “stop following trends” - is creating another trend! People are quoting his song on facebook statuses, people are remixing his Death Of Auto tune song (some of which are doing it in auto tune), and most importantly- people are following the leader: Jay-Z- no twitter account needed!

But isn’t that what hip-hop is all about? Following the MC?

Jay-Z made me asking myself, did I follow the music- or did the music follow me?

I mean, I know when Tupac twisted his middle and ring fingers in order to form the world wide recognizable Westside “W” – psht! I was twisting my finger until I got early stages of carpal tunnel syndrome. I know when Ma$e put his ball cap on backwards, I had to- only difference is mines still snapped in the back- so I had to go get one of them fitted ones. Even when the spokesman for FUBU, LL Cool J, rolled his pant leg up- I rolled my pant leg up…and when it didn’t stay up, I put my leg in danger of loosing circulation by putting a rubber band on my calf in order to keep my Old Navy carpenter jeans levitated.

I know Jay-Z is attempting to give life to those who are automatically tuned into popular trends. And hopefully, his b-boy stance is awaking rappers and rap fans alike, causing them to be removed from their comatose slumber, and encouraging them to be autonomous artist and conscious consumers.

When Jay-Z kills the auto tune- isn’t he just creating another trend for people to follow? Yes. Well, wasn’t the crowd following from the start? Yes. Will the crowd follow the artist with their best intentions in mind? We’ll see…Will artist take a stance and demand to stop being pushed around by executives? I hope... as for now, Jay-Z has done his job. He started a movement. thats what an MC should do...cause after all, “M-C means move the crowd…"

This is from my facebook account, where I posed this question about another Jay-Z related trend.
 

With the release of his latest single, "Death Of Autotune", Jay-Z is now in the business of killing trends. Prior to his performance at the BET Awards,its reported that he would not have taken the stage if Chris Brown would had performed... its obvious he's putting foot down, the question is, are other men going to check their womanizing homeboys?
Jennifer Lynn at 12:57pm June 29
i love this! the way its written and the message.

James Ptah-Hotep Morgan at 1:01pm June 29
hmmm..... Your right. We Black Men need to check our womanizing homeboys.... Pendarvis consider yourself checked! lol jk

Sarah Day at 1:01pm June 29
Amen amen amen.

Lèsha Emperess Elumogo at 1:02pm June 29
hmm... (thinking) <--thats a good thing. =) right on.

Shontavia Griffin at 1:02pm June 29
Thank You!

E. Dawson- Bey at 1:03pm June 29
its more to checkin than discipline.

Gibran Mills at 1:06pm June 29
lol, this same jay-z?
http://hiphop.blogs.com/hiphop/images/jiggahittinggirl-thumb.gif

Shontavia Griffin at 1:09pm June 29
Did anyone else notice Lil Wayne's and Drake's performance last night with the little "girls" on stage!? I don't know if they were his daughters or what ... I just felt that the song was Very Inappropriate to have those young girls on stage. Very disappointing, Where do we draw the line people?

pendarvis pensandpistols harshaw at 1:10pm June 29
Gibran- thank you... yes, Mr. Big pimpin spill the bottle on the girl in the video... yes mr. behind the scene face mush.... yes Mr. "only time you love em is when your dicks hard".... he's the one taking a stand... and you know every1 follows jigga- (no twitter needed)... what does it mean that he's manning up?think our patnas will too?

pendarvis pensandpistols harshaw at 1:12pm June 29
ms. griffin- thats my next question....

Gibran Mills at 1:14pm June 29
No issues with the message, just be weary of the messenger, rappers are the biggest hypocrites next to politicians. (see Nas black girl lost/oochie wally). Granted that gif was when hov was younger, and I guess now he has seen the light (see Murda Ma$e/Pastor Mase)

pendarvis pensandpistols harshaw at 1:15pm June 29
so is it a case of "do as i say, not as i do?".... or i had to bump my head to know how high the ceiling was?

Lèsha Emperess Elumogo at 1:24pm June 29
uhmm...probably a combination of the two. I agree that they both had to man up in the game. ie, parents to kids. noones slate is clean. but foreal? im wondering the same thing Ms. Griffin is about them little girls.

Gibran Mills at 1:30pm June 29
lol right, hov trying to bring us up a few notches with that move and YM bringing us back a few on the same night.

Erica Mitchell at 1:31pm June 29
to the ladies who are speaking about the Wayne and Drake performance, I agree that a line has to be drawn some where, but how do we make a statement like that a Billion dollar network, such as B.E.T, a network in my opinion doesn't care about black/brown people, because if they did they wouldn't only portray more negative images of us than positive... Read More. Also, it makes it worse if the little girls on stage were his daughter dancing to a song like that, there is nothing cute, funny or entertaining about that.

Jazmyne Alkebulan-Obama X at 2:06pm June 29
now that's what i'm talkin about. even by posing this question via facebook status, you have in your own way acknowledge the NEED for men to stand the fu*k up.
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