"...I remember how large Super Rhymes was when he fell off I used to wonder
about crews that used to rock They were large, but none of them could manage
to stay on top.."

KRS-ONE "Outta Here" The Return of the Boom-Bap 1993

The concept of "falling off" seems to be undubiously connected with the world of hip-hop. However what i will attempt to do is try and shed more light on this term. The conclusion i hope to discover is as follows, there is no such thing as falling off. If one is to come with this conclusion, you have to make a more refined defintion of hip hop music in general (This is omission of the elements of the culture). However there is one element that has to be considered. Everything in life degenerates period. As you grow older, your body loses muscle mass, it gets more frail, and your focus loses it's direction for it's constant division. Nothing can remain in efficient form forever, from human beings to buildings. Dengeration will come later on into this assesment.

The defintion of hip hop music will take this form. Imagine a room filled with storytellers. The ages of the storytellers are from various generations, and both female and male. In the center of the room is the current storyteller of this generation. He or she is the one that is telling stories that gathers attention, all the while to older storytellers watch to make sure that the story is outlined correctly. As time goes on, a new storyteller will emerge. They
would have obtained wisdom from the storytellers in that room, to be able to
carry on the tradition. However on an occassion, the storytellers in the back
of the room will get a chance to re-tell a story, and say a new one.

-cont-

Mr. Sandman

Hello I am Mr Versatile A.K.A RVD A.K.A JDubs. I with my partner in crime Mr. Sandman go by the tag J&L. I am gonna show the rest of the points of view from the music world. I am very diverse in the kinds of music I like. Honestly a little of everything, except country and a limited amount of opera and reggaeton. I can go about 2 or 3 reggaeton songs a day after that it is overkill. Today as I introduce my point of view I will cover some wanna be hip hop. I was on a tv show yesterday and man was I embarrassed to even be there. The guest were DEM FRANCHISE BOYZ. I have heard of them before and seen the first video but whatever you not my kind of shit. I had to suffer in this audience pretending to not throw up to what I was listening to. They explained this and that, you know their music is a new style of the south. What the fuck is that, "lean wit it rock wit it" and that other song oh I think they like me are still nothing new. I mean they are basically taking the Fat Joe Lean Back dance and add a lean to the right then lean to the left and a little shimmy to it. New stuff, my ass. That is a sad state of affairs that crap like this is released under hip hop. I am going come back next time with an old school then new school review of some rock that I like. I will go with Korn, their latest album and then a previous one.
-Mr Versatile

..This is what you waited all year for, the hardcore....
KRS-ONE "MC's Act Like They Don't Know (1995)"





I really can't place my finger on what is the true definition of hardcore. I think what makes it even more astounding is, what makes people drawn to it. The following is webster's definition of the word hardcore:

hard-core also hard·core (härdkôr, -kr)adj.

• Intensely loyal; die-hard: a hard-core secessionist; a hard-core golfer.
• Stubbornly resistant to improvement or change: hard-core poverty.
• Extremely graphic or explicit: hard-core pornography.

In the realm of hip-hop music, I think the final part of the definition fits well. However it can mean so many other things. I will try to bring some clarity to this idea. I think to say an artist is hardcore, does not mean the obvious. How many drugs his/she has sold, how many guns & money, etc., they have in possession. Those things are more of material possession in which every human being has the potential to attain. Instead hardcore is more of a presence, almost like an aura. When a person speaks, people will tend to be affected. That voice tends to move people, and create vigor, enlightenment.
When an emcee speaks with that presence using his dexterity and command of vocabulary, that makes the emcee hard-core. The content in which he/she speaks is again, connected to the definition.

The other day I heard a posse cut. Take jadakiss, beanie sigel, fabulous, sheek lock all on one track with a basic beat. The premise is that there lyrics are going to ride out the beat. All the aforementioned emcees, have never lived up to any hype they have attained. While they have a distinct wordplay and wit about them, there content all mimic each other. It was as if, they all were saying the same thing, the same verse. One of my friends, said that the song was hardcore. I very much doubt it was. I would say take a young Ice cube and Kool G Rap together on one track. That would be hardcore, for they would speak in such fierce command you would sit there and listen.

It used to be about hood and tim's....now it is about blouses and skirts....Do you know the meaning of hardcore?

Mr.Sandman