Live it, See it, and Write it because I know it

Woke up this morning with my inbox full... One in particular was time stamped at 4:47am, it was from my partner, T.  As I read it, I knew he was pissed. His tone came through loud and clear. It's my duty to share his experience with you all. Mind you, I knew he went to screening of 'Straight Outta Compton' last night. I could hear T reciting the bars from Easy-E as I read... "I live it, I see it, and I write it because I know it."

...

I'll say it once and for all! Some of the sources of Hip Hop are not worth your time. It's not a black or white thing, hell I work alongside Leslie Mac who is arguably one source who is ahead of the curve and most definitely in tune with hip hop. But some of these messengers claim to be connected to the culture actually have no valid point nor do they need to add the words "Hip Hop" to their social media bios or screen names. Check your sources, check their playlist, quiz them when you see hip hop improprieties. Followers can be bought or just numbers on a profile. It's how they engage with the like minds. The culture is now being painted by someone who does a lil research on the web and has no idea of what the music feels like. Not the sound, but what it feels like. You can't download Hip Hop, you can't find it in an app on the App Store. IJS! I've read all these reviews and  feedback about Straight Outta Compton and they take the wind outta the sails. True hip hop heads can fill in the blanks of the moments that made NWA who they are. Magazines and shows such as Word Up Fresh, Right On, Yo, and The Basement were the pioneering sources of the Hip Hop culture. If you never read, touched or at the least heard of any of those contributing factors to the expansion of the culture...you should take your fingers away from the keyboard. They dove into the artist. 

Written by Terrence Dawson

Diss Records 2015...

So I've been busy working with some of the best DJs in the world and I can't seem to move past this unnecessary beef between Meek Mills and Drake. With Drake's recent drop of 'Back To Back' (Meek Diss) that puts Meek 0-2. Memes have taken rap beef to a new level and really caused the fans to clearly choose a side. I'm not dissing Drakes Diss, but I have diss records that really make this confrontation sound minor. Check out my TOP 5 DISS TRACKS and the deadly bars. 

1.) Tupac - Hit Em Up (BIGGIE & Puff Diss)
Quotable Lyrics
"First off, f*ck your b**ch and the clique you claim/ Westside when we ride, come equipped with game/ You claim to be a player, but I f**cked your wife/We bust on Bad Boys, ni**as f*ked for life" 

2. Notorious BIG - Who Shot Ya (Tupac Diss) 

Quotable Lyrics
"Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete/ Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets/ It's on ni**a, f**k all that bickering beef/ I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek"

3.) Jay Z - Takeover (Nas & Mobb Deep Diss)

Quotable Lyrics
"You said you've been in this ten, I've been in it five, smarten up Nas/ Four albums in ten years ni**a? I could divide/ That's one every two, two of them sh*ts was due/ One was 'nah', the other was Illmatic"

4.) Nas - Ether (Jay Z Diss)
Quotable Lyrics
"When these streets keep calling, heard it when I was sleep/ That this Gay-Z and C*ck-A-Fella Records wanted beef/ Started c*cking up my weapon, slowly loading up this ammo/ To explode it on a camel and his soldiers"

5.) Ice Cube - No Vaseline (N.W.A former members Diss)
Quotable Lyrics
"The Ni**as With Attitudes? Who ya'll fooling!/ Ya'll ni**as just phony/ I put that on my mama and my dead homies/ Yella boys on your team, so you're losing/ Ay yo Dre, stick to producing"

#LeslieMac

Some Of Y'all Ain't Gonna Smile After This One

What can I say about my 420 celebration? It was a true learning experience. I had to write this immediately before I forgot...wink face ;) . My Hip Hop heads are gonna feel nostalgic, and my new school Hip Hop artists are going to feel some type of way. Whatever you choose, I just hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears. You are getting a snippet of the full article "What Happened To The Movement," that will be in the upcoming of n’Rotation's "Mixtape DJ" issue. I'm not going to call any names in this blog, nor in the full article. I will just reflect and report on our conversation. At the end of this piece, I will leave you with something to seriously think about.

We can all agree that the recent police violence against African Americans is making the news at an alarming rate. The marchers, protesters, and the rally leaders are in full swing. The internet is keeping us all united to the cause through hashtags and Twitter posts. Back in the day when there was injustice in the black community, there was a song to bring people together. 

In 1971 Marvin Gaye's masterpiece, "What's Going On" album took on poverty and the injustice facing the black community. This album produced the hits; "What's Going On," "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," and the "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)." It's considered the most

important and passionate record to come out of soul music. Marvin Gaye's connection to his fans allowed his music be the catalyst to ignite the needed unity in the black community. 

1989 brought us Spike Lee's movie, "Do the Right Thing" and with it Hip Hops minister of information Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." “Fear of a Black Planet" was released in1990, but the albums most notably hit single opened Lee’s acclaimed movie. This movie focuses on the realities that the black community is being faced with now...the senseless death of blacks at the hands of cop. The Radio Raheem choking scene was played out in real life when Eric Garner, 43, died after being confronted by police on Staten Island for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally. What was illegal was the choke hold that lead to Garner’s death. Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, “the death was ruled a homicide.”

As P.E. (Public Enemy) pointed out the injustice on the east coast, NWA introduced their west coast accounts of the outrage that was enacted by the LAPD. NWA’s version of fighting the power did not miss a beat. Their lyrics and videos showed the group had no problem going against the grain of rules that segregates people. The 1992 Los Angeles riots was the reaction to a jury's verdict that acquitted four Los Angeles Police Department officers of assault and use of excessive force. This use of excessive force was caught on video. Thousands of people throughout the metropolitan area of Los Angeles rioted over six days beginning on April 29. Ice Cube’s "Wicked," calls this day of the riot "Power to the people."

Hip Hop’s voice against violence and wrongdoing was felt the strongest on the tracks, "Self-Destruction," which featured an All Star East Coast roster. We find KRS-One and D-Nice of Boogie Down Productions leading the charge. The features included; production by Bomb Squad  member Hank Shocklee, MC Lyte, Boogie Down Productions (KRS-One, D-Nice & Ms. Melodie), Stetsasonic (Delite, Daddy-O, Wise, and Frukwan), Heavy D, Kool Moe Dee, Doug E. Fresh, Just-Ice and Public Enemy (Chuck D & Flavor Flav). 

On the West Side of the Hip Hop map, we have the ‘stop the violence’ driven track, "We All In The Same Gang." Doctor Dre provided his production talents to this project. The West Coast All-Star’s roster included; King Tee, Body & Soul (including Dee Barnes), Def Jef, Dr. Dre, MC Ren and Eazy-E of N.W.A, Above The Law, Ice-T, Michel'le

Tone-Loc, J.J. Fad, Young MC, Digital Underground (Money-B and Shock G/Humpty Hump), MC Hammer, and Oaktown's 3.5.7. 

What are we promoting in Hip Hop today? Sex, drugs, and violence? Rich Gang’s "Lifestyle," was a hit, even if we didn't understand what was being said. But after learning the lyrics to this song, are we still interested in that "Lifestyle"? Are we all in love with the CoCo? 

From my own experiences and what I gathered from my comrades is, the culture went from songs speaking on fighting injustice to songs abusing the rights that were fought for during the civil rights movement.  You can rap, but are you enriching

the next person’s life? Is there going to be more than just tweets addressing the recent displays of inequalities or are we waiting on Birdman to stop tripping about the money he owes Lil Wayne? The reality is, that hip-hops voice has been Minimized. I’m listening to Kendrick Lamar's #TPAB and Common and John Legend’s "Glory" to fill the whole for what needs to the focus of the day. Will you promote this for now and be the “Trap Queen” at later date? We can party, but if we don't encourage one another through our loudest megaphone...music, I believe the maltreatments are going to increase. 

Like I said before, "this is just a snippet." You can read the full article in the upcoming n'Rotation The DJ Magazine issue. This is our Mixtape DJ issue, which will feature award winning and some of the Top 100 Mixtape DJs In The World as of 2014.  

I ask you this question… where are you going with Hip Hop?

#LeslieMac

The D.O.C., Justin Night (JT Mohrle) & Dr. Dre

It's a fact! Dallas has a Hip-Hop scene! AND it's a fact that Dallas Hip-Hop is under rated. Well… as I sat down to listen to more music in my inbox, I got a text from T, "check this link out. It's classified G-14 lol". After digging and researching, I found out about, "The D.O.C., Justin Night (JT Mohrle), and Dr. Dre.” 

Thanks to the staff at Dallas-based D Magazine, I have what some will scratch their head to. I went to JT's Instagram and let me tell you he's not missing a photo op. His studio sessions include the likes of the Aftermath team, Xzibit, BJ The Chicago Kid, Gwen Stefani, and more.

 

Read this now and believe me later… Network with like minded souls! Dallas native D.O.C. put JT in the hands of Dr. Dre. Straight Outta Garland to California, this 23-year old white rapper seems to be the industry’s next biggest mystery. Yep, now everyone knows his name and will see his Instagram, but music...you'll have to wait on it. The boys have erased him from the net except for a few tracks that still won't give you a definitive answer to why Dre is making JT his goto guy. 

Mohrle has been in the lab mirroring the studio ethic of Tupac when he first landed on Death Row Records. JT has moved to the west coast and is grinding out 13-hour sessions at Record One. The Sherman Oaks, California studio has been Dre’s second home for the past decade and JT considers it to be his second home as well.

What is Dre currently working on? One can only speculate. In his interview all JT can admit to is that he's spent nearly every minute since touching down in L.A. writing lyrics in the studio. But he can’t revel where these lyrics will end up. One thing is for sure...The Triple D has another claim in Hip-Hop history, and it's by the way of a 23-year old white rapper. This could open up the door for the hidden heat that pounds through the speakers of the DFW metroplex.

A message to all artist...Open-Mics means that a stage is open AND you're never too big for a new fan. JT has been touching stages around the metroplex and beyond amassing a following that grew into a snowball that caught the attention of the people who propelled him into the right direction. Some of my Dallas readers will scratch their heads and say, "I ain't heard of this cat". Well, pride didn't stop him from going where some won't go. #IJS

The running theme in the Triple D is, 0 to none "real connections", which leads to, a lack of exposure. “I think that from top to bottom, Dallas as a city has been lacking in the unity that it takes to push one another forward,” The D.O.C. says, in the D Magazine interview. He goes on to say, “When I drive around California, I hear my shit every day. When I’m in Dallas, I very rarely hear any of my stuff. [The mindset in Dallas] is like, you don’t love yours. You’d rather hear theirs. And that’s not to say that theirs is no good. But there’s a lot of people in Dallas that deserve airtime.”

All I can say is hmmm! Currently my spotlight is on a few DJs and you know who you are because we talk socially on social media ;) and the artist you see me with and a couple who I'm proud to be a part of their movement. We Love music around the office and my office is everywhere. So keep on sending material to alesliemacevent@gmail.com and let's put every music market on the map!

#LeslieMac

Photo by Anthony Blue Jr.

Revolutionary...Scary!

Three weeks in, and this year is full of indie and mainstream releases. My inbox has reached a new level of being full. Please keep sending your material to alesliemacevent@gmail.com, and know that we are always listening. In the next week you will see a new #MacAttack with an in depth look into the DJs, producers, and artists who make our lists every week. Thanks to the collaborative efforts with @n_rotation The DJ Magazine, we are happy to bring you more than just music, we talk to every feature!

Now this portion of the blog may shake up a few of you. But truth be told the fun days of Hip-Hop are long gone or at the least the fun music is swept into the virtual trash can. 

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five "The Message" was groundbreaking and insightful to the struggle of inner city living, but now it's not how to "overcome", it's about how to "get over" and that's by any means necessary. Let me pause and state that this is about the revolution of music and nothing else! Todays “Message” isn’t far off course of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, but its aimed at the destructive nature of society. NWA talked about the streets of Compton and the music no doubt mirrored neighborhoods across the country. Promoting violence was never the intention of the group who began the “Straight Outta Compton” track with, “You’re now about to witness the Strength of Street Knowledge”. Somewhere in the days of Slick Rick & Eric B and Rakim the industry decided to focus on the downward spiral of the community and not the fun party tracks of Heavy D or Kwame’. Now, I'm a huge fan of Jeezy, T.I., The Game and Kendrick Lamar, and truly believe there's a place for them on our mobile devices and bumping them through our Beats headphones. People we can’t keep letting mindless entertainment control the outlook of the culture. Being in love with the “Coco”…Not one of Hip-Hops greatest contributions, but it finds its way into the clubs and radio... SMH! 

Meanwhile the core Hip-Hop artistry has been getting replaced by pop culture music that infuses rap talent with the catchy club tunes that don’t relate to Hip-Hop or its roots. Last year Billboard made a historical milestone. After 55 years of keeping track of what we listen to, it showed us that Hip-Hop and its culture has met its fate on the chart. There were NO black artists on top of the Hot 100 chart. And yes, the jury is still out on Macklemore claiming the #1 spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Not to mention that 1 album sold platinum last year…Taylor Swift. Revolution of Hip-Hop music is scary. This only proves that the market, the “public market” that is, is asking for the happy rap; which is not from its native origins. They want rap but not from the street poets or the righteous thinkers. 

For these facts and these facts alone, independent artists should be embraced and supported, provided the content is worth it. 

#LeslieMac