"They see me in the streets they be like yo he..."

Nice
written by JusHH

“Switch” had my boy saying this about Lupe.

I said this when I heard Canibus rip “Beasts from the East”.

When I heard Illmatic for the first time I proclaimed this about Nas.

I said this about Big L after “MVP” dropped.

Lil’ Wayne, Eminem and Common have all been given this title.

Most recently, I was in the whip listening to Wale’s mixtape and in my New York vernacular I said, “son, dude is nice.”

Remember being nice? For those that are unfamiliar, if a rapper is considered “nice”, he or she has shown exceptional lyrical skill. While nice is not limited to rappers – Lebron James is nice on the court – we will just talk about this in Hip-Hop terms. It’s funny, with all of the phrases and words that have lived and died, Nice somehow kept its magic. Calling a rapper nice today, means exactly what it did 15 years ago. The word never got overused and I never really saw it get applied to rappers that didn’t deserve it. Perhaps, being called nice is the highest remaining compliment that a rapper can receive.

There was a time where being nice was the only pre-requisite for success. This is before the marketing, ringtones and politics that go on today. When a new rapper came onto the scene, people only cared about one thing, “is he nice?” That time period spoke to purity in the game that I feel is lacking today. I know I get labeled as a “dinosaur” when I start talking like this but I believe that your status as an emcee should be based on some kind of meritocracy. I’m not talking about any financial or SoundScan status. Joell Ortiz wouldn’t have went triple-platinum in ’94 either but at least back then he would have gotten his proper respect as a talented emcee rather than just some dude who can’t get a hit club record. There used to be a higher value placed on pure talent. No one expects Joell to get more airplay than that new Jeezy anymore than they expected Tribe to get more spins than Hammer. The difference was Tribe still got on the radio whereas Joell is limited to random internet streams and downloads. We now live in a world where your swagger or material accomplishments have trumped your skills on the mic. Just being nice on the mic isn’t enough anymore for a person to want to hear your music. You need an image. You need a gimmick. You need an arrest record.

So yeah, the demand for being nice may have changed but what it means to be nice and what it takes to be called it hasn’t. And because of this exclusivity, you’ll notice that the nice one’s never truly go away. It’s why people will still discuss Joe Budden’s potential comeback and never utter the name of Young Dro. It’s why The Roots still get shows till this day but Mike Jones probably couldn’t sell out his High School gym. See when you’re known for an image or gimmick, as soon as it wears out - people leave. As soon as someone else comes with a better image or gimmick – people leave. But when you are nice, you will always have fans. You will always have that core base that will never leave your side because they still anticipate what you might say next. It’s why despite making poor studio albums, Jadakiss still has a career.

True greatness can never dissipate. It can’t be marketed. Hell, it can’t even be beaten by time. Rakim will always be mentioned, no matter who’s currently on top and selling records. Platinum sales and million dollar videos never meant much to me. I never bought an album because I figured that 999,999 others would. I buy albums because I want to hear what you gotta say next. I want to be amazed and entertained. I want that fanatic moment and deep down, we all do. Those moments stick with you. When you heard Jay-Z on “Brooklyn’s Finest” or Mos Def on “Definition”, it never leaves you. I promise, 10 years from now Lupe Fiasco will be mentioned and Rick Ross will not. Because someone somewhere will talk about the moment they got put on to Lupe and say…

Dude was nice.