Mix it up...

Older Onus
written by Just K

I celebrated when I heard Death of Autone.

Show Me What You Got, not so much.

We Made You from Eminem almost made me depressed.

No Matter What and Dead and Gone were both triumphant moments. Thanks T.I.

You can throw What You Know About That in there too.

Can’t Tell Me Nothing from Kanye was a beautiful thing.

What Them Girls Like and Moneymaker were painful from Ludacris.

Throw It In the Bag? Ewwww.

A Millie made my day, month, and maybe half-year.

Nas – Hero. Yes!

Where am I going with this? Give me a second.

I expect a group by the name of FLY to drop a record called Swag Surfin.

I expect Rich Boy to put out a club banger called Throw Some D’s.

Am I surprised at all that B Hamp put out Do the Ricky Bobby? Hell naw.

Nor am I surprised by the Stanky Leg.

I am also not shocked that no one from XXL’s New Class has really blown yet.

They can actually rap.

We really do live in an ADHD ringtone world. In many cases, new artists that have substance but can’t deliver a ringtone-worthy first single fall off before they even get the chance to show the public what they can do. That being said, I blame the proven vets for some of the craziness on the radio. The dudes who have been doing this forever are guaranteed to go at least gold, usually platinum whenever they release an album. Why not give us something a little different? I’m sure they have earned more creative freedom than rookies in the game. On top of that, they’ve been around since a time when being able to really rap was a good thing.

When I hear an artist that’s been successful in rap over the span of many years and many albums deliver a piss poor, contrived radio single it confuses me. It’s your job to set the standard. You’re hot. It’s your job – no, your responsibility to tell us what’ll be the next hot trend. Don’t hop on a whack or corny trend that already exists. And even if you give us a “surefire” hit, do something different and creative with it a la Lollipop from Weezy. As catchy as that song was, there was nothing on the radio like it at the time. He stayed in the box while stepping out of one. Sweet.

The cats that have been around for a while have leeway. Please use it. Push the envelope. Worst case scenario, we’ll send it back and allow you to ship out a new package. More than likely, it’ll change what a lot of people deliver to the radio.