One on One

My Date with Syd

For those who’ve seen the incredible movie Brown Sugar, you’ll remember the beautiful Sydney Shaw. She’s the editor of XXL and an aspiring writer. In all her interviews she starts off by asking the same question, “When did you first fall in love with Hip-Hop?” Well Sydney actually heard about the website and wanted to interview your boy JusHH. Sadly, I was out of town when she called so we had to do it over the phone [one tear]. The following are some of the highlights of this interview.

Sydney Shaw: So JusHH, when did you first fall in love with Hip-Hop?

JusHH: 1994, I was 12 years old and I was watching videos on “The Box” and Nas’ “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” video came on and the light bulb went on and I was like, “this is me!”

SS: But you must have heard Rakim and the rest of them right?

J: Yeah but it was different, I knew I liked the music but that was the 80’s, I also loved Michael Jackson and a whole bunch of other stuff. But when I saw this video it all changed for me. I had found “my” music, the music that spoke to me the music that I could identify with. It was the culture that I had been apart of but was never able to articulate.

SS: What do you mean?

J: Well my people [young blacks] are left out of mainstream America. We never had a voice. You didn’t see us on television, hear us on the radio or even read about us in books. But when Hip-Hop came out it brought all of our experiences out into the open and shed light onto it. The things that me and my friends would do on the daily was finally being discussed and we could call it “Hip-Hop”. What people fail to realize is that Hip-Hop is bigger than just music, it’s a culture that many people hold near and dear to their hearts.

SS: Cool, cool. Who’s your favorite rapper?

J: 2Pac. I feel that at the end of the day, music has to be more than entertaining, it has to evoke emotions, its gotta inspire. Other rappers definitely get the ooh’s and ahh’s but 2Pac’s music makes me want to work harder in school, go hug my mother or stick my chest out and be proud to be black. I feel that he is Hip-Hop’s Marvin Gaye. There’s no substitute for that.

SS: Hip-Hop has definitely been under fire in the last year or so, what do you think is the greatest threat to Hip-Hop’s existence?

J: Well like I said earlier, Hip-Hop is more than just music it’s an entire culture. So the biggest threats are the same threats that affect the people within the culture – poverty, violence, drugs, greed and a lack of family and community. Hip-Hop music sounds so one dimensional and bad because that’s where the mentality of the people are. Our people are in trouble, there’s no guidance, no focus. Peep how vast and diverse our music was 10-15 years ago, I think kids these days are facing more problems than we did and it shows in their art.

SS: And the music leads the way.

J: Exactly. The music is only a reflection of the culture and we can’t ignore them and write them off as uncultured idiots. We’ve got kids raising kids now and we need to return to family and unity and if used properly Hip-Hop music can be a driving force. We need all these rappers and executives who’ve made millions off its consumers to really give back to the people and help educate and improve them rather than capitalize off of and exploit their weaknesses.

SS: A lot of people refer to the “Golden Era” of Hip-Hop as 1988-1992, what’s your favorite time period?

J: I have two actually 1993-1996 and 1998-2000. In the first one, you had debut albums from Snoop, Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie, Wu-Tang – I mean come on, does it get any better than that? However I also loved the 1998-2000 as well. We got Big Pun, the Canibus and the DMX takeover, Boot Camp Click was in full effect. We had the Hard Knock Life tour, Eminem came on to the scene. Def Jam was on top with “Month of the Man” with Red and Meth, I could go on and on about this so I’ll stop here. (laughs)

SS: Why don’t you think the rest of the country embraces Hip-Hop the way that it should?

J: For the same reasons that it doesn’t embrace anything that black people do. That’s a larger discussion altogether. But its sexier to focus on all the negatives of anything and Hip-Hop is no different. Aside from giving people a sense of self, Hip-Hop has created millions of jobs and kept thousands of kids off of the streets. Like Treach said, you would rather him be a rapper instead of being in your house. (laughs)

SS: If you ruled the world, what would you like to see happen?

J: For one, Nas and Jay to record a full album. I might buy 5 of them! But seriously I’d want to return the art and the culture back to the people that want to see it prosper. I want to reward those who are creative and are willing to think outside the box for the sake of enhancing the culture. And those who hurt Hip-Hop are exposed and sent to the same purgatory that Suge Knight and Benzino are currently resting.

SS: Okay, last question. What does your name mean?

J: No gimmicks. No bulls**t. Jus(t) H(ip-)H(op).

SS: Haha. Great interview, I definitely enjoyed it. What are you doing later on this week? I’m usually not this forward but would you like to meet up for dinner sometime?

J: I thought you’d never ask.

(okay, I made up the last part)