Old Geezers
written by Just K
written by Just K
Props to the Rolling Stones for touring when they could get senior citizen discounts on their own tickets.
Shout out to Madonna for doing that sexy yoga thing at her age, looking like a 50-year-old slinky.
Much respect to Jay-Z for being an almost 40-year-old American Gangster that runs the 40/40s. Sweet.
Each of these three is a huge name in their respective genres of music. True. However, only one of these celebrities is ever considered too old to release music…and he’s the youngest one.
Maybe it has something to do with the art form’s emphasis on street credibility; I would hope you’re not still slinging rocks at 40 years old. Maybe because it’s such a competitive genre we get tired of seeing the same faces sitting in the hip-hop royal court. Eh, maybe it’s just a strong dose of hate. Whatever the case, hip-hop seems to be the only category of music that wants older artists to step down.
Never mind the fact that Jay is the equivalent to the rap Brett Favre with all of the false retirements (at least Jay isn’t on the cover of Madden, which we all know can really make a career take a turn for the worse). I can’t think of one young’n that can bring what Hov brings to the game. The same can be said for Outkast, Scarface, Talib, Black Thought, definitely Snoop Dogg , E-40, or Ghostface, and countless other members of the 30+ club. These guys aren’t even old enough to have a midlife crisis yet. So let us not retire our not-so-young bucks before their time. Let the old geezers do their thing. I’m pretty sure I’ll still be working in my 30s. Why shouldn’t they?
Ahem. And I hope none of them had 401K plans, ‘cause that’s in the toilet.
4 comments:
I might be out of the loop but I haven't heard of anyone telling Jay to step down. As a matter of fact, I think American Gangster is his hottest album in a while (since the Black Album?).
It actually seems to me people want some of the older acts to come back out. Heads are fiending for Em (shows how old we are, that Em is considered a veteran) and Dre to drop something new. LL Cool J is still doing work. Busta Rhymes. Diddy. The list goes on and on. I don't think age is a factor so much as relevance.
The only time Jays age was on the chopping block was when Jim Jonez mentioned it during the beef.... It was definitely an issue then. Now not so much because the youngsters (SUCH A SENIOR CITIZEN WORD) aren't really doing it like they used to. But I agree that once its relevant, its all good.
I can't wait for EM and hopefully outkast. IF we think about it, a lot of our favs are pushing 30+...
I had a more in depth answer to this post but my firefox crashed and i lost all of it. But the short of the long is basically that Jay-Z represents the first generation of rappers to have a core audience large enough that he can remain relevant for decades.
When Hip-Hop first came out there simply wasn't a large enough audience so eventhough rappers were killin, by the time '96 rolled around there weren't enough "original fans" to keep it relevant. Like Rakim could tried to put out new music and do shows but there just weren't enough fans to support it.
Hov, Nas, Common, Snoop on the other hand came on to the scene when Hip-Hop blew up and literally got millions and millions of core original fans. So 10 even 15 years later, these guys can still be relevant because there's enough of us to fill seats or go to the stores.
Another reason why old rappers go away is because they can't keep up with the times. Hip-Hop music, at least to me, changes so dramatically every decade that a rapper would have to switch up his style completely to stay current. Big Daddy Kane is a legend but he can't rap with the same cadence and rhyme scheme in 88 and get away with it over 2008 beats.
So yeah i had more and it probably made more sense but oh well... lol.
So Storm will our baby be named JuStorm if its a boy and KHH if its a girl?
I'm not doing a post next week. I'm just gonna put up a poll for what Jus and KStorm should name their baby.
There was a point where it kind of turned into younger bucks vs. old heads and the younger bucks basically saying the old heads should move on and pass the torch.
Lil' Wayne told Jay it wasn't his house no more. Remy Ma told rappers to give it up when they hit 30. Game was making fun of 38-year-olds that were still rapping.
But I definitely see the point. It's all about relevancy (see "Legend of the Fall Offs" from Busta's The Big Bang CD). Keeping up with the times can be tough, but somehow Ice Cube stays with that 1992 flow. I ain't mad though.
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