UD's Darryl Scipio sat down and talked about authentic hip hop, wack rappers and artistic independence with Bigg Jus, El-Producto, and DJ. Mr. Len from Company Flow along with Q-Unique from The Arsonists, another independent Hip Hop group that is very popular in the underground scene.
UD: So... what do you hate about the state of Hip Hop today?
BJ: I don't have too much hate because our project is out and it's doing well, so from my standpoint, things are kinda lovely. Overall, I think it wasn't a good year for rap, because of the deaths of Tupac and Biggie. Unfortunately, the media are going to put rap and Hip Hop into the same category, and in some aspects, they are. Overall, I don't think it's been a positive year, but the independent scene this year was stronger than it's ever been, and it created a voice that wasn't there before, so out of that, some good things came.
EP: I don't hate anything about the state of Hip Hop. Hip Hop encompasses everything that is good. It's rap that I tend to not like. Hip Hop never fuckin' dies, and it never changes. It's the lifeblood of this shit. I can't say that I hate anything about Hip Hop.
Q: There's a lot of things that I don't like, but one thing that stands out is the fact that a lot of people make records that the mass majority can't relate to. A lot of brothers are making records about other MCs. A vast majority cannot relate to that. I know that I can, but I'm not making my records for other lyricists. Let me just say that I don't hate Puffy. Who cares if Puffy is doing his thing? He's pretty much ignoring us.
L: It's not like Puffy ever said, "Yo, the underground kids suck!"
UD: What about the mad rapper and the mad producer skits on Puffy's album No Way Out? It was intended to make fun of underground rappers.
L: That was funny.
Q: And it's true. All we do is point fingers. We're trying to blame [rappers] for the state of Hip Hop, but instead of blaming, we could just fix up a side of it and make it phat.
