BET ran a show on their RAPCITY segment last month, listing the 50 greatest emcees of all time. I’d heard about this through the Enemy Board and I sat down mid-afternoon and began to watch it. I should’ve known better, but this is the business I’ve been in for over 20 years and this is what I’m known to do. Tigger, the host of the show, said that the voting was compiled from a consensus of voting by staff, fans e-mail, executives and other artists. Right off the bat, when I caught them putting MELLE MEL of GRANDMASTER FLASH and the FURIOUS FIVE waaaaay down the list at 48, I called my friend and peer KOOL MO DEE ( he’s dropped the ‘E’ in MOE ) who happens to be writing a book called ‘THE 100 GREATEST EMCEES,’ due out next year.

MO’s amazing career has spanned 3 rhyme generations. First as a member of the TREACHEROUS THREE, with LA SUNSHINE and SPECIAL K, creating incredible verbal poly-rhythms. Then re-inventing himself as a soloist in 1987, and then as the conscious spokesperson of the art in 1990 –1991. He is usually SISKEL to my EBERT, or vice versa, or the two of us go into commentary ala the sports reporters on ESPN, critiquing the rap game with analogies that go well beyond the American teenager’s take on the art. I envy the sports world for their organization, building their structure on the fact that mere mortals cannot do what is done on the field, ice or court. It’s what keeps it amazing, and keeps a fan a spectator. In art criteria it’s no different, you have to be knowledgeable in all aspects of the art to pass critical mass judgement. When the history of what we do is constantly dictated back in the name of commerce, you have a distorted total picture of what it really is.

Anyway, so I’m on the phone with MO and embarrassed to tell him that he was BET’s 41st best rapper of all time. He’s on the West Coast continuing a film career, so he was on a 3 hour time difference. (Now HE was the first cat to judge rappers... period... with his rappers report card which he broke down into various categories of skill.) It was laughable as we got to RUN DMC at #35, SLICK RICK at #24 (behind EVE at #20), KRS ONE at #17 , and pound for pound the most talented rhymer ever BIG DADDY KANE at #14. Like I said, I should’ve known better. I came in at #9 which beats the hell outta me because those cats I just named created the styles that are used today. This is the third list of major note, with other lists being BLAZE magazine’s Top 50 , and the incredible EGO TRIP BOOK OF RAP LISTS which came out a couple years ago, and I came in at a surprised #4. These contests don’t mean much to me as I’m more insulted at the slighting of my peers and others who I’ve seen and heard with my own eyes and ears create phenomenal artistic tasks that have inspired me to do better.

I first came involved with hip hop because I found it a competitive outlet for creativity, and since I played a bit of sports I foresaw this new rap thing getting organized like such. All other genres of music seem to have been organized to at least fold all the myths into a respected timeline. The participants, however, end up as debris, but their place is historically preserved by writers, filmmakers and fan bases who know what they’re talking about. In the rap game a cat can’t even come out with his rhyme legacy intact. We live in such ‘out of sight out of mind’ times that RUN–DMC’s efforts are seen as miniscule compared to NELLY. Today’s youth who are fanatical about hip hop to the bone marrow not only don’t know their rap history, but lack in the musical knowledge that created the artform in the first place.

Thus the need for a hip hop HALL OF FAME, to collect data and artifacts, and to be a standard bearer so that some of these writing, and invisible, empire judges will stop freestyling myths off the top of their d-zomes. Be it in the Bronx or Manhattan, or even Philly or London, online before physical, although the way that this neglect is flowing we’ll take it wherever. Seriously, the Bronx is the obvious location but with NYC in 911 aftermath turmoil this will now have to be a privately raised project. There were talks about the mayor of MOUNT VERNON, a NY suburb and HEAVY D and PUFFY COMB’S hometown, being a key spot but there were too many purist naysayers. HARRY ALLEN has been proposing the idea ever since the 80s, and the ZULU NATION, an organization just starting to get the respect its deserved, will structure itself first before taking on the whole hip hop picture this new century. The deal is that hip hop needs more organization, and true structure from within. Thus I am in talks with the Schomburg Museum on 135th street in HARLEM to recruit, organize and galvanize this project. I think my contribution to the culture is warranted enough to add legitimacy, as I’ve been involved in the CLEVELAND Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Exhibit as well as the JIMI HENDRIX Museum in SEATTLE archiving of the form.

As a people who are artistically judged by our quantity instead of our quality, corporate capitalism doesn’t give a damn. Why would they give a damn about the art, if they never gave a damn about the people it came out of? They continue with the audacity to think that a billion dollar purchase means they’ve bought a culture, and can hire any Uncle Tom, Dick, or Dick to lay crucial word upon it in order to sell it across the earth like detergent. The altering of history has crippled our contributions forever, its no surprise that it would happen in the rap game only 22 years after the first ‘official recordings’. In sports, accommodations are considered when events take place for the ‘greats’ that came before. In hip hop cats like EDDIE CHEBA, JAZZY JAY, and FEARLESS FOUR cant get to the BET or HOT 97 door. Now that’s sad , and something that cats like myself dedicate to turn around as best I can while informing you that even in hip hop the television will tell lies to your vision.

Another year end and did we think that STANLEY KUBRICK couldn’t even come close to the real haps.

I still can’t get over cats tying a flag around their heads claiming they’re ‘Thuggin for Amerikkka’...

JEFF VAN GUNDY foresaw the KNICK apocalypse, eh?

I spoke at MIKE COARD’S Hip Hop 101 class at TEMPLE U in ILLADELPH again. It’s always a pleasure to drop jewels in that city, and I see the struggle of the city’s hip hop circuit trying to maintain their identity instead of being on NYC’s tip. It’s no surprise that the growing fever of consciousness is emanating outta there, JILL SCOTT, THE ROOTS, BILAL and new ‘spoken word’ DEF JAM signing, BLACK ICE . DJ JAZZY JEFF is a key catalyst of this movement as well, and there’s a sea of ‘under the underground’ talent exploding there, while defying what’s being spit on the radio. The one exception is my forever homegirl, LADY B, who’s puttin it down in her twenty first year in radio (although she still looks 21) over at 103.9. I went over to the station and dropped it across the waves, thanking B for breaking us and supporting PE in the first city that loved us. B is still calling for balance in programming, as well as the record companies projecting more positive images.

Speaking of ‘spoken word’ I rolled up there with one of the main cats in this movement, D CHASE from BALTIMORE. I’d met D during a lecture we shared across the map at LONG BEACH STATE in CALI . I had talked about the increasing age drop-off factor in rap, with peeps moving on to other forms seriously past 24, and how the term ‘spoken word‘ might not be representative, or enough of what’s goin down right now. I had run by him that the style needs a one word attachment to what it really is, ‘RHYME’; as in Rap Has Your Mind Empty. RHYME gives a clearer and simpler definition, as it’s between RAP and POETRY. I never could buy the term ‘slam’ as it didn’t say enough. Anyway, SLAMJAMZ has the FREEDOME subsidiary coming hard with a bunch of cats in 2002. Licensing joints from D CHASE and his group URBAN AVE 31, as well as digital acquisitions bring the noise in that department alongside AREWA from CHICAGO, and PROFESSOR GRIFF whose AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH is across the world right now. Peep VAN SILK’S www.hiphop25.com and www.slamjamz.com for GRIFF and FREEDOME respectively.

Speaking of the term I’ve completed a project of RHYME myself, along with BRIAN HARDGROOVE called the FINE ARTS MILITIA. The first project from this collective is called ‘WE ARE GATHERED HERE,’ which is a record that breaks my lecture series down into songs over a skilled array of funk, metal, jazz and other sounds unfamiliar with my vocal. It was actually a lot of fun recording this. The players, HARDGROOVE on bass, ROCKY BRYANT on drums, BRAD CRAIG on guitar and VIC BURKS on keys brought a sound that the BAR KAYS, CRUSADERS and LED ZEP 70s’ would’ve been proud of, as well as the seminar that’s spit wit it. The first release of this project ‘LEAVE WITH YOUR OWN MIND‘ is comin atcha on www.slamjamz.com online December 24th. Leave with your own mind is usually what I tell my audience after I speak. Thus, it’s the last cut on the album. Although I don’t necessarily believe in the album format as the primary configuration in contemporary post 2k , I do believe that concept albums demand more than 2 songs, but who needs an album if you’re rhyming in circles? Just keep dosing singles… but…

I recently did commentary on ESPN for the MIKE TYSON Sports Century special as well as words on KOBE BRYANT, ALLEN IVERSON and LATRELL SPREWELL. I told em although Latrell was wrong there’s an underground survey that a lotta brothers have dreamed of having their hands wrapped around some white authorities neck at one time or another. The cameraman winced… but it’s true.

I will be starting a book imprint in 2002 called OFFTA BOOKS and UNDER THE RADAR publishing, looking to do 6-8 small prints a year, as I’m surrounded by a sea of Hipped Hopped writers like HARRY ALLEN, DAVEY D, PROFESSOR GRIFF, YUSEF JAH... yours truly. It is time... there’s already a revolution in the word, whether it’s street ciphers, prison, poets, web, so the void in hitting that mindset should be filled like independent record companies did for them in the late 80s and early 90s…

"You never thought that Hip Hop would take it this far"--- The NOTORIOUS B.I.G. 'Juicy'

The documentary film HIP HOP: THE NEW WORLD ORDER made it's West Coast debut at the Los Angeles International Film & Video Festival on Saturday, December 1st at the Vogue Theater- 6675 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmmaker Muhammida El Muhajir put together this whirlwind adventure around the world (Japan, Cuba, England, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Brazil, South Africa) to capture just how much Hip Hop has impacted global youth/pop culture. It includes interviews with Method Man, Dead Prez, Questlove (The Roots) and yours truly.

HIP HOP: THE NEW WORLD ORDER recently won the "Best Music Video" award at the New York International Film & Video Festival, and had it's international debut in London at the Beats, Bytes & the Big Screen Festival.

A MUST SEE!!!! A MUST SEE!!! A MUST SEE!!! A MUST SEE!!! A MUST SEE!!! A MUST SEE!!!

HIP HOP: THE NEW WORLD ORDER Advance Tix available at www.nyfilmvideo.com or 1.866.468.7619 Media & Industry passes available upon Fax Request on company letterhead to Briege Fax#212.387.0873

A COMMUNITY LETTER TO DEMAND THE REHIRE OF DAVEY D:

For the past 11 years Davey D. has been the community affairs director of KMEL, providing a forum for the Bay Area to voice concerns about issues that are frequently overlooked by corporate media outlets. Recently Davey was "laid off" because of what the station described as "budget cuts."

We are outraged that KMEL has the audacity to continue to call itself "The Peoples' Station" after firing Davey D. We believe the claim that Davey was fired due to "budget cuts" is a weak excuse for what is a clear case of corporate media censorship of one of the most important community voices in the country.

1) We demand that Davey D. be reinstated as KMEL's Community Affairs Director and that his show, Street Knowledge, return to the air immediately.

2) We demand increased community access to KMEL and increased accountability of KMEL to our communities.

3) We demand that KMEL demonstrate a true commitment to the Bay Area hip-hop community by increasing the airplay, exposure, and promotion of local hip-hop artists. 4) We recognize that KMEL's firing of Davey D. is only one example of the ways in which corporate media empires like Clear Channel disrespect, dismiss, and silence our communities. We also recognize, however, the power of the people in the Bay Area to stand by Davey D. and get our issues back onto the airwaves where they belong.

Nuff said… gone Mistachuck@rapstation