One of the main reason we started this magazine is because we hate the current state of music. No one is being original anymore, everyone is copying each other. If someone steps outside the box and it works, then the next five hundred songs sound just like the one that worked. So what do you think about the music industry in general?
Emmai Alaquiva–
I think the music industry has a very microwave approach to its execution. Music can be thought of as a shape and or a wheel. Hiphop for example, in the early eighties (80’s) hiphop had a very large wheel. What I mean when I use the analogy large wheel is that when it spins, it takes a much longer time for it to come back around full circle. When we move forward to today the wheel has become extremely small. So when it spins around counter clockwise it repeats quicker in a sense; it is the creative wheel. So because of this you might have lot of individuals that have the same sounding beats, songs and lyrics. This is because there is no originality being put in, there is simply just duplication.
I love America, but America has ADD (attention deficit disorder). The attention span is so much smaller with the advancements of technology today. You can’t even get a person to sit down and watch a video clip that is more than five minutes; it has gotten very difficult to hold them. Right now we live in an era that less has become more. So when these musicians create, they just want to give you what you don’t have to think about. Little Brother for example, when they tried to get their music played on BET, they were sent a letter stating that their music was too intelligent for the audience. That is a clear testimony that people don’t want to think anymore.
When it comes to music people don’t want to think, they want something that is easily digestible and they can move on with their day. When you have individuals like Common who have very sophisticated rhyme structure patterns, you have to think about what he says. When you hear Posdnuos from De La Soul (Stake is High) say, “the instamatic focal point bringing damage to your borough, be some brothers from the east with some beats that be thorough,” then compare that to, “I am sad, or glad, we are bad and you’ve been had,” you see music is in an elementary state. I think that people are going to slowly get bored and want that complicated complexity of the likes of Talib Kweli. The reason why Jay Z said, “If I was underground I probably would be a lyrical Talib Kweli,” but he is clearly saying that he does not. He does not want to have lyrics people would have to think about. That is one of the reasons why he has been so successful. He has put out music that has a touch of complexity, but simple enough where the masses could understand.