SUNSET STYLE – THE GHOSTLY SCIENCE

SUNSET STYLE: The Next Element of Hip Hop    By SUNEZ

It is the principles of Hip Hop that we fight for, not a Boom from the 80s or a Bap from the 90s. The principles of Originality and Creativity.  In a Hip Hop culture that samples not to copy the greats and force your repurchase but to propel a search for our lost history and provoke our greatness.  The Originality displayed of said artist, here Ghostface Killah, means for all others that they must be inspired and mentored from those classics on to develop a style of their own. Regardless of how difficult it is the next MC must make his own unique style, their own self styled wisdom regardless to whom or what.  If not, you do not and never belonged.  Bronson’s LPs have only shifted closer to Ghostface’s tone, pitch, cadence and use of high inflections.  Bronson is not new to this biting phenomenon or havin the unfortunate hurdle of a similar voice. And the brutal justice from Shyne (Biggie) to Yogi (Q-Tip) from Cru or Taste from Hard 2 Obtain (Grand Puba) is that decent rappers must make the distinction and develop themselves immediately.

The other GOAT candidates as Black Thought know and understand the depth of MCing Ghostface displayed here…

This Hip Hop is a competitive art of creativity and originality.  It is an Art that has educated people that have only been allowed to be entertained.  It has the absolute right of war to write out those that have not learned and honored the greats prior (and here still dynamically active) with a self styled way of MCing that those same legends worked towards and achieved themselves.  The conditions of this battle aren’t even logical or should have ever been allowed.  It isn’t one crew saying another is wack or one party claiming another disrespected merely or even that one artist took another artist’s particular work–It is about breaking the absolute foundational rule of all Hip Hop art making–Originality in Creativity.  It is something the media has allowed and furthered, is symbolic of white privilege in our own Black/Brown music and has come to further ruin the standards by which the music is judged properly.  Now after all the grafting, young fans will hear a salty old man but when the young mature into excellence uniquely and are bit themselves, what seasoning will be their reproach?  The violence that Ghostface Killah brings is harsh but these are the same new rap ciphers that throw fans off stages as a part of the show and think they are not allowed to be critiqued by anyone as it hurts their hustle.  And indeed, if anyone was waiting for a track, this is one.  The MCing is Ghost on top of the Blue Notes line for line, continually hitting that“Be For Real.”  You can’t teach that mic control.

Now, in the world of Hip Hop Beautiful Brutality, apologies have nothing to do with “i’m sorry” but the absolute refusal to use the same cadence, style, approach, massive inflections, pitch and tone fluctuations of Ghostface Killah.  If not, then the greatest sorry must be retirement.Until then it’s still Tinker Nigga, Tailor Rapper, Soldier Die, Spy-A-Snitch… 

 An add from a day after to it all for even more perspective:

Again the deeper issue to this #GhostfaceKillah bombing Action Bronson that is/will be overlooked:
1st it is an Originality in Creativity issue. And that is what I see Ghost must and did focus on.  2nd it’s integrity issue because Bronson apologized on tweets then deleted then. Now the hypocrisy is that he has ONLY apologized again via tweet as if repeating the same gesture is sincere.  Will it be there next week? 3rd, for media and everyone else, race is absolutely a factor as he has gotten along by white privilege. I know this as a fact as artists I worked to write on at major publications back in early 10s, refused my pitches but took Bronson who at the time years ago had nearly zero work compared to who I pitched. And they weren’t better. Also, he was on Espn which shows he got on to network as guest that only our biggest Black/Brown sellouts get into.  That is an overt proof of privilege there. It must then be a color issue because the quality and great white MCs aren’t even looked at in this fever to find dumbed down versions of our Black legends as Ghost. I think it says so much about this deliberate passing I have seen in white run (taken over) college, Underground and to commercial radio/magazines since very late 90s in NYC deciding the acceptable versions of Hip Hop and thus advocating, sadly at best, the principles only when they are not as rebellious,  challenging or revolutionary as they could be.  That leads this counterculture into a hip cool subculture that I find pathetically useless for my Black/Brown people that are oppressed and are only allowed to entertain ourselves not educate ourselves. The highest evolution of Hip Hop into edutainment is sacrificed and when I see so many people skip the core Hip Hop principle of absolute Originality in creativity and in/directly continue giving passes to Bronson who shouldve developed a unique style just like so many (i.e.  Guru from Rakim) have properly done. This is nowhere near a battle where you choose the hood or crew you like. There is only the side of principle.
Peace, Sunez 
#TheHipHopWriter of #ArtOnArt & #ScienceOnMusic
#GoTryToFindAnotherWriterWithThisKindOfGrammar

…Knowledge how this #HipHopWriter of Creatively Original #ArtOnArt and studied #ScienceOnMusic wrote on this back in a #SunsetStyle column of mine 2012 sayin:

And ultimately, when I see Action Bronson I see, in the media zoo that I am in, someone embraced more vigorously because he is white with talent as opposed to just being talented, needing development. No Black or Brown MC makes it with a voice like Ghost. But Bronson, a man that many have noted is well meaning and peace (and just may be), still has a cadence, pitch, inflection and patterned dexterity that is too similar to Ghostface Killah.

So who is the one that is supposed to tell him that if the only distinction between him and Ghost is that he is more limited in content (just weed, food and hoes) then he is not needed in Hip Hop? But he is white so now he really is supposedly needed. Who is the one to note that the great MC, like Sadat X, whose voice is crucial to their legacy, is impaired by this, all against Hip Hop principles?  Who is the one to even talk about them ol’ principles?!  This ain’t for the MCs to verse, the DJs to cut or the graffers to paint. It’s for the Hip Hop writer to build on his square with for a better understanding.

Precedents been set.  It’s now Tinker Nigga, Tailor Rapper, Soldier Die, Spy-A-Snitch and this writer knows that meals are on the wax and the wrong survive and thrive in these parts with the most dishonorable maneuvers.  This isn’t just rhyming in the park no more.  It’s niggas, bitches, wiggers and devils all getting paper in this shit, preserving that, not Art, at all costs.  But the God never took a check he didn’t write his own history for.  So I’m gon write these little books that love this Original culture in an Original style.  A Sunset Style…