Ol' Timer's Day

Jay-Z told John Stewart on the Daily Show that one of the reasons he wrote the his book, Decoded, was to show that rap is not just a young man’s game, as is commonly perceived.

Well, I guess Jigga’s book makes it official, but that’s not exactly a new sentiment in hip-hop. Despite all the personal sabotage, 33-year-old Kanye West drops his fifth album on Tuesday and seems on top of the game.  He got a five star review from Rolling Stone, praise in the New York Times and the usual love from hip-hop sites. Oh, and the 38-year old Eminem landed on the cover of that Rolling Stone. 

Furthermore, Ghostface Killah drops his ninth solo album, Apollo Kids, on December 12. The 40-year-old Staten Islander carried Wu-Tang’s reputation for most of the last decade. Some Wu members wrestled with mediocrity while they showed flashes of greatness, but Ghost released a string of classics that proved him the clan’s best rapper. He carried Raekwon’s two classic albums and put out enough great material for me to give him the edge over the lyrically superior and more commercially viable, Method Man.

Ghost dropped the mediocre Fishscale, in March 2006, and followed with the better but still lukewarm More Fish in December of that year. But when people doubted what he had left in the tank, he returned in classic form with the Big Doe Rehab on December 4, 2007. 

Don’t take my word for it though.

“Hip-hop is dead,” a classmate once shouted at me. “Didn’t Nas say that? Hip-hop is dead man.” Yet that same person liked my facebook link when I posted the album cover and track list to GFK’s new album.

The Roots released another great album this year. Redman has one in the works.  Recently I’ve seen packed shows for Pete Rock & CL Smoth, and Das Efex. I’ve seen lines wrapped around the corner of 42^nd street on to 7^th avenue for an EPMD show at BB Kings. I felt like I was watching something historic when Nas and Bob Marley’s most talented son, Damien, headlined Rock The Bells.

Don’t sleep on these new cats though. Jay Electronica had Diddy depressed when he signed with Roc Nation instead of Bad Boy. Another Roc Nation rookie, J Cole, gave hip-hop a little CPR with the Friday Night Lights mixtape. B.O.B. caught a commercial buzz with “Airplanes,” and a verse on the Bruno Mars single, but he crawled through hip-hops sewers and still gets respect there.

Then there’s established new artists like Lupe Fiasco, as intelligent as he is talented.

We’re lucky if we ever get bombarded with legendary works like we did from 1988 through 1996. But we don’t need the new blood as bad as we did then. We’ve got a decent amount of young talent supported by the foundation of early 90s cats who still crank out classics.

Jay-Z will rock crowds until he’s as wrinkled as Bob Dylan and Keith Richards.