Posted by Caleb
I saw this Mac Dre interview the other day and had to post it up. The video quality is not the best, but the most important part is the audio anyways. Here’s the quote that stuck in my head:
“Jealousy is holding cities back from being successful in the rap game. They’re some cities out there with top notch, top level rappers, but because their cities are so saturated with that jealousy and hatred it’s holding their whole town back cause they can’t make a group movement. The whole city can’t come behind one person let alone enough to give it to the whole nation.”
It’s sad to say, but when I heard the above quote from Mac Dre I automatically thought of the San Diego Hip Hop scene. Fact: The San Diego Hip Hop scene as a whole is not living up to its potential. We can be 100 times bigger and better than we currently are. We can produce gold, platinum and Grammy award winning Hip Hop artists. I truly believe that. Now, the reason may not necessarily be jealousy or hatred, but whatever the reason is, the San Diego Hip Hop scene can’t come together. Our lack of unity is the main reason why we can’t rise above. I’ve been in San Diego since 1998 and it sucks to say that it has never changed. The different sub genres have always had the separation and “fuck you” attitude for each other. It’s always on some “he ain’t street enough”, “that ain’t real Hip Hop”, “that’s too backpacker”, “gangsta rap is dead”, “that ain’t gangsta enough for me”. Negative vibes like that can’t breed success. It just breeds more negativity and negativity will keep us in the same circle of degression. The same circle we’ve been stuck in for years.
San Diego’s Hip Hop scene desperately needs unification and sense of community. We have a lot of talent, but can’t/won’t hold somebody high up on the pedestal enough to showcase it. We can blame the lack of radio and media all we want, but the fact of the matter is they ignore us so much because our scene isn’t big enough and has so little of a support system that a whisper will make it topple.
It’s always on some “my crew is what’s poppin’ and your crew ain’t shit” type vibe. How far along will that attitude get us? How far along has that gotten us? Not very far at all. I think if we followed the model of what other successful cities have already done, we would have an unstoppable Hip Hop scene. Look at Houston, The Bay Area, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Harlem, Queens, Philly, Atlanta, New Orleans and the countless other cities. They did it…why can’t we????
Let’s get it San Diego!!! Big ups to Mitchy Slick, Ecay Uno, Deep Rooted, Big June, Sabotawj and Rhymeside Records, Young 80, One Hunned, Samoan Irok, The KneeHighs, Rare Form Live, Jayo Felony, Miki Vale, After School Special, Vokab Kompany, Lil Rob, Clay Pigeons, Blame One…Southeast, Southside, North County, Eastside….and the countless other folks and areas I can’t name off the top of my head.
As long as you’re putting your art into that microphone, I have much respect for you and hope you reach that treasure chest. I’m just frustrated cause this city has so much talent and has yet to produce a platinum Hip Hop artist. We have the talent to do it so let’s start building.
I’m not saying that all of a sudden we’re all gonna be best friends prancing down the yellow brick road. Nah, that’s not how it’s going to be at all. However, we can start by doing small stuff like attending each other’s shows, buying each other’s music, giving the next artist a contact to a nice venue, recommending an artist to a venue, networking amongst each other and overall showing more respect for one another. Once we start doing that then we can build on that foundation. Participating in those small things will damn sure not hurt the scene.
If all else fails…you can move to another city. But do you really wanna do that? I’d rather be homeless in San Diego than living in a house in another city.
