YBN Cordae and the editor of History

I have a long running debate with an industry vet and friend about old Hip-Hop heads vs. young heads. He is convinced that old heads like me are stuck in the past and only want to hear music from our youth. YBN Cordae’s recent freestyle on Funk Flex has got that wheel turning again.

My son, Miles, put me onto Cordae via his response to J. Cole’s ‘1985”.  I thought it was a well thought out track that raised valid points and served as a formidable foil to Cole. I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I did not connect the dots and realize it was the same person when I heard Cordae’s XXL Cypher and then the Flex piece. (Shout out my cousin Cody and Miles for that)  

“YBN Cordae is the rapper middle aged rap conservatives been waiting for” is what my boy posted on his page I am assuming after the Flex freestyle hit the news cycle.  This diminishes the brother and misses the bigger point. YBN is not some young artist pandering to forty somethings. I believe he was raised to value similar Hip-Hop cultural traditions as I.  I am old enough to be the father that turned him on to Nas, Big L and Kweli. YBN is the continuation of a long line of artists with a commitment to vocabulary, word density, criticism, braggadocio and the Culture. These are the MCs I have admired from day one.  

What skews the conversation is old heads like me never talk about all the wack rappers of our era. This creates a narrative that in the 80s and 90s every Tuesday record stores saw a new album by Kool G Rap, Rakim or Tribe.  The Disposable Heroes of HipHoprisy, Us3 and Grand Daddy I.U. are conveniently erased by the editor of time. Leaving behind a pristine decade of Hall of Famers.  

Additionally, criticism of rappers like Ma$e, Hammer and even Hov and B.I.G. slowly fade away.  We forget the initial rejection of the shiny suits of the Bad Boy Era. The mythology of the Brooklyn House party with Heavy D as your doorman become fact.  Jay-Z, the multi-millionaire philanthropist eclipse the Marcy Projects rapper who was Jaz-O’s hype man and criticized for too many tales of gold chains, yachts and sexual conquests. 

Time as editor allows this revisionist history to hang the Trinidad James-es of the world around this generation’s neck like an albatross. 

The truth is I have and will celebrate every iteration of YBN Cordae. I have also railed against every intellectually thin, self-hating, culture vulture, nursery rhyme wack rapper from Vanilla Ice to D4L.  If that makes me a conservative, I would prefer the term advocate. That sums up my position better.