YOUR CITY IS MINE!

Ok people right now I am on a train going in to Manchester and I thought it would be a good time to write a new blog. Now I am not killing time this is my life and the reason I feel it’s a great time to write is because I am on the way to the magistrate’s court for the second time to be charged with Illegal Street trading of CDs. As ridiculous as it may seem when there are so many real criminals out there the system feels it’s a good idea to try to criminalize a musician for trying to get his own music out to the public.

As many of you know from my earlier blogs I have been at war for sometime with Manchester City Council and have been fined £250 in an earlier case. In the previous case I had no certificate so I was advised to plead guilty as a not guilty plea would have resulted in a steeper fine as the CCTV evidence made it clear that I was selling CDs to the general public. However, I now have a certificate and there is no way that I will be pleading guilty. It’s like the legendary Mohammed Ali said just before the 1974 fight against George Foreman
“I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
Well am not saying this is case equals the greatest boxing match of all time or that I am equal in statue to the greatest boxer there has ever been but I have done something new for this fight. I intend to defend myself and put these people who accuse me on the witness stand and I have the right by law to do it. I am not sure that will happen today as I think once I plead not guilty they will set a trail date but I will let you know what happens a little later.

The truth is that the council being local government want people like me off the streets and out of the city but my truth is that what you call your city is also my city I was born here and I grew up here. It seems they are saying to me that you can not choose the way you make your money and you can not come into the city centre to make it. Basically they have drawn a line around the city and anyone trading within that line is viewed as a criminal even though there is a law that says I can trade. That’s like giving someone a 3 ft ladder to climb a 50ft wall. Well this is my city and if I can’t sell here I will play here. That is exactly what I have decided to do. I have bought a £1000 worth of equipment In order to take my music to the streets, if they won’t feel me then they will hear me. Not only will I take it to the streets of Manchester but I will go to many other cities. Your city is mine. This also solves the problem of promoters who don’t wanna pay an artist to perform. A problem I have been having a lot lately, no in fact that is just standard in the music game middle men who wanna take but not give. Yeah I’ve been told that if you street perform it will devalue your music and you will be just a busker but the truth is I don’t give one. There are good buskers and bad buskers; there are good street performers and bad street performers. If my music is devalued as a result then so be it. I am looked at as a criminal for selling my music on the streets anyway and in my heart and mind the value I put on my music is not defined by where it is played. At least I will control it and my destiny. And I will have FREEDOM to play where I want to. (Don’t speak too soon Elavi the council may have some agents trying to shut down street performing too). To me this is a logical step in a music business that ignores to a large degree Urban music isn’t it right that I should make it truly urban?

Ok am going into Piccadilly train station so I will give you part two of this blog on my retune journey. In a bit Elavi people……….

Part 2

Ok am back on the train and as I suspected there was no case to speak of I was just asked to enter a plea and now a date has been set which is the 14th January. It’s a pain in a sense am dying to have some fun examining the witnesses. It’s the only time a brother like me is going to get to make these agents answer my questions between now and then I am going to hit the streets and make as much money as possible because in the end I guess the system is stacked in their favour and I may end up have to pay these people more money, but hey life is full of drama right? Plus, I am going to use this case to get as mush press as I can, I mean, you can’t blame a bother for capitalizing on a situation. On the serious side I think we have to highlight things like this case because selling music on the streets is now a way of life. It is making it possible for maybe artist to make a mark on the industry or even bypass it altogether and that is needed because the industry is very sick and no amount of medicine can help it, not only that but the country and world is financially sick too. So what are people supposed to do? Just sit back and accept failure? Say because I haven’t got a record deal I will give up and sign on to job seekers and join the millions out of work? To me the answer is a simple one. I must fight to create the success I desire because life is a fragile thing. There is no guarantee that you will live another year, day or even hour for that matter. So why live your life in despair or in a situation where you are not trying to achieve your dreams and desires. My way is to create my own label which I have done and sign myself to that. Create my own music, market it and sell it. Create my own videos just like the big players do. And who’s in control? That’s right me.

People say to me why don’t I go on the X factor? As an alternative to selling my own music? Well some people say it. People who in my opinion believe that it would be better to sell my soul to the likes of Simon Cowell than it is to sell my music to the public. I don’t hate X factor, don’t get me wrong, its entertainment and if you are bored on a Saturday and want to indulge in the karaoke cheese fest that is X factor then go for it. What I do think is crazy is the fact that so many artists believe that this is the way to go, and pin their dreams on being the next Leona Lewis. This truly is the musical matrix controlled by agents like Cowell who take pleasure in crushing dreams under foot as he dominates as the number one star maker.

I would rather take my chances with the council for now and like Kanye West said and I am sure many before him. What don’t kill you will only make you stronger. And it is making me stronger by the day. I hope that many of you will pass by when am playing in the city (cities). Look at it as a free gig, well unless you want to throw money my way after all I do have court costs to pay. I will be sending out bulletins to let you all know when and where. It might even turn into a tour. The, “Your city is mine” tour. What do you think? Got a little ring to it don’t you think?

Elavi

AKA the Street Disciple





DROPPIN SCIENCE by ELAVI


ALBUM SOUL SCIENCE AVAILABLE AT ITUNES





FAITH IN THE VALLEY by ELAVI


ALBUM SOUL SCIENCE AVAILABLE AT ITUNES







BOMBS by ELAVI



ALBUM SOUL SCIENCE AVAILABLE AT ITUNES






ELAVI INTERVIEW

BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN

Jim Morrison once said that …

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on and individual level. It's got to happen inside first. You can take away a man's political freedom and you won't hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can't be granted. Nobody can win it for you.”


I firmly believe that all freedoms are necessary and I will come back to Jim a little later, however, let me drop the real reason for this blog on you.

Recently, I went to a venue in Manchester, my home city, called Moho Live situated in the city centre. I went to find out the capacity of the venue in order to hire it out for a series of shows. I was thinking because this venue is relatively new on the Manchester music scene they may not have fallen pray to the Manchester music disease or more to the point the urban music lock down, lock out or whatever you want to call it.

What I mean for those that don’t know and many would have no reason to know this as they are not actively looking to hire venues. Unless you are a musician or promoter working in the so called urban music field you would not come face to face with this situation.

But to explain it let me relate the conversation I had with the guy who deals with MOHO live’s bookings.

I asked how much it was to hire and the capacity, he told me it was £600 and the capacity was 400-500. We chatted a little bout what kind of stuff was happening because as we spoke there was a lot of activity going on and many people were coming and going from the venue. (You know trying to put the brother at ease and chill him right out) The conversation looked promising I was beginning to let my self believe that I would be able to pay the man his money arrange a date and start promoting. But not so quick partner! Cos here it comes, the million dollar question…
So what kind of night you thinking of putting on? What kind of music will you be doing?

My mind started ticking over because I’m thinking should I tell him the truth or should I remix it for his ears should I leave out all references to hip hop , soul , RnB and just tell him am putting on a few indie bands? At lighting speed I did the EL calculations and in my brain box computer, if I told him that it was the indie band option I could get I there but what happens when he sees the promotion or worse still when it comes to the night it self? Or should I tell him the truth that its hip hop? Well I decided to go with the latter, I’ve been here before and I can’t be dealing with lying to get my foot in the door especially when am paying for the door. So I told him the truth. And before you could say “call the cops I think that brothers got a knife” I saw his expression change like blood draining from his veins and he mouthed those immortal words!!!! We don’t have anything to do with hip hop, grime, drum n bass or any urban music mate its just our policy. I knew it was pointless telling him that my music wasn’t violent or that there is never any trouble at my shows. This brother was a closed shop.

Now as I say this situation is more or less the norm when it comes to urban music and when this first started happening I felt that this was like some conspiracy against the likes of me and my music, but now I have a little more insight I can see how complex the situation is and what has brought us to a situation where this can happen.

At one time I blamed the venues and the promoters because they are blatantly excluding people on lines of music so it could be seen as deadly bullet against artist like me who just want to play and reach more people with their music.

But let’s scratch the surface. In recent years it seems that every venue/club dealing with urban music has been shut down and usually for reasons of violence in one form or another usually gun related. It even got to the point where we had the infamous and disgusting Havana club that had more cameras than big brother, cattle gates metal detectors so much so it felt like you was entering Guantanamo bay. Obviously this type of club is becoming more the norm up and down the country, but when it was, and it was for a long time, the only venue of its kind it said a lot about the city and what it had become.

In a sense those go back to the latter days of the world famous hacienda where gangs fought for control of the growing drug culture in Manchester it was also around this time that the city became known as Gunchester. The result of which was the death of the super club and the police and powers that be decided to change the city into a bar culture city and regulate the clubs. There was to never be another hacienda.


We are the product of those days and the violence is still here and it has infected the music, deeply.

As I mentioned in my blog is hip hop dead? There was a time when there was many forms of hip hop prevalent in the mainstream and the so called underground. Today it seems that without talk of killing, cutting throats, lyrics, graphically depicting degrading violence then music is not considered relevant. The grime scene is so infected with lyrics designed to put the other MC down and build your reputation in terms of verbal attacks that it has in many ways become the norm.

What we sow really is what we reap and we have reaped a situation where venues an promoters are afraid of the genre as a whole or at least they would rather just avoid the music to be on the safe side, I mean after all as a venue owner why would you want to loose your licence because it kicks off in your club?

But it goes deeper than that why has music and creativity become a thing used to depict violence in such measures? From very early on in society it has been know that music can influence and even control the masses. It has been know that way of thinking and ideology can be transmitted by musician. You don’t have to go far to see how many politicians align themselves with influential musicians. The list is endless of musicians who back political parties or who influence young voters. Look across the Atlantic to see how many artists have put their weight behind Barak Obama. I will go into this more in a later blog but my point here is that music is a powerful influence over the heart and minds of people but the young in particular. Why, then does the powers that be want the people to be infected with a message that does not embody any hope?
Why do so many MC’s want to embrace a destructive mentality? Snoop Dog can no longer play in the UK after violence at his show in Manchester. At the height of The So Solid crew’s short reign it was their reputation for violence at the shows that put an end to their careers. Which promoter wants to put money into that? Apart from the controversy that’s gains some headlines in the end it back fires.

I need to put the record straight, I need to say at this point that music is not in my opinion about selling fake realities where everything is good and we all lead perfect lives. We don’t and music should reflect this. Hip hop has been a voice of the voiceless and it has been the ghetto internet for many that would never of known what was going in many neighbourhoods but there is truth and there is fiction and there is also soulless individual who make soulless music not to express a terrible situation you might be living through, but because you have become twisted in that mentality.


Ghandi said an eye for an eye and the whole world will go blind. Well I am speaking to the musical blind. It is time for a change in the music. It is time for the brave and strong to find a new way of shinning, a new way of spreading a new word free of hate and violence. We look around and knife crime is the new buzz word of the media and many believe they have to walk with a weapon to be safe. Then what have we become? What has the music become?

Fear is a part of human nature. Fear is the mind killer you can achieve nothing in life with fear inside you and when people fear our music then the way has been closed to us. But for now all is well because the violence is contained within small pockets of Manchester that some call the ghetto and the music is not heard pounding down the walls of city venues.

This brings me back to Jim and the start of this blog. No one has told us to wear a mask of negativity. No one has told us to be studio gangsters. No has made us to use our most powerful resource for hate and destruction. We have chosen freely. But to end this I want you to read what Jim said just one more time.

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on and individual level. It's got to happen inside first. You can take away a man's political freedom and you won't hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can't be granted. Nobody can win it for you.”

Elavi

Aka the freedom writer

CLOCKWORK by ELAVI
WWW.ELAVI.COM

AN OPEN LETTER TO NOEL GALLAGHER

This is my third blog in my music focused world and it is an open letter to Noel Gallagher. There is little chance that he will read it so I guess its open to all that choose to read. Hopefully it will make the people who agree with Noels recent statement rethink their stance and if not you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink and you certainly can’t make it think.

For those that are unaware of the comment Noel made regarding hip hop and the Glastonbury music festival and the fact that Jay-Z will be headlining this year’s event I shall explain.

In short Noel, of Oasis has gone on record stating it was wrong to have hip hop headlining and that the organizers had changed things too much. The guitarist and sometimes singer claimed that Jay-Z was not in keeping with the nature of Glastonbury Gallagher said:

“If it aint broke don’t fix it. If you start to break it the people aren’t going to go. I’m sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance. Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music.” He ended his statement with “I’m not having hip hop at Glastonbury. It’s wrong”

So now that we have covered the background my letter starts like all good letters should………..

Dear Noel,
I hope you are well. I recently read the reports on your statement and was moved to write to you. Firstly can I say that I, like many people, have showed some admiration for your song “Wonderwall” and for quite a few of your other northern guitar classics. You, for a short minute, gave a revolutionary zeal to lads in pubs everywhere as they stood beer glasses in hand singing along to your many anthem like guitar pop/rock songs while effortlessly mimicking your brother Liam’s characteristic swagger. You gave a feeling of belonging to many of these guys who otherwise may have been lured into Ecstasy filled night clubs to dance the water out of their bodies. Although I have come from another musical perspective I can appreciate you and your music. The reason I can do this will become clear as you read on. So I thank you for this and I thank you on behalf of every swagger loving blagger from our home town of Manchester.

But noel I must admit that the wonder fell off my wall when I heard what you had said about Jay-Z. I have heard you make many a statement regarding your music and it has never bothered me in the least. Statements like Oasis being the greatest band in the world, you being the next Beatles, or inferring it at least, it never really bothered me I mean you have a right to your opinion even when you embraced New Labour and tried to resurrect Rule Britannia under the guise of cool Britannia that never bothered me much either because I knew it would come back to bite you and make you look back, not with anger, but with regret.


However when an artist of your eminence decides that a whole genre of music should be excluded from the united kingdoms largest music festival then I think we should all ask what does Mr. Gallagher mean by terms like “traditional” and hip hop being “wrong”? I am not defending Jay-Z’s form of hip hop and anyone who has listened to my music will know that I have a different take on hip hop and music in general, but I will defend his right to play at a musical festival as long music festivals exists.

What could inspire you to endorse nothing less than Musical Apartheid? Were you really saying no hip hop should be entertained? Or was it Jay-Z you have a problem with? Does the term traditional mean only bands from the UK? Does it mean only bands with the basic set up of drums, guitars and bass? With hip hop being a music primarily created by black people do you mean only bands with a white heritage? Oh Noel, what do you mean? I think its time to educate you in the hope that you can clarify your thinking and in so doing help us to understand you.

You have made it very very clear that one of your main influences is the Beatles. You have taken every opportunity to align yourself with their legacy and to those with musical ears you have taken chord progression and many phrases from their back catalogue. For example “don’t look back in anger” in which you used the chord progression from Lennon’s “imagine” in the intro of the song. So I think it should be clear to assume that in your mind the Beatles would be considered traditional.

In the case of the Beatles, they came to prominence as part of a wider musical legacy which became known as “the Mersey Beat”, which I am sure you are aware of.

What you may not be aware of or have overlooked is the fact that the Mersey beat was inspired by the influx of black music into the city in the post war years. In addition to the fact that black GIs were coming into Liverpool bringing along with them Afro-American music the cause of black music was also championed by many a white seaman. It was this music that was not openly sold in music shops but instead trafficked under counters that the likes of Paul McCartney and john Lennon would learn to play as youngsters in the same way that you learned to play their music. This hidden but powerful source of music became known as “Race Music” for obvious reasons.

To this day Liverpool as a city has an uneasy relationship with its past and for some reason seems to refuse to accept the major role black music played in the development of the cities musical culture. Even though evidence of that history is lost in the mainstream it always resides just below the surface but ever present in the psyche of us all and in the minds of musicologists like Portia Maultsby who concluded that the success of white rock and rollers was very much boosted by black influence. There was also the proliferation of the “cover Syndrome”. Which was a way for record companies to counteract the immense crossover influence of R’n’B in the early fifties. Record companies deliberately copied/covered versions with white artists to repackage and make the music more palatable to a white audience or a ‘traditional’ audience. These are the kinds of issues that we are trying to leave behind.

Maybe Noel you can speak to your father or maybe an uncle about the fact that many white males of this time would gain access to clubs to listen to black music the same clubs that had color bars preventing black people from attending


Noel are you saying you would wish for this influence to have not happened in the early development of what you call traditional music?

What about Hendrix, who revolutionized rock music? As you know he was essentially a blues musician, again blues is a musical form with a black tradition.

But hey, I’m sure you know about the influences in the music you love. I mean Paul Weller is one of your idols in fact you have taken great pleasure in his work and in working with him. Why don’t you ask Paul about his early influences of SKA, two tone and mod music I’m sure he would tell you where that ‘skank dat’ he loves so much came from and how Skin heads and Mods took there music from the SKA ‘riddims’ of Jamaica. If your musical greats have taken such strong influences from black music then how have you got a problem with the man they call Jay-Z? In fact have you not seen festival or music events like the Diana memorial concert where white and black folk were shaking their collective ass to the music of Kanye West? I heard that even Prince William can be heard in the palace blasting Pharrell and Snoop.

For arguments sake lets say you were able to get a ban on hip hop at Glastonbury. What then? Would you screen the hundreds of thousands of visitors to make sure there were no hip hop lovers sneaking in amongst the traditional music lovers? NO, I’m sure even you would see how preposterous that would be.


Noel, I would like to say that both the Beetles and Paul Weller, in his time with The Jam and The Style Council, did not put a musical ban on Sam Cooke, The Shirelles, Al Hibbler, Roy Hamilton, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Colin Areety, James brown, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davies, duke Ellington, B.B king, Marvin Gaye, chuck berry. If they had done this the music you have come to love would today be a very different thing. Although you may say none of the artist I have listed can be called hip hop. The point is as a hip hop artist I know in my soul that hip hop would not be here without these greats who went before me to lay the foundations of hip hop. As the phrase goes there is nothing new under the sun.

So please don’t reject hip hop because you fear it or you hate it or it makes you feel a little put out. You must embrace it in the understanding that all music is related just as you have close relatives and distant ones, nevertheless you are all from the same line. Music is the same we are all connected through it. So use your position to unite not to grab headlines that make you seem ignorant and backward in your grip on reality and lost in an outdated mentality.


There is nothing greater than when music from two different branches comes together to prove clearly that they are rooted in the same tree.

Can you imagine if you had asked to Jay-Z to hook up and drop a track together for Glastonbury? It is obvious that Jay-Z has a mind open to such collaboration because of his work with Linkin Park. But I guess I am dreaming because although I would have rather read a headline saying that said ‘Noel Gallagher and Jay-Z join forces for one track to open Glastonbury’. The truth is I know your ego is too great to share the stage with an artist you feel is inferior to yourself and that is the saddest thing about your statement; it reveals something inside you that is ignorant and maybe a little bitter that your band didn’t break America in the same way that Jay-Z has broken everywhere…….

Elavi AKA the Educator

CLOCKWORK by ELAVI
WWW.ELAVI.COM

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THE PRICE OF YOUR DREAMS

This blog is about a couple of topics that I feel relate or at least in my experience they are irrevocably linked. The first is control or the power to control. The second topic is our dreams and aspirations.

In my first blog I mentioned the fact that I had taken to the streets to sell my own music and that many of the people who have becomes friends both online and in the real world first made contact on the streets of my home town Manchester. Although I have remained in regular contact very few of these people know that on the 19th December 2007 I was prosecuted by Manchester city council for selling my music on Market Street in the town center. It seems that no matter what argument I put to the council they were hell bent on prosecution, and believe me I did try to reason with them. I tried the argument that all I am is a poor guy trying to use his entrepreneurial spirit to better himself. I tired the argument about the music industry being in turmoil and with that turmoil no one is being signed so I decided to wait no longer to get my music out.

What I learned was you can’t reason with a dog that’s got a bone between its teeth especially when that dog’s got a taste for meat. I realized I was the meat. In the eyes of the council I was no different to pickpockets or people selling fake DVD’s and other bootleg material.

So off to court I was headed still thinking of my best defense. However the more I looked into the law coupled with the fact that they had me on CCTV tracked trough the city like I was Jack Bauer in an episode of 24. The footage clearly showed me selling and taking cash from members of the public. So not only did they have me by the short-and-curly’s , they also had hold of Big Willy and the two twins as well (painful). So to jump to the outcome the verdict was guilty and the fine was £250.

From my point pf view the money I had to pay was worth it. Not because I believe that £250 is nothing but because the experience taught me about one thing. It taught me about control. The control that society has over us all, it taught me that if you have a dream sometimes there is a price to pay for that dream.

I will be totally honest I have never been a lover of authority figures, men in suites, men in black or whatever you want to call them and anyone who has listened to my single ‘FREE UR MIND’ will know where am coming from. That’s right the council guys were just a couple of agents without the dark shades and cheaper outfits. But the control they enforced was no different. If I had stolen, then come after me. If I had killed, come after to me. If I had raped then by all means come after me. But the so called crime of selling my music just didn’t add up. To me, the council and the police officers who confiscated my music needed to free their own minds and quickly.

Ok, now I come to the most important part of this blog and my experience.

After I was prosecuted I did not go out to sell for a while until I realized I had stopped hitting the streets not through choice but though fear. Subtle fear had crept in and along with it the feeling that I was being watched. I felt like I was doing something wrong.

Me scared? Yes Elavi, you, scared like a little baby scared of the monsters in the dark. This realization came to me when I was watching a film called HUSTLE AND FLOW. In which the main protagonist DJay relates to another character that it’s not about making it. It’s about making it with as little resources as you have. He said that it’s not about how big the man is in the fight but how big the fight is in the man. It made me think that it was from the street selling that I had been able to record my album, get it stocked in many HMV stores and build my website. The streets had been good to me. Why should I desert it now? So I decided to break trough the fear buy a new bag, fill it and head for the town center to sell, sell, sell like my name was cash generator.

The first couple of times I was uneasy this was not helped by the council guys finding me straight away like agents chasing NEO. But the more they came the less I feared them. I mean what more could they do to me apart from prosecute me again (which they are in the process of doing again by the way). No, in a way they have helped me to realize that they can not control me unless I let them control me, unless I crumble to fear. So far I have paid £250 for my dream but more than money I have also paid the price of my fear and to be free of fear is a priceless thing, because with the absence of fear comes freedom. I am free of what people think of me. I am free of the control and I am closer to my music and my dream.

So, to all the dreamers like me who are driven to create, those who have a dream and a goal. Face your fear. Find out the price of your dreams and gladly pay it no matter how high the price because the reward will be priceless.

Elavi AKA The Fearless

CLOCKWORK by ELAVI
WWW.ELAVI.COM

IS HIP HOP DEAD?

Is hip hop dead?

I am asking this question because so many people have said that this music once so radical and new is dead, Nas included. In fact to quote Nas from an XXL article when asked what he meant when proclaiming hip hop is dead he said

”Yeah Hip-Hop is Dead cause America is dead culturally. I’m proud to be an American, no matter what. But American culture is stale; you know what I’m saying? We keep regurgitating the same sh*t. And it ain’t exciting.”

He went on to say

“The sh*t was exciting. But it ain’t the ghetto secret no more. Kids everywhere know it. And that’s what we want - we want it be heard. But now it’s really corny. And I still love hip-hop, but it’s like, the way the game is now, it’s like, F*ck rap, get money. I don’t think nobody cares about respect as an artist, because at the end of the day, everybody is just chasing the paper. So f*ck it. Hip Hop is Dead. Let’s piss on it, bury the sh*t and get our money.”

Strong views form the man but I believe to answer this question we need to look at the many problems that face hip hop to see if any of these nails in hip hops coffin have really killed it stone dead like a bullet to the head.

First we have the super producers and the buy a beat mentality. In times past an artist would craft an album with what ever means was available to them. Once you achieved a level of success or a label believed in you a producer would work with the artist/band. In many other forms of music this is still the case. In hip hop however it has become dominated buy a hand full of producers and those at the top of the game transcend genre for example the Neptune’s have produced for pop acts as well as hip hop acts with equal success and for a minute every new artist was almost expected to have a Neptune’s produced track on their album if it s was going to top the charts. Timberland, kanye and the Neptune’s have for the last few years been the producers with some of the highest output in the industry putting out massive amounts of beats and rejuvenated or keeping alive many a music career. The price we pay for these hits is creativity because when record companies demand hits those hits come with a price firstly because it cost to get kanye to produce your album and secondly because the artist does not have to dig deep into their own soul to find something of value musically. Kanye did it for them and as we can see music becomes interchangeable no one has their own sound in fact they all sound alike, and when a producer does come with a new sound like Lil Jon did with crunk it soon becomes the latest bandwagon to jump on and everyone wants that crunk sound.

Secondly underground artist and younger up and coming artist in the main part are not in studios experimenting and trying to come up with something new that shakes the foundation of music they are downloading instrumentals from limewire to create their music or if not they are trying to recreate that Kanye or Timberland sound which has become the standard for all urban music today. This means that the life blood of the music is drained out like empty carcass being devoured by itself, a dog chewing on its own tail and feeling proud that it finally caught it. Why are their so many hip hop, grime, R n B artists out their and so few of them ever think about learning to play an instrument? Why do they feel the way forward is to buy a beat or get someone to make a beat for you? What has happened to creating your own sound? You own voice?

This brings me to the third of the triad of nails in the hip hop coffin. Violent gun talk low grade sex chat, booty chatter never more than that. Why is it that the main focus of all our music has become childish bravado? Bigging yourself up at the expense of your fellow musicians telling them how you gonna kill them. As may of you know I have been selling my music on the streets as a way of getting the music out there. I am not the only one and many times I will buy music form other rappers or music people in general. And most of the music that I get is the same talk all the time, emcees killing people on CD or telling me how they hurt you because their skills are deadly. In my song ‘REVOLUTION’ when I said ‘rise up all you dead emcees’. I was also talking to all the emcees who think they are alive but in fact they are the walking dead. They are dead because their whole focus is death and in turn the gun becomes their god, a god of destruction. What’s worse is most of these emcees don’t even live what they speak about. That’s why I say every generation does need a new revolution. They need a revolution of mind and spirit or they will fall pray to the 50 cent philosophy of get rich or die trying. Every human being dreams but when the dream becomes a night mare its time to wake up.

Guns and crime are a reality of our times and I am not saying not to tackle these things in the music because music is a voice to highlight and challenge any and every aspect of our lives. But what about the other aspects of our lives when we laugh, love, live and cry as well as die. So many artists have gone before us with so many different takes on music and on hip hop it seems to be a crime that we have been challended or allowed ourselves to become focused solely on the most negative aspects of life.

What power could we find if we started to once again use words to say something with meaning and tried to reach deeper into the souls of the listener. To make them think and connect with the music we are making hip hop was once a diverse ever changing power house of sound ready to shake the ground. Speaking about freedom as well as partying till the break of dawn and the planet rock, hip hop don’t stop. The battle should no longer be against each other the battle should be to resurrect hip hop from the clutches of the corporate pimps and the studio gangsters.

I don’t want to see the end of 50 cent sometimes we all want to be in the club with a bottle of bub but check this, I want his throne to be big enough so KRS 1 can sit with him I want to see the likes of Rakim, Chuck D, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Arrested Development, De La Soul, Heiroglyphics, Das FX, Organized Konfusion. Digable Planets, The Fugees all on that thrown with many philosophies not just get rich or die trying. The truth is 50cent can’t always be found in the club with a bottle of bub because he is a multi-millionaire businessman who is more likely to be found in the boardroom not supplying people with X but looking after his stocks and shares and building his empire. But to the younger brothers who devour his music he is never in the boardroom because the image he sells to them is that of a street thug, ghetto hustler. Gangsterism and the denigration of women is the greatest nail in the coffin of hip hop and a reflection that inside we have become lost as a people AND AS KANYE SAID WE AT WAR WITH OURSELFS. It’s this war that has become reflected in hip hop. So, In answer to the question. Is hip hop dead? The answer is no hip hop is not dead it can not die and will never die because it is just a reflection of us. The question should really be are we dead?

Elavi AKA the Resurrector Live long and prosper

CLOCKWORK by ELAVI

WWW.ELAVI.COM