All Black Everything.

Like carpenter jeans or slap bracelets, I thought I had grown out of rap music. And I used to love all those things. They were the height of what it was to be cool at a certain point. The only difference is, rap isn’t a fad. That much has already been proven. However, it had become about as cool as cheap plastic accessories and having a useless loop on the leg of your jeans.

Despite my East coast roots I loved me some Tupac. A lot of what he said was obviously difficult to relate to as a middle class white kid, but his anger was right in a young teens wheelhouse. He even had more heartfelt songs like “Life Goes On” and “Unconditional Love” that were almost haunting. Listening to music like that was moving at a time when music means almost too much to a young kid.

Not to mention, we’re talking about the early 90’s. This was the Golden Age of rap music. Tupac, Biggie, Nas, N.W.A., Jay-Z. First ballot Hall of Famers if rap ever builds a hall of fame, which will probably happen relatively soon (and the location will have to be either New York or L.A. This will reignite the East/West rivalry). These people were angry and raw and had something to say. These men turned rap from a novelty act to a legitimate musical genre.

Then rap took off. Pac and Biggie died. Nas buried himself in unfair expectations after Illmatic. Eazy-E died and in a way so did Ice Cube (if a time machine is ever invented, one of my top five things I want to do is take 1990 Ice Cube to 2009 and have him watch all the trailers to his movies and then see what happens). Rap used to be about real life. We hit a dry spell where it was all about having expensive shit. Not to mention, the way record sales are broken down, most of these artists were broke and seeing dimes from the dollars they were making. All those expensive cars and glittering chains in those videos? The cars were rented and the chains were on lay-away.

Things got fake real fast. Not that it was all rap music. All music has collapsed into poppy focus-grouped homogeny that is pretty sickening. I started to listen to all my father’s music. Springsteen, The Band, Marley, Dylan. Stuff that’ll never go out of style. There’s something comforting about that. But something was bothering me and I couldn’t figure it out. Then it hit me. These people were not singing to me.

Then The Blueprint 3 came out. Not the greatest rap album ever. Most people I’ve talked to don’t even think it’s the best Jay-Z album ever. But it was about us. It was about something. It was about September 11 and his hometown bouncing back from it. It was about him not being able to stay retired because he didn’t like the shit he was hearing. It was about putting an end to auto-tune once and for all. It was about innovation and clever wordplay. It was about someone who is at the top of his game and he knows it.

Listen to the track “A Star is Born.” Jay raps about every rapper that has ever tried to take his crown. He instructs us to clap for them, but the underlying message is that he’s still the king of the mountain. Eminem, Mobb Deep, Li’l Wayne and countless others have come out of the gate on fire. And have all faded. Jay has outlasted and will continue to prove it. Just like his new clothing style. All black will never be out of style. And neither will he.