Last night I watched one of my favorite programs, Unsung, that paid tribute to the career of Big Daddy Kane. I never thought of Kane as being ‘unsung’ before, but the more I thought about it, I realized that Kane hasn’t received the credit that he truly deserves for the impact he made on Hip-Hop. The same can actually be said about several MCs from his era. I really hope young fans of rap music and purveyors of a more commercialized and watered down Hip-Hop culture, watched last night’s Unsung on Kane…and if you missed it, it’ll re-run again if you want to check it out.
I often say that today’s rappers are greatly influenced by legends like Big, Pac, Nas and Jay-Z. But the truth is Big Daddy Kane influenced them! Kane is THE favorite rapper of your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. You follow me? I can tell you with absolute certainty that t... here would be no Jay-Z or Biggie if not for Kane. Don’t think so? The ‘Brooklyn connection’ is obvious, but just listen to Kane’s music, check out his style and watch his performances with Scoob and Scrap back in the day…and then stop, look and listen to Jay-Z and Biggie’s respective styles. The influence is profound.
Of course, Kane brought something to the game that was “original”, that hadn’t been seen or heard before him and haven’t been seen or heard since. I put the word original in quotes because Kane was clearly influenced by singers, comedians, and actors before him, which he talked about on Unsung. But Kane brought his own flavor to the styles he borrowed. He made it his own. He made it Hip-Hop. He may have singlehandedly redefined swagger to fit what would become the unstoppable force of Hip-Hop culture.
I hate to be a prisoner of the moment, influenced by the fact that I just finished watching Unsung, yet, even though Kane is number 8 on my top 10 MCs of all time list, he’s arguably the greatest “pure” lyricist to ever grab the mic. His position is easily several spots higher on my list if the second half of his career would have played out differently. I think the Unsung documentary, which included interviews with Kane himself, laid it all out thoroughly. Taking his music in a direction that was about 75% geared for the ladies turned out to be a career killer for Kane. I don’t want to offend the ladies, but Kane was just too talented of a MC to devote damn near entire albums to his female fans. He was influenced by Barry White (who I also happen to be a big fan of) but he wasn’t Barry White! Biggie, and later Jay-Z, was able to find that balance of making records for the ladies, records for the brothers and records for everybody, that Kane got away from doing by the time he was on his fourth album.
The Unsung documentary also put forth a very interesting yet controversial perspective insinuating that Kane’s career was derailed not just by his own artistic choices, but by the direction rap was going in the early 90’s led by West coast artists, namely N.W.A. and then Dr. Dre and Snoop (Death Row). It’s a very provocative argument to make that the emergence of ‘gangsta rap’ literally ended the careers of Big Daddy Kane and others from his era. I never really thought of it in that way but there might just be some truth to that position.
Kane was tough but he wasn’t a gangster, and he was more player than pimp. In other words, he was R-A-W, but he wasn’t dangerous. Young fans may “take for granted” the hardcore stuff they hear right on the radio these days, but back then that gangsta ‘ish literally scared the hell out of America! Kane was already losing a lot of his most loyal fans when he started making more “bring-the-bed-out-onto-the-stage” music, but when the gangsters and the wanna-bees starting taking over with music that was so explicit that you couldn’t play it while your mama was in the room, he didn’t have a fighting chance in the battle for the streets.
The truth is though, no one that came out of that gangsta era, from either coast, down south or anywhere else between, could mess with Kane lyrically. No one wanted to see Kane on the mic, rhyme for rhyme. But by the early 90’s rap music became less about skillful lyricism delivered with infectious charisma, and more about ‘dumbing down’ while engaging in thinly veiled posturing.
And yes, some of your favorite MCs (and mine) were 100% guilty of it…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing any MC in particular nor am I condemning the 90’s decade in which I grew up. The 90’s is my era, and I believe, the greatest decade of Hip-Hop. The last couple of years of the ‘golden age’ of Hip-Hop were in the first couple years of the 90’s. But MCs “who were there” from the very beginning of Hip-Hop in the late 70’s, to the ones who were in their heyday throughout the 80’s, like Kane, were the architects of the true elements of Hip-Hop. They represented it well, with the upmost of authenticity and the highest level of mastery that has never been matched thereafter.
When we talk about the greatest of anything related to Hip-Hop, we dare not forget about those who were doing their thing when I was just a kid and when some of you weren’t even born!
Example: I made the bold claim several months ago that “Can I Live” by Jay-Z is the greatest rap song of all time. Well, allow me to raise more eyebrows by stating that Big Daddy Kane’s “Raw” is the greatest lyrical performance of all time (much love also for Kool G. Rap)-and there is a difference between the greatest rap song and the greatest lyrical performance.
(By the way: The second greatest lyrical performance of all time? KRS-One on “My Philosophy)
(Another ‘by the way”: Everyone’s taking sides in the beef between ‘new school’ Nicki Minaj and ‘suddenly old school’ Lil’ Kim, but neither one of them would want to see MC Lyte when she was in her prime! Don’t let the announcement gig on the BET Awards fool you!)
Well, maybe I’ve ranted and raved long enough about Kane and how Hip-Hop was back in the day. This blog post is not about widening the generation divide in Hip-Hop, it’s about bringing us all together to pay tribute to a true legend. Watching Unsung last night just took me back to the days when I was a kid. I definitely had feelings of nostalgia checking out the story of Big Daddy Kane. The well-produced Unsung does a great job with its documentaries but the series focuses primarily on R&B/Soul artists from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The 90’s, in terms of black music as a whole, and old school legendary MCs like Kane, don’t get enough shine on radio, television, print, film or online.
I’m glad Unsung did a documentary on Kane (and the one on The Fat Boys from last season), but I would love to see a series that focused exclusively on documenting, in detail, the legendary careers of MCs, DJ’s, producers, graffiti artists, break dancers and the businesspersons who built Hip-Hop culture.
As much as fans from my generation love Jay, Big, Nas, Snoop, the Wu, Lil Kim and Pac…and as much as fans from this generation love Lil Wayne, Drake, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and whoever the hell else…
…We all should “do the history” and pay ‘nuff respect to the true pioneers and legends like DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One, Run-DMC, L.L., Ice-T, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim and others, who all together created a music and culture that has completely shaped and defined who many of us are today.
Update: It’s official-Kane is now #4 on my greatest of all-time list. Want to know the MCs on my top 10 list, and why I moved Kane up 4 spots? I’ll share it in the next post. (I’m sure you don’t even have to think about who I’m going to say is #1, but the order of the rest of the list may surprise you.)
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