Friday, February 20, 2015

DRAKE COLLECTS ANOTHER ELEMENT OF HIP-HOP, ONE STEP CLOSER TO TURNING TEMPLE OF HIP-HOP INTO CONDOS


Yo, who said DRAKE ain't respectin the forefathers of hip-hop?   He bringin back the old school hip-hop elementals with this one, conscripting fellow Canadian JIM JOE to lend his fresh chickenscratch handstyle to the new LP.  Y'all might remember Mr. JOE for his adorable Yeezus cartoon, and you've certainly seen his work if you've had the misfortune of spending any time in Lower Manhattan lately. 

Now we all know hip-hop and graff are tied up inextricably, so it's real cool to see the brotha from the north goin back to the rec-room days.  The similarities between JIM JOE and DRAKE are uncanny.  They both Canadians whose commercial and artistic pretensions clash with the roots of their artistic forms.  The purists hate on em with the same passion, often for the same reason: they're corny carpetbaggers cloggin up the airwaves and streets in a city they got no claim on and their success sets a toxic precedent for the future of their respective artforms.  They even say JIM JOE would've been vicked for his YSL peacoat back in the bad ol' days just as DRAKE would've been laughed off as a Newjack Swing cornball.  I ain't one of these people!  Every generation needs to define itself against its forebears.  Aligning himself with JIM JOE, DRAKE is basically sayin, "Fuck the haters, I'm the JIM JOE of hip-hop!"  He's pouting to JIGGA, "Sit down, old man.  I'm da new king, and JIM JOE is my Basquiat."

So what it is?  Will JIM JOE be the next Cey Adams?  Has DRAKE been successful in ushering in the Microphone Friend Era?  One thing is clear: these aren't the artists gentrified NYC needs, but the ones it deserves.

INFORMATIVE POSTSCRIPT
It's extremely hard to Google specific graffiti pieces.  I can't find decent pictures of CAINE's Welcome to Hell whole car, or SANE's "nailed to a cross" Agnostic Front(?) inspired skinhead joint, but I found this Bieber burner with no trouble at all.  In my fruitless search, I learned the mother of leftist scion turnt conservative ideologue David Horowitz took a photo of the CAINE piece that hung in the Museum of the City of New York.  The more you know!  If anyone can send me good flicks of these pieces, you will receive an official RAP MUSIC HYSTERIA t-shirt (2015, Sharpie on Hanes).

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