Who’s your favorite rapper? Are they from your hometown? Who’s got the mic in your city? Who cares?
Don’t feel bad. More often than not, your local rapper doesn’t need your appreciation until they make it to the mainstream. Fuck ya’ll.
Until then, they’ll leave town and make it clap out of state, before they’re recognized. Chances are, some kid in Romania is poppin/lockin/droppin to those songs you’re going to pretend you liked after they’re famous (assuming you the reader, are not from Romania). “Yeah, I knew him back in high school!” ass mf.
I get excited when my city is mentioned in the mainstream. I live in Phoenix, and I just love to say that. Even more so, I get excited when I discover some local MC mentioning some part of the city where I lived out my glory days. I love seeing the places that I used to run around and act a fool, become the set of a new music video. Nowadays I love the local scene, but I wasn’t always like that.
I used to ignore the hell outta local rappers. Shit, sometimes I still do. Maybe it’s the escapism of music, I don’t know why, but we often overlook what’s right in front of us. Sleepin’ on songs that should, by logic, be more relatable to us because that artist is from our same city. Unless that shit is trash. Then I will gladly listen to the new Kendrick instead, with no remorse. I might even put on some J. Cole and take a nap.
Once I decided not to totally ignore local rappers, I discovered a whole lot of greatness… Stories I had never heard anywhere else, about places (I thought) I was all too familiar with. Straight up heaters, shining light on the community. Plus it’s hard to ignore local rappers when the fuckery is at an all time high. It’s just good tv.
– Jay D Penn.
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