I haven't tweeted in a few months, but I am about to make a comeback because I have some important things to say.

The music industry is gutting hip-hop, spinning narratives and undermining the culture and music that has kept its pockets lined for the past several decades. It is shameful. It is intentional. And I am calling it out.

How many Black artists have been dropped since the labels have “shifted priorities”? How many Black creatives have been laid off this year? Who is always the first to feel the effects when companies “optimize and streamline”?

Hip-Hop is held to a high standard of performance. Is not respected, but pays the bills. Expected to do great with no resources. Given less, yet must be so much more. Must compete for a crumb of the huge budgets that go to genres that don’t perform half as well across any metric.

It isn’t a conspiracy theory. It is a conspiracy reality. What other conclusion can one effectively come to, given the obvious moves made this year? They want to silence, control, mute, undermine, diminish and diffuse the popularity, potency and political power of Hip-Hop.

“The appetite for hip-hop is down. The consumption of hip-hop is down. The demand for hip-hop is down.” You took it for granted, gave it crumbs, coasted on fumes and TikTok snippets and now have the nerve to be mad that your cash cow isn’t milking the same. Tomato x 3!

Every year the data people funnel stats that are then published to create the illusion that hip-hop’s popularity is waning. Tbh if Bad Bunny was correctly categorized as hip-hop/rap and not Latin, that alone would rectify this farce. But filing him elsewhere is purposeful.

spiritually and respectively, they are 67 and 73 years old.

There is a difference between a gatekeeper and a steward.

To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Long live subculture!

Laila! is such a special talent. She writes, sings, raps and produces all her music herself! Her album “Gap Year” just dropped today. Run it up! music.apple.com/us/album/gap-y…

The overlords depend on everyone being frozen with fear and scared to lose their jobs. It's a great way to control people and keep folks from pointing out what's happening. If you have any position of privilege, it is your duty to point out what you see.

I remember when brands didn't want to stand next to Hip-Hop. Early on, working at a rap station, the advertisers were strip clubs, payday loans, fast food and cheap car insurance. Ironically, I look upon that era with great fondness.

We exist in an ecosystem. Protecting yourself isn't enough.

"The Culture" doesn't need big business to validate it. In parallel, "The Culture" has made a lot of people rich. Many of those same people have no true investment, no moral compass & no responsibility to it. Their willingness to abandon ship to save themselves is perverse.

say the thing say the thing always say the thing keep people around who say the thing the thing you don't want to hear