The OOOwie Effect

The Rinsing of Hip-Hop – Can It Survive Without The Herb?
It’s 1990, Erlangen, Germany. I’m in a limo with my black-and-white, striped Adidas gleaming like a pearl-coated set of piano keys, and I’m chilling with some iconic hip-hop artists. We were on the way to a club called Marilyn’s to cop some hashish. They needed a hundred dollar piece and my friend told them that I could find it for them. Well, I did it, and we instantly became best friends once the potent smoke hit their lungs. When I got out of that limo, I had a permanent joker smile for months. Fast forward to 2008. I’m sitting on the couch at some recording studio in Orlando, FL; the producer is cramped up in the soundproof room, hot boxing with the artist. I started seeing double and caught the munchies as I caught a whiff of the potent kush smoke they let escape from the room. As I watched, I started to wonder, “What would hip-hop be like without the mood-altering herb?”

The mind-bending flower was glorified by West Coast rappers Snoop Dogg and Cypress Hill, and East Coast rappers like Red Man, Method Man and the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan. It’s still the main ingredient that puts an artist in a creative realm, with all their golden eggs, and helps produce hits. It’s widely used in the industry, somewhat like having a cup of coffee to jump-start the day or, in this case, the session.

It’s so old now though, I mean really, you can’t rap or write without being high? Wow! What a crutch. I have been at clubs where rap artists will be performing, and when in the VIP section it’s like B.Y.O.W. along with a gas mask. You better be holding some good icky sticky wicky, kush, bubble thrax, or ooooowie or else your stay in VIP will be cut short and you’ll be ejected like a baseball player arguing with the umpire.
Its use is so blatant, you can see it at every video shoot, every concert, and every movie set that has artist-turned-actors – it’s everywhere. Should we just accept that it’s part of the hip-hop culture? Or can we rinse hip-hop and clean up the image that stains the youth and influences the fans?

This music culture has an abundant amount of different ingredients that represent hip-hop, so will it lose its edge if it’s a cleaner, clear minded, more polished entity? The hip-hop community wants to be referred to in an equal, non-condescending way, yet they are the biggest blunt smoking, pill popping, bottle gulping, woman jumping and not to mention drug dealing, bail bond junkies in the entertainment arena. I mean really, it might be for the better: we can start using big words in our interviews instead of the third grade grammar we’ve been spoon feeding you all. Plus, how stupid will you look claiming you’re so talented and so rich but you’re still getting arrested for drug-related incidents? Then you wonder why you’re doing a gazillion hours of community service for free.

I challenge the industry to clean up its act and try doing it sober and clear minded. There are some hip-hop artists out there that do just that, and have been very successful and critically acclaimed for their clean, positive image. They have also been offered bigger and better opportunities, especially when they’ve outgrown their fitted cap and turned 40. Like Nas said, “Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassing.” Well it’s 2009. Imagine hearing a song, going to a concert, or even seeing a video without the herb and all that accompanies it. What would hip-hop be like? Maybe you won’t be shelved for three years after signing your life away to these record label executives because you’re higher than a kite, tore up on four pills with your pimp cup filled with Henny talking about, “Yeahhhhh! I’m rich bitch!”

Rinsing hip-hop of its blemishes will definitely lift the level of respect it’s given. It will also tidy up the smoky image that just doesn’t look cute anymore and leaves everyone in VIP talking in your face saying, “Yo dawg! We’re going to hook up fo sho to do some biz,” with that dragon breath kicking you in the face like Bruce Lee. Maybe we will get a new form of hip-hop with the content being positive, uplifting, and with a purpose in its delivery, its image, and lyrics. This way it can change and influence our youth and fans, bringing them to an elevated plateau in which they’re really doing something. Or you can be that artist wearing the big, fat, 17-pound bling-bling of a chain around your neck, bottle popping in the back of a limo, money raining on the million dollar set of your video shoot with your rented Lamborghini. That’s supposed to tell us what? That you’re the man? That you’re saving the world? That you’ve helped in the fight against terrorism? Or that you sent food to a Third World country that has millions starving? Or that you helped in finding a cure for AIDS, cancer, or Alzheimer’s, or helped to promote a bill in Congress that will benefit your people?

Imagine hip-hop without the “ooowie” effect. If you’re not living what you’re kicking, then be real and make a difference. Be that artist that employs a cleaner, positive, drug-free image and has content that can actually influence in a positive, trendsetting way. We now have a brother from another mother in the White House, so we know that “All is possible if you really want change.” So, can hip-hop survive without the herb? I think it can.

Words John Sankitts, Jr. – jon@goatmag.com