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I Am Legend · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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  Welcome to Hip Hop Now Podcasts. If you're from the future, you know
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  what to do it shore ass out of so disrespect the leg hip hop and
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  say this day, let's get right into the business. What up, y'all?
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  Welcome to hip Hop Now Podcasts and I am your host Vegas and this
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  is the Dungeons of Rap. If you're watching video, big shout out to
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  the producers over at patreon dot com slash hip Hop Now. And if you
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  would like to support this podcast and learn all about it, follow the link
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  in the description of this episode fifty Years of hip Hop. It's Memorial Day
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  weekend. If you're from the future, come on now, man, gonna
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  get your ass out of here. You already had the holiday or whatever.
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  But because it's a holiday weekend, and because I don't really report like rumors
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  and scandalous news. And did he taking it a little bit too far with
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  his video with the City girls? And he probably should have did a little
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  bit more setups went on a strict diet and went back to looking like young
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  Diddy. But that's besides the point. I don't get into that kind of
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  news because you come here for not only news about music that's coming out that
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  you may want to check out artists that you may want to hear about as
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  far as it relates to music. But also, you know you, I
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  assume so you like my perspective on some of these things. And every now
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  and again I like to do an episode when the news is slow on a
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  particular topic. So it being fifty years of hip hop, get right into
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  the business. So maybe last week or a couple of weeks ago, I
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  did a story or read a story on Clark Kent and his comments about the
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  Chronic being classic or not, which is very controversial. And in that news
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  story, I said, from my perspective, before you judge Gold, look
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  up Clark Kent, right, DJ Clark Kent, not Superman, DJ Clark
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  Kent right, just so you know who you're judging. And there's a lot
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  of debate on whether Clark Kent can say that. Well, of course he
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  can say that he's a human being as an opinion. He can express his
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  opinion. But that's not what some people are saying. Some people saying,
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  well, no, is he an authority on hip hop that we even have
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  to care about what he says? Does he know what he's talking about?
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  If he says the Chronic isn't a classic. I would say no because the
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  Chronic is a classic, but I would say yes because of his history.
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  So I ask you to google it. If you listen to this podcast,
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  ask you to go and google him. But now we're not really going to
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  talk about him. We're gonna talk about whether Clark Kent and shout out to
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  Apartment five B, DJ Clark Kent or people like him who have contributed to
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  hip hop? What are we considered it right? What makes them worthy of
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  people following their opinion beyond having a like opinion, you know, a similar
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  opinion, I should say. And there's a lot of debate on whether you
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  should listen to somebody like a Clark Kent. So a lot of people were
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  tossing around the term that DJ Clark Kent is a legend and hip hop or
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  certified in hip hop or cemented in hip hop. Let me focus on the
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  word legend, because we're not just going to talk about DJ Clark Kent.
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  We're going to talk about the hip hop hall of fame, so to speak,
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  and who's a legend and who isn't, who deserves to be called a
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  legend and who is just a person that DJ or a person that rapped or
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  had a hit record or produced a hit record, and that's it. So
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  the definition of legend dictionary dot com says, if you refer to someone as
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  a legend, you mean that they are very famous and admired by a lot
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  of people. Examples being blues legends John Lee Hooker and BB King. Now,
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  without a doubt, those are legends when it comes to blue music blues
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  music. But when it comes to hip hop. If I call and consider
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  jay Z a legend at this point in his career, can I also turn
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  around and call DJ Clark Kent a legend? I mean that resumes don't even
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  compare. Dj Clark Kent has a resume. He's done more than a lot
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  of people online who are talking about him right, including myself. But at
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  the same time, it seems weird to refer to him as a legend when
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  you know jay Z has accomplished so much more. But as jay Z's accomplishments
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  as a legend in hip hop the bar because if it is, well,
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  then how is Rock Kim a legend? Right? Rock him does not have
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  the same status or catalog or body of work as a jay Z right,
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  But would you not call Rock him all I will splash for me, it's
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  the god. Of course he's a legend. So I think when you think
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  about the word legend, it's kind of like how people are doing this.
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  Everybody's a goat thing, right, the way people use goat, which is
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  greatest of all times for those of them. You know, it's not singular
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  anymore because they call everybody a goat, even though there's only one goal to
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  his name is l L COOJ. But that's a story for another time,
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  okay, But they call everybody a goat, and now it's just more so
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  to like calling them a master at what they do, right, So you
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  admire this person so much to recognize them as a master of what they do.
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  Their goat, you know, it's one of my goats. One of
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  the one of the best for master of ceremonies is MC, right, So
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  everybody's kind of that, but everybody's on MC. So let's talk about legend.
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  Right. I gave you an analogy of Rock Him and jay Z having
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  different accomplishments, and jay Z clearly having more than Rock Kim and a much
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  bigger in a lot of way. I think when people refer to hip hop
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  artists and producers and DJ's and everybody else has legends. I think it really
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  just comes down to impact. And impact doesn't mean record sales. See what
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  I did there. Impact just means would you rather be jay Z and influence
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  a couple of people? But nobody really sounds like jay Z? Right,
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  But you're popular, you sell a lot of records, whereas Rock Kim influenced
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  a generation at mcs. But you know what's crazy, so did Little Wayne
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  jay Z not so much. You may want to get money like him.
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  You may want to talk about money like him, but jay Z's kind of
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  one of a kind. It's not like people wrapped like him because a lot
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  of his output as an MC was him, and it's tough to duplicate without
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  well, you don't want to duplicate, but it's tough to duplicate as someone
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  being inspired by him, Right, maybe you're inspired to come up with your
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  own staff, but you see what I mean. Like Rock, Him's impact
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  is so much greater than jay Z's. Jay Z's impact steps outside of the
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  realm of just being able to rap and putting out dope music, and it
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  goes to business and you know, being a mogul and longevity and all these
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  other things where rock Him changed the scope in which how MC's robbed, including
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  jay Z, including Naas, including Jada Kiss, like everybody that raps on
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  that type of level, boombapp or whatever. Right, same thing with Iced
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  Tea did Six in the Morning. I mean, gangster rapping the West Coast
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  was born for the most part, right, based off of that. Obviously
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  easy had to come apart, but Iced Tea did what he did, and
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  it kind of became the blueprint for what people could rap about out of the
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  West Coast, right, it became a signature for them. So when you
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  look at legends, let's talk about, you know, a Hall of Fame,
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  right, So we already looked at legends and what can make your legend,
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  And I think at the end of the day, it's impact. You
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  can be someone who's not on a jay Z or Rock Him level and still
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  have a huge impact. Like I think ghost Face as a soloist has a
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  huge had a huge impact on a game right to the point where the woo
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  goes without saying, but he was able to carve out so much of an
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  identity as a soloist, as a as a I'm just gonna say a person
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  in the Man or whatever, but in hip hop that he's influenced a lot
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  of people, right, He's influenced rom styles and everything. And ray Quon
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  two to us, probably to a lesser extent because Ghost is run. It's
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  kind of like Damn and Flawless, whereas ray Kuan put out a classic album
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  in purple tape only built for Cuban links. Then he went straight to the
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  bottom with immobilarity and kind of had to build up again. But one analogy,
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  and I'm not going to take long on this. One analogy is like
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  a Hall of Fame situation. Right now, most people think when it comes
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  to Hall of Fame, we're going back to DJ Clark Kent. Someone like
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  DJ Clark Kent doesn't get in rock Cam jay Z gets in Jam, Mats
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  J gets in DJ Scratched, DJs Jeff blah blah blah. You know,
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  just bigger names with a bigger impact on the game in one way or another.
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  But Clark Kent has some very notable credits to his name. I keep
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  saying Clark Kent. I really hope you don't think I'm talking about Superman.
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  For if you come into the stream a little bit late talking about a DJ
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  DJ Clark Kent. But when you when you look at a Hall of Fame,
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  it's like, Okay, well, is he's not worthy of getting in.
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  He has to be up here with MPa, has to be a legend
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  in order to get into the Hall of Fame. I don't think so.
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  And the only reason why I say that is because if you have it,
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  if you're watching this video and you haven't, or you're listening on an audio
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  podcast and you're a sports fan, but in particular a basketball fan, and
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  if you've ever visited the National Basketball Hall of Fame, it is not the
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  NBA's Hall of Fame. It's Basketball Hall of Fame. And when you go
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  in, at least a couple of years ago, that's what it was.
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  When I attended you you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna see shocking Enjordan and
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  Ai and all these people. Yeah, they're in there, and they're in
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  a special section because they like the legends of the game. But when you
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  first enter, there's a lot of people that you've never heard of before,
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  some people who never played in the pros, some people were who were legends
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  in college, and you may never know their name. Now, I know
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  I use the word legend, but I just use it, you know,
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  as a way to characterize them. But what I'm saying is this guy who
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  was a legend in college or a legend in high school but never got to
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  the league, whether he got hurt or couldn't make it because he couldn't play
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  on that level, or he got to the league and was garbage in the
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  NBA, the whole doesn't take away from what they accomplished at those lower levels.
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  So no, they're not at the ceremony, you know, with the
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  jacket on being inducted with a speech. That's for the legends of the game,
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  the top ten, the best of the best, you know, at
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  the highest platform. But there are those like college coaches who reigned supreme at
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  lower levels of basketball, right, didn't really go to professional basketball. So
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  are those people not worthy of being in the National Basketball Hall of Fame When
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  you know that you used to watch this dude in high school and he was
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  crazy. He was dropping sixty every game, he was shooting it from everywhere
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  the gym, was crazy. There's so many stories of people like that.
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  So I feel like, at the end of the day, if you have
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  contributed something significant to a degree to hip hop, if you've played a role
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  in the advancement of hip hop, whether it's a hit, discovering an artist,
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  producing hits, rapping on him, DJ and for this guy. But
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  it's not a it's not like a I don't know, like a combat competition.
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  You know, he didn't do sixteen flips and thirty five kicks, so
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  he's out of here. The thing is is, let's just look at DJ
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  Clark hand. And I'm not trying to make a case for him being a
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  legend, because I not consider him a legend, but I do consider his
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  opinion worthy of at least paying attention to because of what he's accomplished in the
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  game, who he knows, who he's worked with. It's hip hop isn't
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  just about bars and beats at the end of the day, it is a
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  business as well. It's been a business, damn man, since the inception
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  of it, and a lot of people want to leave that out for street
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  rules that never really applied when you do the research. But Clark kent okay,
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  he was the DJ for Dana Dane. Now Dana Dane is not a
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  legend either, but Dana Dane when he was hot. He was hot,
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  and not everybody really looked down upon him for sounding like Slick Rick at a
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  time where biting was not allowed. And I think it was because it seemed
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  like like Rick kind of co signed it, so who cared? But the
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  songs in the rons world clever. So he was getting his respect based off
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  of the music he created, right, which was also storyteller, which makes
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  me wonder. But DJ Clark Kent sure. I don't know if he produced
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  anything on those albums. I don't know if he was just the DJ shows,
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  but if back in those days in the eighties, DJ was just as
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  important as the MC most of the time, it really was, and he
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  was a part of this, you know, I guess legendary DJ crew,
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  the Superman or whatever. He produced players Anthem, which it's not insignificant because
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  it appeared on Junior Maffia's album. It was a huge hit for Junior Maffia's
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  album, and for Biggie Smalls also and for a little him probably her first
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  hit. When you think about it, introducing her to the game. You
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  can't take that lightly just because it's not no you know, beat that would
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  really make you go crazy. You know, it's a cool beat. It's
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  one of the greatest beats of all time. Not really, but there's a
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  lot of beats from some of your favorite artists, I mean, favorite producers
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  that are not the greatest beats of all times. Sometimes even whack coming from
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  legends, you know, some of that late stuff, you know, But
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  it still was a hit. It's still extended Biggie's career beyond ready to die
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  at that point in time. Along with everything else. He's even produced a
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  hit from Mariah. He's produced for several people in the hip hop game,
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  some hit, some recognizable songs, some not famously produced Brooklyn's Finance, which
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  again, the beat was cool. I didn't think, oh, Clark Kye
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  got them beats, you know what I'm saying. I just like the song
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  he produced, right, and so on and so forth. And I think
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  he also discovered Sean if I'm not mistaken. But nevertheless, those are just
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  small things on his resume that you can google and see that are indications that
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  he was a pivotal and sought after producer. You don't get to produce for
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  Mariah if you're not that great for producer, you don't get to produce for
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  jay Z at that time. I don't care whether he was big as as
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  an artist or not. People aren't checking for you if they don't like it
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  production, whether it's fifty cent or whoever he's produced for going down the line,
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  it just doesn't happen that way. People people want to, you know,
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  get beats from you because they like what you do, and it's probably
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  or to it. So at the end of the day, this is not
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  a soapbox to defend him. It's actually because I saw the conversation and again
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  shout out to Apartment five B. But I do not feel like he's a
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  legend. I do not feel like everybody's a legend. But I do feel
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  like we can't downgrade someone's accomplishments within the game that we can get hypothetical after
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  the fact and say, because I think about this way, if you take
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  Clark Kent out of those scenarios, what changes, It's easier to say nothing
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  changes, you know why, because people just make up stuff to support their
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  argument. You don't know that, right. You don't know what players Anthem
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  did for Biggie to extend what he had already did. Were ready to die.
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  You don't know whether there's a domino effect of things that happen behind the
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  scenes. All we know is that he was sought after for production, and
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  that's for a reason. And when you're talking about Biggie Smalls and jay Z
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  and a jay Z a Biggie Small song, you mean to tell me they
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  couldn't go get Primo to do that record at that time? Why Clark Kent,
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  Why Clark Kent at all? DJ Clark can't it's not Superman telling y'all
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  don't don't mess around. But nevertheless, again, so I think it's the
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  same argument as a whole goat argument. Right, be careful who you call
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  a legend, because it may be misunderstood what you mean. Be careful when
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  you call somebody's anything that that you know most people feel like they're not deserving
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  of. Because this person is deserving of. Right, If I'm gonna call
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  Kick it Pre a legendary DJ, I don't see Clark Kent on his level,
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  even though Clark Kent probably has more accomplishments in the hip hop game in
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  the music industry than Kick Kapri. But Kick a Pri is the better DJ.
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  If you ask me, Kickapri is the bigger name if you ask me,
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  and therefore I think both of them belong in the halls. Just there's
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  levels to it. There's levels, right, no picture DJ Clark Kent,
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  so right up, you know because of the connection, you know when they
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  when you're talking about Biggie and you're reading the Biggie thing over the player's anthem
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  produced by Clark, Right, that's how you get in the Hall of Fame.
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  All right? But what do you think? Not about DJ Clark Camp,
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  but do you think there's levels to being called the legend? Do you
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  think you have to do way more than what Dana Dane or DJ Clark Kent
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  or I don't know, the Lost Boys or whoever? Do you think you
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  need to have done the same things as a rock Cam or l L or
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  Nas or jay Z in order to be considered a legend in a hip hop
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  game? Leave your comments in a comment section. Wherever you get this podcast,
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  YouTube in video form. All you gotta do is search for hip hop now,
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  subscribe, like it if you like the videos, and most importantly share
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  what people do know enjoy these kind of content. Until next time. Y'all,
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  I'm not a critic, I'm a fan, I'm a leg