I Heart The Internet
After I finished writing up my review of Emilio Rojas’ new mixtape Recession Proof (see below), I sent him over the link, as I usually do for artists I am reviewing, via Twitter. He responded with a quick message of thanks. That brief event got me thinking about how much closer I am to hip-hop and artists – thanks to the Internet. Let me explain.
Some of you NYC, LA or even Philly cats may not have noticed the difference technological advances have made in terms of improving access to rap music, but I sure have. Even in a fairly large city like Toronto (population 2 million+), hip-hop wasn’t the easiest to come by – especially if you lives in the suburbs around T-Dot.
Back when I was in high school, I had two ways of getting new music: taping it off the radio every Saturday afternoon or going downtown (2 hours by bus/subway). That was it. Like many others outside of urban centers, I had to buy my music when it came out and read about artists and their music in magazines like Rap Pages, Word Up! or The Source. For hip-hop, I had to go into the heart of the city to a flagship record store to get the newest releases. And when me and my man J went down there, we would scour the place for 12″ records, exclusives and hard-to-get imports. That was how I kept up with hip-hop.
Even 5-7 years ago, I would still have to wait for Tuesday to come around to pick up the latest joints. I found a few places that brought in mixtapes from NYC that I could rock in between. With only limited funds, I had to choose carefully which LP I would pick up. Any time I was on vacation in the States, I would always drop in on local record spots to see if I could pick up some releases that weren’t in stores in Canada. That was my experience as a hip-hop head from the North.
Fast forward to today and I have all the music I could possibly want at my fingertips. As I type this, I’m downloading the new Cookin Soul Biggie tribute. Through various technologies, I am closer to artists than I ever thought possible. Through feeds and e-mail I get the latest and freshest music the same time you all do (actually before many of you). I can send Twitter messages to rappers I grew up on and idolized. I chat with heads from NYC to Florida to Los Angeles to Chicago, all who have much different experiences than I do.
We all know how advances in technology have opened up the world – we can talk to people on a webcam 2,000 miles away for free; we can post out thoughts on blogs that anyone can read; we can download music from artists less than 24 hours after they finished it; we can share piles of information effortlessly. But so few of those advances have had such an impact on me personally as how hip-hop is distributed and discussed online.
Every single time I post on YFWB, respond to comments, interview a rapper, download music or mess around on Twitter, I am amazed – its a world away from my days listening to a worn out tape on my Walkman.
Who would have thought a series of vacuum tubes would be the path that brought me so close to the world of hip-hop?
And I love every minute of it.
Yeah man i know exactly what u mean..twitter is crazy for connecting artists. Im not sure if you posted a song by this guy novel is a remix of that song madworld anyways i was lookin at my twitter and i think he actually replied to something i posted. I dunno I just found it to be surreal that a famous rapper from the states would send a shout out to some kid twittering away up in canada much less hick town of calgary.
Yeah, its pretty dope when people do that. I haven’t posted anything from dude, but I’ll keep an eye out for him. Always love dope music.