CMJ '08: Why Hip-Hop Sucks, Or Doesn't

CMJ is usually an indie rock/electronica parade, but this year hip-hop is making a nice little showing. Yesterday, we hit a panel titled "The Hip-Hop Renaissance: A Cultural Rebirth" featuring Asher Roth, the Cool Kids, Amanda Diva and Q-Tip along with Vibe's Danyel Smith, New York Times critic Jon Caramanica and AP music reporter Nekesa Moody. The panel was moderated by CNN's Lola Ogunnaike and focused on what the Internet has "done" to and for hip-hop music. Ironically, we felt LESS depressed about the declining music industry after the panel, which is more than we can say for most business talks.

The young artists (Cool Kids and Roth, who was just happy to be there) said the Internet is awesome because people can discover music free and then, hopefully, pay for things like concert tickets. The older artists (Q-Tip) said the Internet is wack because there's no control or slow maturation process for artists, many of whom deliver music prematurely to the public.

Fun panel outtakes: Smith said, who needs the A&R process! Artists should hone their creativity themselves. Q-Tip said he loves Puffy and then blames him for hip-hop's materialism and addiction to the idea that the music is a business rather than an art form. Result, according to Q-Tip: most hip-hop music sucks.

At night, we hit Mark Ronson's Allido showcase at S.O.B.'s for four performances and no Ronson DJ set. He lied to us on the flier. We were not happy. HOWEVER, his stand-in DJ, Just Ske, was dope.

Rhymefest opened with the human beat machine Rahzel and told the crowd that his sophomore album, "El Che," is due in March via J. Then the Rumbleskins followed as the out-of-place rock band of the night. Brave dudes though, they played about six songs to a crowd who just wanted to hear some go-go and Wale's single, "Nike Boots." Courage is an admirable quality.

Then one of Jaded's favorite singers, Daniel Merriweather, backed by the Dap-Kings, performed a half-dozen new songs but not the one we came for: his cover of the Smiths' "Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before." Anyway, the new cuts were called "Ain't Nothing Gonna Change," "Getting Out," Cigarettes," "Impossible," and "Could You." We liked them all.

Almost 25 minutes later, (read: why must we wait this long, dude?) Wale rolled onstage to "Swagger Like Us." Is it just me or does this guy ALWAYS take FOREVER to hit the stage at S.O.B.'s? Backed by Washington, D.C.'s fun go-go band UCB, Wale ran through tunes like "Breakdown," and performed with another D.C. MC, Tabi Bonney. He even made sure that he shared his real feelings about Republican VP hopeful Sarah Palin: "I'm not political but ain't nobody from an igloo going to run my country." -- Hillary Crosley