Johnson&Jonson - "J&J"

You know, I never know that a short video snippet of a song could invoke so much anger. See, I've been giving a good friend of mine some well deserved shit because what was once his impeccable taste in music has now regressed to something pretty unrecognizable to a music snob like myself. But he is one of the only friends that I have left, and I love the guy like a brother - so I thought it would be best for me to just look the other way as he poisoned his ears with music that I feel is truly beneath him. I mean, I know that its only music, but my silent consent over the past months was akin to me ignoring a friend's deadly heroin addiction just so I wouldn't make waves. Anyway, I very innocently sent him this clip with the message - "This is real Hip Hop in case you didn't know." I didn't mean it as some sort of taunt, just a public declaration to a friend that Blu is what I consider to be a true MC. That is when he sent me a blistering screed about me being stuck in the past and not readjusting my tastes for the new Millennium. After re-reading the message twenty times, he simply re-affirmed something that I've quietly believed for some time now - that I'm stuck in some Hip Hop version of "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" where all my friends' tastes in quality music is replaced with melodic autonomous mindlessness. Even though he was right there beside me as I held my Adidas in the air at a Run DMC concert in 1987, he now unfortunately has the misguided notion that Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper that ever lived. I have a friend named Jean who was the biggest Hip Hop fan imaginable when we were growing up, we went to a Whodini show together and we were part of the same breakdance crew - so why on the fuck is a Plies song on her myspace page. My cousin, the person who introduced me to the sounds of EPMD and Big Daddy Kane - currently has a fucking Rick Ross song as his ringtone. I give up.