H.E.R. Lover - My Author Name and It's Origin
What's up everybody? I want to clarify something for you all while we were still in the beginning stages of this blog. The name that I write under is H.E.R. Lover. For those that don't know, H.E.R. is an acronym that was used by Chicago based MC Common when he titled his classic song "I Used to Love H.E.R." In the song, Common talks about this girl that he fell in love with and all of the different stages and phases she went through. At the end of the song, he discloses that the girl is hip hop. The acronym stands for "Hip-Hop in its Essence is Real." So, my name simply means that I am hip hop's lover/I love hip hop, etc. Now, I had to break that down for those that may be new to hip hop or are only visiting the site for support (which I thank you VERY much for). However, if you claim to be a true fan of hip hop, or your an aspiring artist or want to get into the game and you either couldn't figure out where I got the name from or didn't know the above information, do your homework! If nothing else, I hope that you at least heard the song before.
If its seems as if I'm mad, its because that I am. It actually has nothing to do with my name, but more the fact that part of the reason hip hop is in the state it's in right now is because people are just jumping into the game without learning about who came before them. Now, being that I am only 20 years old, I'm still pretty young so I don't know as much as somebody like, say, Nas would know, but I know much more than most of the folks running around here trying to be artists just because they heard a Plies song and saw him with diamonds. That's a major reason why people say hip hop is dead, but I'll leave the whole hip hop is dead discussion and what's wrong with hip hop for another time.
I wasn't planning on getting into all that, but since I did, how about "I Used to Love H.E.R."? Is that Common's best song to date? I have a hard time believing that he's going to make anything to top that (especially with the direction he went in with UMC), but what do the people say? Give me your opinion on that and anything else I said. Below is a video of Common performing at my school (Michigan State). He's performing his verse from "Love of My Life" and his small tribute to hip hop. Don't forget to check out the first blog too if you haven't already .
Til next time. Peace.
Common performing his verse from his Erykah Badu collabo "Love of My Life" on the Brown Sugar soundtrack.
Check out Common going through classic songs and then look at him at the end trying to pop lock lol.
If its seems as if I'm mad, its because that I am. It actually has nothing to do with my name, but more the fact that part of the reason hip hop is in the state it's in right now is because people are just jumping into the game without learning about who came before them. Now, being that I am only 20 years old, I'm still pretty young so I don't know as much as somebody like, say, Nas would know, but I know much more than most of the folks running around here trying to be artists just because they heard a Plies song and saw him with diamonds. That's a major reason why people say hip hop is dead, but I'll leave the whole hip hop is dead discussion and what's wrong with hip hop for another time.
I wasn't planning on getting into all that, but since I did, how about "I Used to Love H.E.R."? Is that Common's best song to date? I have a hard time believing that he's going to make anything to top that (especially with the direction he went in with UMC), but what do the people say? Give me your opinion on that and anything else I said. Below is a video of Common performing at my school (Michigan State). He's performing his verse from "Love of My Life" and his small tribute to hip hop. Don't forget to check out the first blog too if you haven't already .
Til next time. Peace.
Common performing his verse from his Erykah Badu collabo "Love of My Life" on the Brown Sugar soundtrack.
Check out Common going through classic songs and then look at him at the end trying to pop lock lol.
Peace All,
Before I "mic check" let me give props to Brother to The Blog Creator, for sharing thoughts and opinions on Hip-Hop; as it was, is, and inspires to be. It's good to know that there are still "thinkers" in the World. Thinking is one of the most under utilized practices today. If you doubt that, look around you.
Back to the matter at hand....
You touched on a lot, both hear and in your first and third blogs. I'll speak in an overall response, hoping to cover what you've said thus far and hopefully spark more conversation.
Rap Muzik vs H.E.R.
One of the funny things about art is, when people see/hear it, they have the ability to give their opinions on how it makes them feel, think, etc. The problem that Hip-Hop, like any art poses is a blurred line of what is and isn't. For example, if I sat a bucket of mop water on a kitchen table said "this bucket is an apple." First, you would look at me like I'm crazy, and then you would say "no, it's not." I'd reply, "In my opinion, it is." Then you'd say, "the fact is this; that is NOT an apple! PERIOD!" And you would be 100% correct. Riddle me this. Where does this truth get lost in translation as it pertains to Hip-Hop? Run DMC is Hip-Hop, but so is Three 6 Mafia? KRS-1 is Hip-Hop but so is Plies? I'm confused, one is an apple and one is a bucket of (you fill in the blank) and we're calling them the same? Go figure. If you like Plies, cool, that's your business, we do all have DIFFERENT MUSICAL TASTE. But everything you like, you can't just stick a label on and call music. I CANNOT sing. If I record a song and sell it, that doesn't make me an artist. It just makes me a Dude with access to distributing bad singing over beats.
COMMON'S BEST SONG
I can't give you ONE, that's tuff. But I will say his best compiled effort, in my opinion of course, would be "BE" It was a lot of hitters on that CD and to me, that's what I'd prefer. A CD I can't put down versus a song I'd like to keep rewinding.
NOTORIOUS
Haven't seen the movie, not really pressed to see it either. I'm not the World's Biggest Biggie Supporter, he was nice, won't say he was the best, but he was NICE. I look at self biographies like funerals; not too many folks are going to get up and say ALL there is to know about a person, just the good stuff. Which I'm not interested in hearing how the same Kat that said "I was selling crack to feed my daughter" was also the poster boy for "What A Black Man Should Strive To Be." I'll wait for the dvd.
OBAMA
He's in, nuff said. LOL Let's shoot for 4 mo' after this term!
I could go on, but I'm approaching my quota, thanks to Bush, I gotta do some job hunting, can't blog for too long.
Peace and Blessings,
Mister Drake, Hip-Hop PHD
Reply to this