We would go on to give a review of the song but I guess you
can always ask Synik to do that for you. As we watched social media turn into a
hashtag, kind words, unkind words, war chants and re-tweets, we decided to only
talk about things that we could all learn from the current situation (which can
change as we type, so gotta get this out quick). Back to school
Lesson 1: We Run It
is NOT about ONE RAPPER!!
It’s a like MMT’s “Wake Up” with no names. Guys really...Don't
you get it! LISTEN TO THE SONG.. Geez! The “new guy /…2 by 4” line is just
one line. And that line, for all we know, might not even be talking about the
rapper you are thinking about. A lot of really erhm.. feelings were expressed
in that song, chief of all, being looked down upon, being slept on, not being acknowledged
and simple social commentary about his journey and things that have been happening,
but you know what, you might not understand it and its why we have lesson 2.
Lesson 2: Throw “subliminals”
and let the crowd drive the war
Shots fired? we don’t quite think so, buy maybe we are being
naïve. We listened to the song, again and again and again, no name was mentioned
(except Beefy Harrison), but they did mention the alleged victims
neighborhood, which trigger happy supporters could take as “shot fired”
because, logically speaking, if as person says that “your neighborhood” knows “we run
it”, its really up to you to feel disrespected or to take it as childish talk.
In response to Kendrick Lamars assertion that he was the king of New York, P
Diddy didn’t hit back with a diss track, or anything hectic really, he just gingerly
poked fun at it. BUT.. did you see how peoples reaction immediately made it
look like Junior Brown had gone “Ether” on Calvin? People want blood, people
want war.. sometimes rappers just want to express themselves..but what if..
Lesson 3 : that could have been the plan all along..
MARKET IT!
What if, just what if, the expected reaction was exactly
what Junior Brown and his team wanted and they got it? Smart thinking. Retweets
are the fuel of group think! Get three people with a large following on social
media, a well produced song, clever timing…and you can control the masses. Love
it or hate it, one needs to respect the promotional campaign for We Run It.
Think about it, we are still talking about it now right? Did you know that
Marcques and Mile dropped a very GOOD album? ..YEAH.. Its called Lost In
Translation!, we recommend the songs Easy, KFC Drive By and Rufaro. Point is, the Breezy team was clever
and more resourceful enough to get all the attention to THEM. What we are more impressed by is what Junior
Brown and his team did before and after the drop, not the fact that they
actually dropped it and what made it better was…
Lesson 4 : “We Run It”
is a good song
Happy to say that it was a good jam, everything in there..
guitars, beat, effects.. DOPE DOPE..SUPER DOPE.. therefore
Lesson 5 : Never let
ANYONE tell you that a market for Hip Hop doesn’t exist
Some people say that Zim Hip Hop is a dying genre because it
has a small following. We believe that people only think that its only good Hip
Hop if so and so releases it. That’s why we aren’t afraid to call out the
crowds favorite on a bad song, even if the crowd is a little too timid to admit
it. That’s why we don’t blog some people music . However, we cant blame the consumer. To feed off the Zim
Hip Hop market, you have to work twice as hard and three times smarter than a
dance hall and sungura artiste put together. We exist, we are the market, we are just hard to please
Lesson 6: Lets push
forward vs Lets beef and feed our egos?
Some people have expressed the imagined altercation as anti
progressive because well, no real constructive industry gets built around
beefing. Some people think that competition at least, gets people talking and
Hip Hop becomes part of the conversation again. We just want good music and people
to live off of it. So whichever way this goes and a big shout out to Calvin for
making it clear that this isn’t a Ndebele vs Shona or Bulawayo vs Harare thing,
we really just want artistes making music again.
there is lots more we could say, but we may just be jumping the gun...so for today
School is over kids..
heres your homework
Check out the lyric Video to "We Run It" here
