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Interesting track from Sole, who’s spent most of his career trying to enlighten and educate. While a lot of his output as of late has been more political, he took some time out to speak directly to a large base of today’s artists: young rappers. Over a space-y Ryan Hemsworth instrumental, Sole kicks that hilarious reality that more up-and-coming MCs should take heed to. With everyone trying to be the next big thing, clamoring for YouTube views and twitter likes, many forget where they come from and to keep that in the forefront of what they’re doing. Spin premiered this track, and Sole broke it down even further:
A lot of the music I’ve been making is pretty heavy political stuff. I figured it’d been a long time since I made a fun, sarcastic kind of song addressing hip-hop, but I wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t the traditional ‘bitter indie rapper dissing bling’ kinda shit. Partly because I’m a fan of more mainstream rap but mostly because it’s not up to some white dude to lecture the hip-hop community. I think a lot about the profound impact artists like KRS, Public Enemy, and XCLAN had on me as a kid. Music back then inspired me to read, to learn more, to think critically. In these harsh times there are far too few popular rap acts provoking that sort of militant critical thinking like those guys did, and that has repurcussions. This song is my way of politely nudging [rappers] away from making things that are escapist, immediate and recycled. It’s also an ode to lost causes — do what you feel, take that shit to the grave if you have to, fuck it.
This is taken from A Ruthless Criticism Of Everything Existing, which drops on November 13th. Pre-order today and get some special goodies when your copy ships!
