Everybody Got A Hot Sixteen

On theme is a production of iHeartRadio and fair Weather Friends Media.

You are allow.

Me to take you back to a simpler time. The year is two thousand and six. You missed the school bus, but your mom's not tripping.

She'll drive you.

Matter of fact, she's even going to let you get a Chick fil a Chicken biscuit for breakfast. It's going to be a good day. While you're wolfing down that delectable biscuit and finishing it off with that perfectly tart and sweet lemona, you bop along to Chris Tucker's freestyle on the one three turn out up. You tell your mom as she watches you make a mess of her back seat. Y'all pull onto school grounds and you walk into home room right before the first bell? Can you

Everybody got a hot sixteen.

This year, hip hop turned fifty years old. What started as an underground youth movement in New York has grown into an international juggernaut.

Now hip hop is one of the most popular and commercially successful music genres worldwide.

Hip hop's ubiquity only continues to increase year over year. It's studied at colleges and universities, and rap songs are used in movies of all sorts, action, horror, even period films set when hip hop wasn't even dreamt of, and rap has literally changed the way people use the English language around the.

World, much to my sagrin. Hip Hop is used to sell everything from soda to laptops to shoes, liquor, cell phone coverage, fast food, water, ride share apps, and cereal.

The list goes on and on and on.

Hip Hop is easy fodder for viral social media trends, dances, memes, and rap challenges.

Those TikTok dances. I'm still trying to get that savage dance down. Pat hip hop change the way we see speak. Phrases and words coined by hip hop artists often find their ways into everyday conversation.

So pretty like, hey, guy bleed going it really, Katie, that's your idea.

Of everyday conversation yolo. Anyway, You may think of the biggest artists when you think of hip hop. You know the Drakes, the Kanyes, the Nikkis and the Futures, the multimillionaires and billionaires who can sell out arenas the world over. But hip hop's ubiquity also means that everyday people not only love to consume rap, but also love to spit a few bars themselves.

You'll find amateur rappers in the classroom, the cubicle, hell, the checkout line at the grocery store.

Yeah, not all rappers are gonna hit it big, and it's cool for it not to be a big money making endeavor. Rap began in community anyway, a heartful outgrowth of folks gathering in joy and cultural celebration.

What's your relationship with amateur rappeves?

In middle school, I would write raps about out anything that was going on in life. I had this notebook that I would write them down on, and I really thought I was you know, it's not like I thought that I was like rapping, like the people I listened to were rapping.

It was fun.

I love writing, so it was an outlet for me to write, and it was a good time and it was in good spirit. And most of the time, I could say because I wrote some raps about you that weren't so flattering, but I feel like you were part of this amateur rap too, Like you and I also wrote raps together sometimes.

Yeah, I feel like you definitely brought me in. You were definitely the ring leader the situation.

You would write me raps and then you know, give it to me the hallway for me to read, and then I would reply to your wraps like we were loky back wrapping via notebook paper.

And in front of nobody.

Also like it was a completely contained events that only happened in person. Also like I wasn't rapping about nothing because like it wasn't struggled involved. No, you know, I've had my challenges, but I had a pretty good childhood. Yeah.

Yeah, so it's.

Not like I was out here like I was, like I got something to say that people need to hear.

No, I don't think that.

We were probably privy to that aspect of rap then, you know, we really thought if someone was saying something, they really went through that, and so we weren't thinking to like perpetrate.

No, we weren't, which is honestly very very suburban of us, so.

Very innocent, like we're going to rap a bell our math teacher and.

The minivands our moms are driving.

You weren't the only rapper in the in the hallways. Growing up, we had amateur rappers all around. Like we went to school with these folks. In elementary school they'd be on the playground, in middle and high school they be in the cafeteria or the gym, and in college

The bottom of Shiittenhams.

Like I'm generalizing, but they often have very specific community references and about like the rappers individual pet interest kind of like how you were doing in middle school.

Modern day grios of sort.

Absolutely, and amateur rappers are such an important part of the hip hop canon that folks stay writing them into fictional worlds. Take Tariq from Abbot Elementary, for example.

You know, I haven't seen that show. We talked about this in our very first episode. This is the beginning.

So who is Tarik? Remind me again?

So in season one, Tariq is Janine's longtime boyfriend. Janine a teacher at Abbot Elementary, and Tariq is an aspiring rapper who extols the virtues of being drug free for Fade, a campaign similar to Dare. He performed at Abbot Elementary and got an offer to perform his drug free raps across the country.

Drug free raps. I'm intrigued, Go be hypnotic? What was I kind of such a girl?

Wasn't sure? Filling with plot?

Drugs al real No, No, if you're ready to go, go go simply, then they'll make you a slow hey, drugs will make you a slow poke.

Bars, he was switching in the flows like they don't play with him.

He ain't one of them.

I love the Tarik character on Abbot. The actor who plays him, Zach Fox, is hilarious and Trek is definitely around for you know, comedic relief. And I see that often in the characterization of amateur rappers.

That they're around for comedic relief.

Yeah, Like they're either there to make the audience laugh or they're seen as a joke themselves, kind of like, oh, you're a rapper, why don't you actually get a real job and stop playing heavy on the.

Conform and get a normal job. And while Tarik is used for comedic effect, there are also examples of amateur rappers who are taken seriously and move the plot of Black Stories forward.

More on that after the break Welcome Back. Do you remember Q from Alicia?

How could I forget Malsha's longest love interest who her father hated for reasons of respectability, even though he had some unrespectable skeletons in his closet.

Point him out.

Yeah, Frank, we know about you, But yeah, that's the one, and Q would be rapping.

The name is true.

Queens getting money any means getting.

Creams som and Ha Kim could green with the lights on? How be mad faced?

Rims Oh ahead, camauflog.

Tim Oh, I'm still mad The group on the show didn't re least an actual album, and while Q's rap career wasn't written as a butt of a joke. I remember watching the show and being led to think that Q was a bad influence on Militia because he didn't want to go to college or get a traditional job.

I mean, yeah, Frank Molisha's dad was super antagonistic towards Q and Mosha's relationship, and the fact that Q was pursuing a rap career and dreamed of owning a record label seemed to be the main reason why. Also probably that do Rag in his New York accent Okay.

Thincas can't even express themselves no mo I mean.

Even though Que and Moesha didn't end up together, he kept pursuing hip hop. He was written out of the show in season three when he left to manage a hip hop group after a failed engagement with Moesha.

Mind you Messy, Messy.

I really like the duality of being an amateur rapper because oftentimes you do have to have another job, even if you're trying to make it big or you're just rapping as a hobby. Like anybody can be a rapper. You're a mailman, you're a therapist, the bus driver, those unnecessary security guards at the mall that no one goes to anymore.

Yeah, that's true. You know, an amateur rapper. That's the epitome of duality logic. Shady guess I wouldn't consider him an amateur rapper.

Yeah, I guess that's true. Well then who as D and mirror bitch? You don't know me, Manida five years by your side and I'm just a button manid you want to.

AASA would be hype in the mirror, attack a herd shit, you know, rapping aggressively in the mirror to blow off some steam. Is it my m o? But to be honest, it seems like it might be yours guilty.

When AA gets in that mirror, she's a different person. She's hyping herself up, saying things she wouldn't be saying to other folks. It's given alter ego.

I think that's what I love about amateur rappers so much like big rappers do this too to a certain extent, Like Meghan the Stallion has Tina Snow, Lil Yachtie has a little boat, and Future has Future Hendrix.

Tiya has t Ip right.

But the amateur rappers, the dichotomy can be so much more stark. When I was in second grade, my vice principal was a rapper. Like I don't remember none of his songs, but I'm sure he was a different person in the studio versus school.

How did you know he was a rapper? He told us?

In what context were y'all at? Like, okay, we're in the gym having a pep rally. Where y'all in a cafeteria? Just at what point did that need to come up? Okay, this is what I remember about him. He was like a younger black dude. He had corn rolls, and he never wore suit. He always wore like ath leisure. And so you know, being kids, you have less of a filter.

Yeah, to be like, why do you look like that? And he was like, I'm a rapper. Maybe he was lying, but.

He he might have been pulling y'all's legs. Why would he dressed like that.

He might have been after school, leaving the school and selling his mixtapes out of his trunk. But you know he might have some extra mixtapes too, somewhere floating out there.

Oh, I'm sure. Okay, So my principal had his alter ego that he was living day to day. What would your rap alter ego embody?

I feel like my rap alter ego would be willing to say anything at any time in anywhere. Ooh, no filter, no, no filter alter ego, but not rude one.

Okay, so what would you say?

Yeah, I might actually be very nice. Okay. Why'd you just be nice? To fuck?

I'm just saying it's because because I'm awkward in real life. So I feel like my alter ego would be like the opposite awkward. Okay, yeah, and that, but I'm not like, I don't want to be mean. I don't want my alter ego to be mean. Okay, So she just says anything at any time.

Okay. I like that.

I feel you can do that. You think so I feel like you can put yourself okay as a rapper though.

No, just.

So, Frank Moish's dad really wasn't feeling cute and was like looking down on him and an Abbot elementary tarique is kind of seen as like the joke, even though I have a theory that his career is going to take off as the show goes on, and he got to spin the block on Jeanine. Rgine's gonna try to spend the block on him now that he's a famous rapper.

That's just my theory. You heard it here first.

But did you have any of those feelings towards like the amateur rappers that either we grew up with or you just like see around in the community now.

That I thought they weren't going to be successful, or you was just like you needed something else. I'm not gonna lie. Yes, the truth.

The truth hurts, I do, and I feel like that's definitely flavored by conditioning, like people around me who are like what a real job is and like what I'm supposed to do with my life?

And I say this as a writer.

Right, I was like, girl, we don't have no right.

So it's ubiquity that caused that, though, because the reality is I did see a lot of people when they were younger wanted to rap and make it big and

Yeah, I see my rappers be like rapping about people that didn't believe in them, you know, And there are people at a salone.

Like boy, get out my face. I'm trying to get my press and curl by, you know what I'm saying. So it's like the flip in order flipped in either one.

So yeah, like everyone had to start somewhere unless you're like an industry plant and they're just like here's your platform. Like most rappers are starting like in the community and starting off as an amateur rapper, and you build yourself up into this other thing.

But like you said, it is a numbers game.

I feel like I have the same like inclination to like, boy, you ain't gonna and like most people I said it about you ain't done nothing. But I mean they could honestly say the same thing about me.

But also I feel like most of the people I think that about too, it's a gendered thing for me because it's usually men.

Like if it was a woman, I'd be like, you got this, let's keep going. How you need me to help you? What we're gonna don in I feel like a lot of women don't be doing that, though no they don't.

It's not but I'm saying that's why I feel like I feel this way, Like if there would have it would have been more of like a very variety of gender that I saw that happening with, you know, coming up, then that would be the case. And I also musta say there is a chronological thing to it too, because I'm thinking about back in the day, but in this digital age, I'm like, Oh, anybody can do whatever they want to do. It was different back then when the

See I feel a little bit differently just because we're not the new school no more.

Okay, we're a little older, not to now, but not just leaked in our teeth if we will, and a little gray in the hair. So not me, okay, But I.

Feel differently about the chronological thing. I do agree about the digital age because it is a new day. But you know, we're we're past that age where people are really popping. As far as rapping. I have a peer, an age peer who's like, oh yeah, like I want to start rapping maybe, I mean maybe you be on Ripley's believe it or not, you be on Guinness Book World Records doing geriatric grap geriat you know what they say, what aniche has this audience geriatric crap? So let me stap hat I'm gonna.

Do you think there is an age, even in this day and age, where it's like it's a lot more access for people to hear you? Do you think there's this still an age that you need to try to break in at.

I mean, that's so tough because you don't want to tell people like, oh, hang it up after this age, like you want to want people saying that to you. But even looking at these examples, these people are like playing people in their twenties. No matter how old the actor is, the fictional amateur rappers are still young people

If it is a older person, they would turn into the don't quit your day job.

Yeah, but like right now, like Q, it's like, Okay, he's working, he's gonna keep doing his thing, you know, Tyreek, Like, oh he's kind of a goofball, he does his drug free us. But okay, he's young, he can still explore. But if it's someone who like has like, you know, more responsibilities, or you know, you're seen as like an elder in the community and you're still doing it and haven't really met that goal, whatever that goal is for you, then I think people be looking at you sideways. But

You, and people are listening to you, and you're still saying what you have to say.

Hm.

So it says something that all these people who are writing these shows are even including amateur rappers in their storylines.

Because they're important. They're important. You see them all the time.

You feel like they have something to say or something to contribute to your plot and how you're trying to develop that character and other characters. The fact that they're rapping means something to you. You know, it's a character that we see that we know, that we love, that we're familiar with. Because oftentimes too these people who are amateur rappers in these stories. They're not unlikable characters. They're usually likable character, right.

Yeah, And if they weren't around in real life, you know, we wouldn't get that because honestly, like sometimes in sitcoms you see like the big Star, but it's definitely a different vibe.

It's like they're doing a cameo and it's like, oh my god, is that tied doll side? And then like that's it.

Like they're not really contributing anything to the storyline in that way. Like the amateur rappers are so we need them. Yeah, we like seeing them. We need to stop telling them to get real jobs.

Definitely, do you.

Boo was all these examples of amateur rappers doing their thing, and even how we grew up. I don't think I truly appreciated that everyone truly had a hot sixteen until twenty sixteen's So Gone Challenge.

I don't think I remember that one.

I remember first seeing Chance the Rapper do it, and it really took off after that. Basically, folks were rapping over Monica's Soilgan beat. This challenge was full of people expressing their love for their partners, their children, the desire to be famous also folks were dissing their exes and shouting out their friends. The lyrics ran the gamut, but

Rapping is one of those art forms that is so enticing, even if it's not your thing, you low key wish it was.

Do you low key wish it was your thing? Yes?

Absolutely, you know, being able to lay down a few every now and then.

There's no time like the present. To my rappers out there.

Who do it for the love, just know that we love you too. We dap you up, We give you hugs when you spit.

We gonna listen. Yeah, we hearing what you say like some diamonds. You gonna listen. We know you gonna make a way.

Don't even listen to the haters who out there plotting on your fall. Keep your head up, keep your chin up, and find a way to make it ball from the corner to the shop, from the classroom to the block. You know, we love all the niggas who got some bars and make it rock.

It don't matter who you are. Yes, my nigga, you a star.

Ey oh my god.

First take is never take two, but you still take to it.

You did that. Thank you very much that I try.

You did that. Shout out to the amateur rappers. Shout out to Eves. She been the one, never the two. Okay, top two is she's not too Stop playing with her.

I mean I wouldn't call myself that, but no, I do a little sum every now and then.

You did the thing, beriod. Don't play with her And now it's time for all credits.

Eves. Who what would you like to give credit to this week? This week, I would like to give credit to good socks.

My feet are always cold and I feel like having a good pair of socks.

It really comes in handy.

Sometimes so very unseerious credit this week, but that's what it is.

It is what it is. I would like to give credit.

To the Tony Morrison this week. I miss her one and two. It feels like she stays with us in a way because she's just so small and has like given us a lot of directives that I think only she could give. And we were talking earlier about how I felt about what's going on is your legenocide of Palace Side and the Palestinian people in Gaza, and it's like, I don't know if we should still.

Be like doing this silly little podcast.

And he told me it was like, this is the time to create art and there's like always things going on and it's important as artists to create art, and so Toni Morrison has this quote that says, this is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. After talking to you and like seeing that quote, I was like, okay,

I love that.

And that's that's our show. We will see you next week.

See you next week.

On Theme is a production of iHeartRadio and Fairweather Friends Media. This episode was written by Eves Jeffco and Katie Mitchell. It was edited and produced by Tari Harrison.

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