The word has spread. The message has been sent. Jean Grae is set to retire...or is she? There is a lot of speculation derived from Jean Grae's Myspace and a vague blog post that is more focused on feelings than actual facts. Never once does Jean Grae ever even mention the word retirement or anything similar. But what if she does retire? Can any one really blame her?
This "news" really hit home when I first caught wind of it this morning. In a Hip Hop culture that is bogged down by major corporations and the money they pour into mainstream music, the motivation to keep doing what independent artists do is almost non-existent. It's not even the fact that the money isn't behind what we do. It's not that mainstream America doesn't understand, and probably never will understand, what we do. It's the slap in the face that we receive from supposed "Hip Hop Heads". Nobody cares. Nobody is motivated. Nobody wants to put in work. Everybody complains. What happened to our work ethic? What happened to the belief in dedication and sacrifice in order to spread your influence and achieve your dreams? It has been lost, and as a direct result you can see and sense the frustration and desperation of artists like Jean Grae. Not desperate in the sense she can't sell records, but desperate in the sense that there is no future in what we do. We seem to make music with no direction. There is no unity, there is no brotherhood, and if continues on, there is no future. Don't sleep...sleep is for birds...
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