Lots of things to think about as so much has transpired over the past few weeks. First, we should keep in mind that tomorrow-Tuesday June 25th is the day that Nelly's album 'Nellyville' hits the stores. If folks recall, Blastmaster KRS-One recently found himself engaged in a lyrical battle with Nelly. It resulted him releasing a song called 'The Real Hip Hop Is Over Here' where he calls for a boycott of Nelly's album. KRS noted that this battle extended beyond the usual banter about who is better and who is not.

KRS sees Nelly as one who represents a mindset in Hip Hop that shows little regard or concern for its history and the accomplishments of those who laid down the path that he now embarks upon. Nelly sees KRS as someone who was simply picking a fight to gain publicity for himself. Whether you believe KRS or Nelly the issues raised cannot be ignored-which include 'commercial' versus 'underground.' and 'young' versus 'old'. In any case it will be interesting to see what unfolds.

To start there has been an all out assault on behalf of Universal Records to put Nelly in the lime light. He sold 9 million albums on his debut release 'Hot Country Grammar and they seem bent on trying to repeat that success story in the midst of industry wide dwindling record sales. His song 'Hot In Herre' is heard at least 15 times a day on urban stations all around the country and his picture graces the cover of this month's Source Magazine.

On the other hand, Nelly has come to epitomize everything that is wrong with Hip Hop to the underground/KRS-One fan. There are many that see Nelly as a manufactured icon. His constant exposure on MTV and on the commercial air waves is often viewed as the result of the major label hype machine at work. This has been underscored by the fact that KRS's song 'The Real Hip Hop is Over Here' which was done in response to Nelly's swipe at him on Freeway's remix of 'Rock The Mic' has been absent from the air waves while Nelly's dis verse is heard day in and day out. Was it major label juice that kept KRS's song off commercial air waves? It's a question that have left many pondering.

All this is complicated by the limited, one sided unbalanced perspective of rap offered up by radio and video shows. Far too many songs that are in regular rotation seem to revolves around the themes of sex, violence and Black pathological street culture. All this is done under the guise of 'doing business,' 'honoring requests' and 'giving the people what they want.' When radio execs are called to the carpet on this, many fall behind the convenient veil of 'protecting free speech.' Sometimes they'll even get a popular artist who's record is getting played or some other iconic figure who will echo those sentiments make the case to the public that we should not 'censor' music. Yet what is actually being censored are those countering themes that focus on family unity, spiritual connectedness and political and social change.

At a time when numerous studies show that most people in this country are socialized and gain a lot of their identity and sense of self from media images, this imbalance has had devastating effects in certain communities-in particular the Black community which listens to radio and watches TV at a disporportionate rate than other ethnic groups. Yes, we know the parents should raise the kids and not the radio, but that's not happening... In fact far too many parents are inadvertently buying into the hype themselves. How many 'parents' and so called 'adults' have gone off trying to buy prada bags a bottle of crystal or expensive Escalades as a result of them being hawked in rap songs 24/7? Cats like KRS want to see a balance. He also clearly understands that the record labels and radio stations must share much if not more of the blame than the artists. Things won't change until these media corporations starts to feel some sort of economic sting from a dissatisfied fan base.

The other underlying and perhaps more troubling issue surrounding this call to boycott Nelly's album has to do with the industry's lack of respect and appreciation for those who came before. Young artists like Nelly seem to personify a sentiment that has been encouraged and on many levels, orchestrated by many within the music industry who have an interest in keeping folks divided so younger artists entering into the biz can be manipulated, enticed, controlled, ultimately ripped off and their talents used to keep the community 'dumbed down' as opposed to uplifted.

It is no coincidence that over the past few years we have seen an across the board omission of 'Afrocentric' artists like a KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Brand Nubian, Public Enemy and numerous others who emerged out of 'Raps Golden Age' in the late 80s and early 90s. Almost all of them have put out albums and have remained active and very much involved in Hip Hop. Yet somehow they have been pigeonholed as 'over the hill,' 'out of touch' and 'irrelevant to Hip Hop.' That's very different from the type of response rock fans will have toward a group like No Doubt which hit the scene around the same time as a Public Enemy or KRS-One. A cat like Ozzie Osbourne is still the man and appreciated by young rock fans while you'll be hard pressed to find that same sentiment toward a Afrika Bambaataa or Kool Herc from the average cat in the hood.

If you don't believe me head on over to an inner city high school and ask a kid where did Jermaine Dupri get the beat for his song 'Welcome To Atlanta'. See how many people will know that KRS-One used it in his landmark song 'Why Is That?' Many have never ever heard the song. Ask those same kids to name off the members of Brand Nubian? Ask them if they know who the Jungle Brothers were or have they ever heard an X-Clan song? Heck I ran into this high school senior who had no idea that Queen Latifah rapped before she got into acting. Hip Hop seems to have penchant for killing off its elders...

To a certain degree you can understand how younger cats are going to have their own heroes and sheroes that they identify with. An artist like Nelly may appeal just as strongly to today's 20 year old the same way KRS appealed to the 20 year old a decade ago. It's also understandable that a newcomer to the scene may adopt an aggressive posture so as to establish himself. On many levels that's just the way Hip Hop is.. However, what's disturbing is this trend to totally omit any sort of reference to the past. This includes not playing the music, not showing the videos and more most of all not allowing interviews where such individuals can share their wisdom with the larger audience. When was the last time you heard a KRS on your local station? When was the last time Chuck D came through on the local commercial outlet and was allowed to share his years of knowledge? It gets to a point where cats who are ten years removed are totally unaware of certain events, people and places. It's like we have a generation of cats who have spiritual and cultural amnesia. The fact that many are coming up to see our history as unimportant is even more discouraging.It's also a major step backwards

During Hip Hop's Golden Age a lot of history was bantered about. A quick listen to many of the rap songs at that time were ripe with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King speeches. Artist like Paris were reviving the energy and concept of the Black Panthers. All sorts of artists were digging into the past and speaking on important facets and concepts of our collective history. From ancient Egypt to the Black Power Movement. If they weren't digging in the history books many artists were certainly digging in the crates and resurrecting all sorts of artists and activists from the Last Poets to Kwame Toure [Stokley Carmichael] to James Brown and beyond. It wasn't about digging into the past for nostalgic reasons. Instead cats whether they were aware or not, were trying to capture the spirit and the energy from various periods in time and build upon it. That was an essential part of Hip Hop and had it not been for this activity a lot of music and social history would been lost on the post Civil Rights Hip Hop generation. After all, much of what was spoken about in Hip Hop was not being taught in schools.

I asked if cats intended to organize their peers and show up at local record stores in their areas with flyers or picket signs alerting people to the boycott and providing a list of alternative albums to purchase that better represented the direction they want Hip Hop to take. My position was 'lets not have endless debates about who is and isn't Hip Hop. Let's see some action. Besides it was highly unlikely the average KRS fan would go out and purchase a Nelly album, hence folks who felt strongly about this would have to take the extra steps and make known their position to music lovers outside their immediate circle. I even offered to alert people via the FNV Newsletter as to what stores and locations they would be picketing. Sadly I haven't heard back from any of these angry emailers and I got more than two dozen letters.

Should we or should we not boycott Nelly's album? We'll keep you posted on the outcome of all this....