- Tweet
- Share41
- View Comments
-
1 Vote
- Share with Shortlink:
To
say Biggie was phenomenal to me feels like a gross understatement. The
man did things for the culture that haven’t been replicated or
duplicated since. How many rappers can easily go from storytelling, to
battle rapping, to romantic anthems that made the ladies swoon, to
owning every collaboration he’s featured on? Not many, and very few who
can do it all with the precision that Big Poppa had. He was clearly in
a class by himself, ahead of his time, and left us as fans with a
chasm-sized void that can never be totally filled…
That doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried…. a LOT!!!!
The first attempt that sticks out in my head came from BIG’s best
friend, Sean-Puffy-Puff Daddy-P. Diddy-Diddy-Now-I’m-Just-Sean-Combs,
with Shyne. Although Shyne didn’t look anything that resembled “Black
and Ugly as Ever,” if you closed your eyes, he sounded a lot like him.
Unfortunately, we can’t ever know what heights Shyne could have
reached because of an incident at Club New York that involved a gun,
“American Idol” judge and Kohl’s spokesperson, Jennifer Lopez, and
Ciroc Obama. The incident landed Shyne in the bing, and it did
irreparable damage to his potential career.
The next “Wanna-BIG” that I remember was Guerilla Black. Not only
did he have the girth, the look, and the sound, he was actually
talented.
Sadly for him, Guerilla Black was so much like Biggie that people
took to him with all of the enthusiasm that Snuggie owners had over the
Slanket! Maybe it was too much too soon. Maybe we didn’t give him a
fair chance to get out of what could arguably be described as the
largest shadow in Hip-Hop. Any way you slice it, Guerilla Black was
gone before you could say “UGHHH.”
It’s 2012, and on the 15th anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s
unfortunately premature demise, Hip-Hop is in need of something a
little more solid. The radio is cluttered with a bunch of surface rap
and sing-song styled, skinny jean (or worse yet, JEGGING) rap. Real
Hip-Hop seems to have returned to the underground – a place where you
won’t find reality show cameras or people with lackluster skills. It’s
there that I ran across Philly Swain.
Before I get into who Swain is and what makes him special, I need to
tell you that he’s not trying to be BIG. He’s trying to be HUGE.
Swain grew up in Philly, and although he lives in LA, he reps the
East Coast… HARD! “If Biggie didn’t pass, I would have never taken rap
seriously,” he says. “Biggie had an energy that changed the game. He
died four blocks from my house (on Wilshire), and I just want to bring
that energy back.”
Swain isn’t without credentials. He’s been a BET 106th & Park
“Freestyle Friday” champion and a Red Bull EmSee Battle Champion. He’s
the first rapper to have a battle on Pay-Per-View, in addition to
having millions of hits on every site from YouTube to Facebook and
everything in between. Paramount even shot a documentary on him called Hustle Diaries.
It’s rare that I endorse anyone, let alone put him in the same
SENTENCE as BIG, but Philly Swain reminds me why I love Hip-Hop. He is
REAL. His life story didn’t come from some other gangster, nor was it
manufactured in some A&R’s office.
I miss gangster sh*t. I miss having fun when I turn on the radio or
the TV. I miss lyrics that are actually SAYING something. Swain’s
latest mixtape, Swain Storm, brings all of those things to the forefront.
No one will ever replace BIG.
He was a man so influential that he made Michael Jackson curse (see HERE), but Philly Swain will remind you of what Hip-Hop SHOULD be, and what it could be again. Check out more on Philly Swain HERE.
David Tazz Anderson is a Nationally Recognized Media Personality, Motivational Speaker and Author. His latest book, Common Sense Ain’t Common, is available at www.TazzDaddy.com or wherever books are sold. Follow him on Twitter (@TazzDaddy).Source allhiphop.com
Comments