Black Hippy’s Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock are dealing exceptionally well with the rising success under the TDE imprint. But while the group is benefiting from Lamar’s wins through national tours and mainstream media exposure, all isn’t well among the Black Hippies. After the release of XXL‘s TDE Black Hippy cover, many revelations hit the media fan.
If y’all keep printing “Kendrick Lamar & Black Hippy” I will remove myself from the group. Thanks.
— ab-soul (@abdashsoul) October 16, 2013
Ab-Soul was the first to speak out against the perception that Kendrick Lamar is the leader of Black Hippy, and the rest were mere background rappers, or glorified members of Lamar’s entourage. As Kendrick defends himself against Nicki Minaj’s alter egos and Drake rumors, the rest of Black Hippy have been hard at work on their respective projects. ScHoolboy Q, who is set to debut Oxymoron January 2014, spoke to MTV with an understanding that questions about Kendrick will plague their interviews until they prove themselves worthy of the media’s love.
“Big Sean, he gets in interviews, they’re gonna always ask him about Kanye,” ScHoolboy Q says. “J. Cole, they’re always gonna ask him about Jay Z. Slaughterhouse, they’re gonna always ask about Eminem…You just gotta fight your way up the ladder. Kanye, he stands alone now. I know they probably used to ask him all type of Jay Z questions…Now he’s put that work in, and he stands on his own, and he’s one of the biggest artists right now. Hopefully I can do that, too. It’s all about proving yourself at the end of the day.”
While Black Hippy isn’t the first hip-hop group to deal with this issue, as Eminem and D-12 made a spoof about their similar situation with their music video, “My Band,” all four members of Black Hippy have shown that they do have what it takes to compete in the competitive market. Whether they’ve proved themselves worthy of platinum records or not, aren’t they still deserving of the respect they have worked so hard to cultivate over the years?
Top Dawg Entertaiment’s starting line-up sounds a bit salty over the media’s ignorance on the Black Hippy movement, but who’s to blame for the mistake? Is it the label’s fault for spending so much effort on Lamar’s rise to stardom? Do XXL and other hip hop publications hold the responsibility to journal the Black Hippy story and educating the masses about the culture? If nothing changes, will this be the straw that breaks the Hippy movement? ScHoolboy Q seems to understand his place in the totem pole:
“At the end of the day and I always say this, too, Kendrick, he’s way ahead of us,” ScHoolboy Q says. “He’s a platinum artist. I haven’t dropped my album yet. [Jay] Rock’s working on his major-label album. Ab-Soul’s working on his major-label album. We still haven’t dropped our major-label albums, so honestly, at the same time, at the end of the day, I mean he is fucking Kendrick Lamar. Even though we’re not signed to Kendrick, but he has that impact.”
Jay Rock, who was signed to TDE years before Lamar, has had his own individual success, but sees the importance in keeping the strong bond between the four flagship artists.
“I don’t never take that too offensive because at the end of the day, whether it’s just Kendrick’s name… or if it was ‘ScHoolboy Q and Black Hippy,’ or ‘Ab-Soul Black Hippy,’ it’s us, still, because we’re all in this shit together.”
How do you feel about Black Hippy’s stance against XXL’s cover and misconceptions about their crew? How would you feel if you were in this position?
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