Dear Aspiring Rapsters: No.

I love music. Seriously, music is one of the greatest, most unique things this planet has. Aside from death metal and R. Kelly’s hypocritically faux-inspirational tunes, I can find some form of pleasure in almost anything from video games to pornographic parodies of classic opening montages.

As such, I’m subject to a plethora of emails from aspiring artists all over the world. While it’s humbling in a sense that people look at what I do as a legitimate medium in the world of music, it sometimes sucks that there are a decent amount of rapsters that, well, just don’t get it. Rather than working on their own respective, distinctive craft, some simply rap to hopefully fit in and successfully jump into hip hop’s Double Dutch without getting tangled in its rope a bunch of times.

I’m a lot closer to 30 than I am 20 nowadays; the last thing I need to hear is how someone nearly ten years my junior is moving weight in the projects. Unless you are/were a member of the Re-Up Gang, songs like that aren’t going to instantly grab my attention. Yet – and partially due to the hypocritical fascination with music from artists like Clipse that promotes the stuff – some are compelled to drop fictional tales about coke deliveries and such, which more often than not isn’t good to begin with (unlike Clipse).

Gimmick rap hasn’t really been the same since 50 Cent revolutionized the trend of having an engrossing history during his Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ days. Music fans aren’t really enthralled in someone’s back-story anymore; we just want good music to play in our cars or iPods. I personally prefer music that comes from the perspective of an artist I’d probably hang out with in person. That is, if I wasn’t so volatile. And hostile. And half-crazy.

The most flagrant of fouls, however? The “freestyle over a looped instrumental to a song that dropped a few minutes ago” song. Thanks to music being recorded and released at the speed of life many songs are considered “old” by the time we wake up the next morning (unexplainable, but true). However, rapping over a 15-second portion of its beat looped for two minutes mere seconds after it dropped is just disgusting. I didn’t like it when Diggy Simmons did so on Drake’s “Over,” and I damn sure won’t respect it when a nobody does the same. At this point I’d much rather accept your lackluster single.

This post is not intended as a shot/stab/burn at all who read and rap (though I’m sure it will be taken as such). Hell, it could be that some people actually don’t know what really goes on. Far be it from me to give out doofy words of wisdom the way Rev. Run does, but I know I’m not the only one who feels this way as well.

And coincidentally, as soon as I hit the “publish” button on this post another “Light Up” freestyle hits my inbox. Good grief.