A hip hop MC has to be more than just somebody who can sit and piece together a few rhymes. In hip hop there is nothing more objective then one’s personal opinion of what constitutes not only a good rapper but a great one. Reggie had thought of Jay-Z as a great rapper… well until Jigga breezed through the capital and “fleeced” Hip hop heads with his refined brand of predatory capitalism. Rockstone is still perfecting a mean punchline for a few diss bars he might be putting on wax soon.
He’s peeved: “African Americans romanticize Africa, you know. These are the big wigs, these ‘cats’ got money and they’re trying to act like there is nobody here. When they go to Europe they don’t charge that much plus they try to do collabos with these European artistes. Is he saying that we don’t count and then he comes here and charges like five times the price? They will pin the over-pricing on the promoters but if people are getting pimped like that, Jay Z is the king of his castle and he could have made a statement about it so at least we know he is not about extorting people. Matter of fact he was supposed to be getting water for these same people who love his music. How the f#*k do you turn around and over charge them. Motherf*@^$# didn’t even take a picture with any of the artistes who opened for him.”
Well that kind of puts Reggie’s boycott in perspective -- the fact that Jigga came to a third world country and charged between $75 to $105 dollars seems very much contrary to the ‘keeping it real’ anthems in his songs. In Nigeria tickets went for as much as $800. That’s minus the extra bucks that came along with black market pricing.
“I was one of the first to start ‘bigging’ him up when I heard he was coming to Africa. I actually wanted to meet him. Better yet I thought he had to know who I was and how much grinding I put in this thing to make the environment conducive for him to be here. If he checks out my history, he will know that I’m like ‘Kool Herk’ or Africa ‘Bambata’. Can you reject something like that? This is a man who gives props to dead rappers like Tupac and Biggie as part of his stage act. Do you think any of them Negros like Mos Def or Talib Kwale would come here and do that? Or you think Tupac would come to the motherland and disrespect like the way Jigga did when his mother is Afeni Shakur?”
Reggie wasn’t looking at Jigga as an artiste. He wanted Jay Z to be aware of who he is so he can become a mouthpiece for the people, as supposed to all the Ghanaian artistes being opening acts with the possibility of Jay Z not even watching them perform. Rock sights this as another reason he boycotted the concert plus not being able to watch one of his favorite artistes should also make him double pissed off.
“If I had gotten on that stage, he knows I would have pulled his coat about the prices. What the f#*k happens to us black folk when we get up there. Matter of fact, the Negro that made him an ambassador for this water project was born here so he could have at least humored us with just a little respect. Somebody might be out there calling me arrogant and think I’m just doing this to get my shine. F#*k shine I need. If you check my track record, I was opening for artistes Jigga would have loved to be on a bill with back in the day. But forget that, I’m responsible for a whole genre of music that is putting food on people’s tables. Urban clothing, freedom of speech, the attitude and the culture all came out as an extension of Hiplife. Jay Z is the CEO of Def Jam and he can make power moves that could empower this movement that I’m about. If you throw me on stage like I’m nobody and my people couldn’t even speak for me, that ain’t right. Do you know what would have happened if I walked onto the stage with Jay Z and he saw the love that my people gave me? That would have opened a way for dialogue.”
Maybe what Jay-Z also didn’t know is that one of the people that helped Reggie set off Hiplife works for him. Rab Bakari sent a package containing Reggie’s dossier to Jigga through his personal assistant, Carlene. Whether the package got to Jigga at the moment isn’t very clear. “I was supposed to go on stage with Rita Marley and Jigga. That’s Bob Marley’s wife and you sh*t on her like that? It wouldn’t have hurt Jigga nothing to do that. At the moment I feel like the streets are calling for another Reggie album so I just might be heading back to the studio. All I wanted was recognition for Hiplife but obviously Jay Z didn’t think we were important so he came in, made his money and that’s all that mattered to him.”
So much for a great MC whose claim to fame was ‘repping’ for the have-nots.
