Credit: Mediatakeout.com
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Generation Gap
Growing up, developing and maintaining a look that simultaneously was comfortable and fit into the status quo was simple. Baggy jeans, timb boots, and shirt. The "thugged-out" look was widespread, comfortable, fashionable, and practical. Baldies and fades were prevalent, and the only time you ever saw anyone with long hair was when they were planning on getting braids or had just had them removed.
The younger generations of young adults these days have taken their own angle of approach to things. Now I'll be the first to admit that going against the grain is never a bad thing, but this is ridiculous. Why do all 15-23 year olds dress like this nowadays?
What happened? When did being a thug stop being cool? Where did the days where it was perfectly acceptable to punch someone in the face for no reason other than "not liking what they looked like" go? Back then if you were with your boy and they got into a fight with someone, it was your duty to get your kicks and stomps in when that other person hit the ground. These days it seems as if when someone's friend gets into a fight, everyone else tries to convince them it's not worth it.
Situations like that made us tougher over the years. Younger generations after us now? Pussies. How else could you explain the fashion climate that exists around the young adults you see every day?
While I'm on the subject of generational differences, why isn't it cool anymore to be an MC or a DJ? Aside from being thugged out, everyone in my generation and the older generations that preceded us had someone in each group of friends that either spun records or spit rhymes. That person would be the default go-to person for everything from mixtapes to spinning everyone's party or all female friends' sweet 16's, to the voicemail greeting recording guy. What do these young kids do now? Dance. Being a dancer has become the "cool" thing to be. Don't get me wrong, we had our share of dancers as well, but they were b-boys, and they were firmly entrenched in the culture of hip hop. Now, not only has the emo-look dancer movement replaced the hip hop movement, but a large number of these kids who are practicing their backspins and windmills in their friend's basements wouldn't even know who Crazy Legs or Ken Swift was if they walked past them in the street.
These newer generations have seemingly rendered people like me obsolete. It's no longer cool to wear pants that give your testicles a little bit of breathing room. No one wants to rhyme anymore. I've officially been sent in the same direction of Atari, Windows 95, and Perry Ellis America jackets.
The younger generations of young adults these days have taken their own angle of approach to things. Now I'll be the first to admit that going against the grain is never a bad thing, but this is ridiculous. Why do all 15-23 year olds dress like this nowadays?
What happened? When did being a thug stop being cool? Where did the days where it was perfectly acceptable to punch someone in the face for no reason other than "not liking what they looked like" go? Back then if you were with your boy and they got into a fight with someone, it was your duty to get your kicks and stomps in when that other person hit the ground. These days it seems as if when someone's friend gets into a fight, everyone else tries to convince them it's not worth it.
Situations like that made us tougher over the years. Younger generations after us now? Pussies. How else could you explain the fashion climate that exists around the young adults you see every day?
While I'm on the subject of generational differences, why isn't it cool anymore to be an MC or a DJ? Aside from being thugged out, everyone in my generation and the older generations that preceded us had someone in each group of friends that either spun records or spit rhymes. That person would be the default go-to person for everything from mixtapes to spinning everyone's party or all female friends' sweet 16's, to the voicemail greeting recording guy. What do these young kids do now? Dance. Being a dancer has become the "cool" thing to be. Don't get me wrong, we had our share of dancers as well, but they were b-boys, and they were firmly entrenched in the culture of hip hop. Now, not only has the emo-look dancer movement replaced the hip hop movement, but a large number of these kids who are practicing their backspins and windmills in their friend's basements wouldn't even know who Crazy Legs or Ken Swift was if they walked past them in the street.
These newer generations have seemingly rendered people like me obsolete. It's no longer cool to wear pants that give your testicles a little bit of breathing room. No one wants to rhyme anymore. I've officially been sent in the same direction of Atari, Windows 95, and Perry Ellis America jackets.
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