I Still Love H.E.R.

Almost 15 years ago, Common, then Common Sense came out with “I Used to Love H.E.R.” from his Resurrection album. He talked about his perception of the course of hip hop at the time. This is my perception.

Back in the Day

Along the way, everyone wanted to G.L.O.A.T., competing to be her greatest lover of all times. Growing up, everybody had a group. Everyone was MC so-and-so or DJ such-and-such. We’d rock the yellow buses, subways, trains, and metros. When it came to beats, no object was safe. We turned desks, windows, walls, and mouths (beat boxing) into drum machines. They produced the heartbeats of our ciphers.

Four o’clock, Rap City was on and again at 11 Friday nights. Before that was the Yo MTV Raps era. She lived through pride and prejudice, East/West beef, gang rivalries, crew rivalries, publicity stunts, and drugs. Pimped, strung out, and exploited she's a survivor like Destiny’s Child, and continues to make it, because she's loved by so many.

She’s Everywhere

Hip hop pops up all over the country like a giant whack-a-mole game. New York. Baltimore. Oakland. Compton. Atlanta. Memphis. New Orleans. Chicago. Cincinnati. Seattle. All these cities vying for her attention, each spitting game in their own way. She’s been courted by the very best, and some of the worst.

Don’t Have to Like Her…

“If I don’t like it I don’t like it, that don’t mean that I’m hatin,” says Common on the Like Water for Chocolate album. I don’t like everything that’s out there today, and don’t listen to most of it. I want to say I’ve outgrown it, and that my tastes have changed; but the opposite is true. My tastes haven’t changed. I’m an old soul stuck in some of my ways ahead of my time. I don’t have to like everything she does to love her, though.

…To Love Her

There are some lyrics that hurt us as a people and hurt hip hop as a culture, but I can’t hate the art form. Whether there are bad apples in the industry or I’m just off my rocker, hip hop is as beautiful as she ever was. She’s expression when you’ve got the “weight of the world on your shoulders [and] gotta hold it up,” like Pharaoh Monch. If you’re in a chill mood, Dr. Dre still keeps us bobbin our heads. When you start talking love, freak to romantic, she’s all things to all people.

Do You Love Her?

Mos Def is asked the following question on his album Black on Both Sides: “Where is Hip Hop going?” To this, he replies, “Ask yourself, ‘where am I going?’” This connotation transcends hip hop and music. In anything we do, any activity, its direction is the same as ours as a society. What society wants will happen. With hip hop, what we want is what she’ll do.