After Brooklyn-bred lyricist Special Ed stated in a Drink Champs interview earlier this year that N.W.A. brought destruction to hip-hop, he was met with skepticism from other West Coast rappers. When questioned about the statement on a recent episode of Vlad TV, he did not back down or alter his words.
After Vlad brought up the topic, Ed, born Edward Archer, acknowledged his statement and said that he even spoke to one of the members of the hip-hop group, Ice Cube, and the West Coast rapper didn’t have objections to what Ed had said. He did respond to the artists who came out against his theory that the self-proclaimed gangsta group did bring that to hip-hop.
“I would first like to say that none of those people were actual members of N.W.A.,” he told Vlad. “So for them to have an opinion was just like me having an opinion. So, let’s start there. Secondly, I did have a discussion with Cube, and he understands where I’m coming from.”
Ed went on to explain that the group’s songs were made more for the “hood” and not specifically for the general public at the time.
“They say that they were just making, I wouldn’t say parody, but records for the hood. Selling out the trunk. It wasn’t intended for global-scale marketing. But that’s where it was taken.”
The “I Got It Made” rapper didn’t hesitate to stand on what he said before.
“They have to take some accountability, but at the end of the day now, once again, we go back to the labels.”
He added that the destruction continues today due to these labels encouraging artists to put out that type of music and that when it’s positive, it’s not promoted as much as the negative.
“So, yes, music does affect people. It does contribute to people’s behavior and the outcome and it’s the same thing we’re saying now it has evolved. So from that point until now, it’s no longer just that simple. Now it’s straight murder m
usic, now it’s drill music, now it’s people directly attacking each other through the music and that music being supported by these same labels and record companies. So there has to be accountability, like I said, I stopped.”“I started dealing with reality, and I stopped lying to myself for one, and then with that being said, if you’re not lying to yourself, then you shouldn’t be lying to nobody else, so if we’re all dealing with reality and our conscience and facts, then we have to look at it for what it is, they are encouraging us and paying us to be destructive, you know and that’s systematic. I think that’s part of, you know, a plan of sorts that’s part of an agenda, is for us to take ourselves out, so we don’t have to do it. You understand that’s real; programming is systematic, and it has been going on for decades now over 30 years now, we’ve been getting more and more destructive.”
For not backing down or trying to appease the people who complained, he definitely believes the N.W.A. helped bring destruction to hip-hop, commercially.
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