Surviving The Game

03/08/2000 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
James Carter

"It's a thin line between pop and underground hip-hop. Somebody like Busta will come out with a record like 'Gimme Some More,' which will take over the pop charts, but the underground will be like, 'Damn, he's got to do some sh-t like that?'" says Pace Won, an MC hanging out to the left of the "thin line." Pace's far from the pop life and well-entrenched on the underground side of the hip-hop landscape. The question is for how long.

In the Y2G, hip-hop is more lucrative than ever, but it's far from equitable, leaving many of the best MCs at the periphery while lesser-skilled acts snatch the spotlight, video rotation, and airtime at the local R&B/ hip-hop radio station.

It's the byproduct of an industry that has seemingly pushed art aside to chase platinum watches and stacks of money. Under these circumstances a group like the Outsidaz, a nine-member crew of battle-tested MCs straight from New Jersey, could be justifiably bitter. But the group sees hip-hop for what it is, what it was, and what it has become. They are determined to break in and take a spot that their years of honing lyrical skills in ciphers and tearing up shows has earned them, without compromising the art or themselves.

"It's all about making money and not f--king up the art while you're doing it," group member Young Zee says. "Nowadays n-ggas is getting a deal because their cousin is the A&R, and they're killing it. They're making it bad for people who do got the skills. If you get a $100 million deal, and your songs don't measure up to it, the next man who comes along with the skills ain't getting that same deal."

"There's a lot of fresh MCs that just stand on the corner all day long being fresh and ain't trying to get a deal," bandmate D.U. says. "They think a deal is just gonna walk up to them. While the wack MCs are out there just pushing it and beating you in the face with it, doing all the things that you need to do."

"Yeah, the wack MCs got bios and demos ready," Young Zee responds.

"But see, nowadays there is people who've got skills, but for the record label to sign them, they want them to conform to their type of music, and a lot of people sell out and do it," fellow Outsida Yah Yah adds.

There's little reason for the Outsidaz to change from the hardcore underground style displayed on their EP, Night Life--not that they would anyway--because group members are in agreement that rap audiences are tired of hearing from skill-deficient MCs.

"N-ggas can't be mad because a person gets their time to shine and then they come through," says Pace Won. "Some people deserve that, and I know one of our songs is gonna hit like that too, and then it's gonna be some new n-ggas saying, 'I don't wanna hear the Outsidaz' sh-t all the time.'"