The joy of being me is that you have people of all walks of life ready to engage you in conversation. I love it. It is through conversations with the ordinary Abuti and meme on the street that I am able to bring you this column every Friday.
In my conversations of late, I picked up that old school lovers are stuck in the past! Do not get me wrong, I love old school music and the entertainment factor that comes with it. In all honesty, I am an old soul! However, I also love new school.
Allow me to bring two conversations to you that got me to conclude that old school lovers are stuck in the past. At a carwash recently, a new song by Twista (Next To You ft. Jeremih) plays from a car. So a guy next to the table where I was chilling remarks, “whatever happened to Twista? He used to make good music”.
I replied, “He still does, that’s a new song it’s pretty dope”. A whole debate ensued. His argument was that Twista’s Celebrity overnight was the last time he heard from Twista. My argument was that if Twista were really his favourite act, he would have known about material he released after celebrity overnight and that his stance is borderline ignorance. That is the one conversation.
The second conversation was a bonfire experience where folks where reminiscing the good old days of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Lee “Scratch” Perry and others. So again, one guy remarked”they do not make music like that anymore”. All good, I agreed. Therefore, I asked “What 2017/2018 reggae albums are you currently listening to?” His answer mirrors his initial statement and he says, “Why bother? They don’t make music like Bob Marley anymore”. A whole debate ensued. His argument was that today’s reggae is not worth his time. My point is, how did you come to that assessment if you did not even give new school reggae a chance? There was a point in the whole debate where I asked him to name one new school reggae artist and he struggled! He could not give me a name of a new school reggae artist.
What does that tell you? It tells you that old school lovers are stuck in the past. Old school lovers dismiss new school without giving it a chance. It is another story if you gave it a chance and you formulate your opinion. However if you are telling me that you did not even listen to a single song from the new school era and quick to dismiss it, again that is borderline ignorance! I have written about ignorance so many times on this platform. You will know that I do not do well with ignorance. Old school lovers, give new school a chance. There are old school acts that are releasing new material. There are new school acts that are mirroring work done by the greats of yesteryear. You cannot dismiss something that you have not tried yet. I will respect your stance and opinion more if you consumed a product and formulate an opinion based on experience. Not ignorance!
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
NSK is a professional MC. For bookings, email naobebsekind@gmail.com
@naobebsekind (twitter)