The Willy Northpole article was dope and let me say that I support Willy North's career as well as Hot Rod and Juice. 5th coast & Man Up are all dope to me. I like the music coming out from all of these crews, labels and artists.

That said, while I was reading through the article written by Niki D'Andrea I was taken back by some of the things she wrote regarding The Blunt Club and Groove Candy.

Now, everyone knows there are different styles of Rap/Hip-Hop music. Just as there are different styles of Rock, Country, Jazz or what have you. This isn't...news. It's always been that way.

Arizona is no exception to this. There are club/radio friendly artists and groups and then the socially concious/culture artists and groups. Both are important and both are racially diverse.

Some how in this article, a depiction that there is a tear between these two really great events is being made. That some how one events following isn't down with the other...or is in competition. This is not true. There are a lot of people I know that frequent both Groove Candy as well as The Blunt Club because the two events offer a different flavor of Hip-Hop/Rap music and vibe.

What's worse, is this false statement made by Niki D'Andrea...

"White college students constitute a large part of the audience. With a few exceptions (like McVay and a guest appearance by Public Enemy in 2007), most of the performers at Blunt Club are white, too."

Firstly why is race even a subject here...who cares.

...Anyway, I'd like to see the census that was done that showed this blantently false result. The Blunt Club is not predominantly made up of white college kids any more then it is predominantly any other specific racial background or level of education. It's VERY diverse. The Latin community has a very large presence as well as Native American and Black. White people would actually usually be the minority at a glance, with no real majority to speak of. The event is actually put on by mostly non-white people.

Saying that Emerge and Public Enemy are the acceptions is just piss poor reporting on Niki D'Andreas part. Blunt Club has had lots of racially diverse performers. Why is this even a part of this otherwise great article about some AZ mcs blowing up and doing well?

Just for the record...the list of black & latino performers are way too long to list but...Black Sheep, 2Mex, Scarub, PSC, Life Rexall, Mr. Lif, Akrobatic...not to mention Proof from D12 (RIP) performed at the BC and kicked it. Guru of Gangstarr just hangin out at The BC. What the fuck was she thinking...exactly she wasn't thinking.

I don't see why race would even be an issue with any of this anyway.

Another stupid comment by Niki D'Andrea in an attempt to "stir shit up"...

"But it's rappers like Willy Northpole — guys who look like they're from the streets of L.A. or New York — who are making an attempt to represent Arizona hip-hop in their music and their lives, not the MCs at Blunt Club, who may occasionally reference the city in their lyrics but keep the local pride insulated."

Willy North is repping for AZ, Hot Rod is, Juice, 5th Coast, Cinque...all AZ hip-hop artists are repping for AZ. That's what all AZ mcs do, we rep for our state with everything we do. Wether or not we use a hand sign, t-shirt, hat, video, song, tour, performance...wether we want to or not...we are repping AZ to the rest of the world.

Now I see what she's trying to do with saying, "guys who look like they're from the streets of L.A. or New York"...she's attempting to say guys who look like "The Rapper" on MTV. Because saying someone looks like their from the streets of LA or NY could damn well mean anything. Define what a person looks like from streets LA or NY percisely. That's way too broad of a statement. She means "The Rappers on MTV" or big city successes. Ok, so is that to say that because one person fits a look more so to a popular MC that they rep better or harder?

Ofcourse they don't.

What Willy North or any other major label AZ artist looks like has nothing to do with how successful they become or how hard they rep for AZ.

What they sound like does.

They are blowing up based off of their talent. The kind of music they make is popular music. It's GOOD music. It's what the majority in hip-hop want. With that type of appreal they can do amazing things for AZ hip-hop exposure...but it doesn't mean the independed music side doesn't rep and we keep our pride, as she put it, "insulated".

To try to compare commercially viable hip-hop music to underground concious music and say one is better then the other is something the media will always try to do to get people to read the article. It's bullshit though. Because I know for a fact that Everyone at Blunt Club has love for Willy North, Man Up, 5th Coast etc...

By the way...what the fuck is a Blunt Club MC? There is no such thing. I can only assume she is refering to the groups she mentioned in the article that she associated with The BC...(East Valley MCs)

Again...she said...

"not the MCs at Blunt Club, who may occasionally reference the city in their lyrics but keep the local pride insulated."

How is it that (East Valley MCs) don't rep for the local hip-hop scene? Last time I checked that's all groups from AZ do. I've been on tours with Drunken Immortals, Antedote...AOTA (AOTA isn't even East Valley)...they all rep for AZ. Some even over seas. The Insects are there all the time repping AZ hip-hop. There are fucking youtube videos of Brad B on stage in France yelling AZ hip-hop at large crowds of people eating it up. Whole songs about Arizona in general being sung back in broken English from people over seas at these shows...to say "they" (East Valley) hip-hop artists, don't rep or keep their local pride insulted is a fucking lie.

Also, I frequent The BC mainly (because I'm more into that vibe) but I'm not an East Valley MC. I'm from Central Phoenix...but by her definition I guess I'd be a Blunt Club MC? Which means I don't rep or do shit for AZ...right. Haha!

Anyway, I have love for all the people she wrote about in the article. I have have love for both of these really great hip-hop events. I have love for Karlie Hustle, M2, The Blunt Club and the New Times.

I do not have any love for this piss poor writer (Niki D'Andrea) an outsider of our AZ hip-hop culture trying to stir shit up in order to get more reads.

It's funny how she wrote in a way to commend unity amoungst the people within our scene...but if you read carefully, all the talk of unity was spoken from people within our scene. Meanwhile she made unfair, inaccurate comparrisons throughout the article using race and styles of music...

She should have just focused all of the attention on the main subject at hand..Willy North and AZ hip-hop finally getting some national attention.

That's my $0.02