‘King Of New York.’
It’s a title that in the culture of hip-hop overall
hasn’t been in existence as long as one would
think, but it has been a symbolic title of power
and influence. And in recent months, it’s been
back in the forefront as a subject of debate. I
found myself building on it with one of my boys
the other day in response to an article he shared
with me in the wake of the anniversary of The
Notorious B.I.G.’s murder earlier this month.
Which leads to the question: does hip-hop miss
having a ‘King Of New York’? Does the culture even
need someone in that role at this stage?
The answer is, yes and no.
In order to really understand the answer, we do
need to go back a bit to understand how the title
of the ‘King Of New York’ came to be. For a number
of us, we never saw any MC’s really stepping forth
and proclaiming they were tops in the city in the
sense of actually making it a title. In that period
from the 1980’s into the mid 1990’s, you had a
number of standout MC’s. Most of them were from
the tri-state area. Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-ONE,
and LL Cool J were the cream of the crop in regards
to the standout MC’s from the late 80’s. As the
‘90’s began, other cities had their top-notch MC’s
come to national prominence. This was when we
also were exposed to the scene in other cities
across the U.S. and overseas as well via tours
and TV programs. As the culture became more
and more ingrained in American culture, many
accepted New York City as the birthplace of
hip-hop. Rappers from NYC stood out more, and
they inspired and challenged MC’s from other
cities to rep their own cities with vigor. The West
Coast saw their ascent take place during this time,
especially in 1990 with the success of N.W.A.
The culture took notice of the birth of ‘gangster
rap’ and other artists like Ice-T, DJ Quik and
others began to mark a huge mark. The labels,
always on the hunt for bucks, took notice and
got to focusing on these artists, at the detriment
of East Coast artists. Enter Tim Dog and his shot
fired across the country, ‘Fuck Compton’ in 1991.
This would be the beginning of a sensibility in
hip-hop that focused on East Coast/West Coast
rivalry. It ensured the Bronx MC’s legacy but it
also opened the door to who would be that MC
to champion East Coast hip-hop. 
Pop culture became the key component with the
release of indie director Abel Ferrara’s 1990 crime
drama, King Of New York that starred Christopher
Walken as Frank White. That movie became a cult
classic of sorts and stuck in the minds of hustlers.
One of them who hailed from St.James Place in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn by the name of
The Notorious B.I.G. He called himself ‘Frank White’
a few times in his music. Now The Notorious B.I.G.
doing this was significant because of a couple of
factors. For one, he had been calling himself ‘Biggie
Smalls’ after Calvin Lockhart’s character in the
Blaxploitation classic Let’s Do It Again. But the
threat of lawsuits put a halt to that. Also, his
Jamaican-American background plays an influence
in that he followed in the tradition of some of the
‘toasters’ from reggae music who took their monikers
from film, like Outlaw Josey Wales and others who
found inspiration from the wave of Westerns that
hit the island’s cinemas in the late 1960’s and
1970’s. While B.I.G. wasn’t the first to gain
inspiration from movies for his name, he could
arguably be the first to do so in a culturally
impactful way. Because until his murder in 1997,
he WAS that King Of New York, even while in
direct beef with Tupac Shakur and the rest of
Death Row Records. Being KONY MATTERED
because it meant that you were percieved to be
the dominant MC that in effect, lorded over the
rest of the hip-hop world. Jay Z and Nas, both
coming off of highly acclaimed debut albums and
successful sophomore albums, filled that void but also
ramped up their rivalry in the process to highly tense
ends. To be fair, they followed this path partially
because Puff Daddy and Bad Boy had taken it to
a level of straight glitz and glamour. The ‘ballin’
phase had begun. 50 Cent rose to fame as the
antithesis to this in a way, first with the cunning
single ‘How To Rob’ off of his debut album. And
for a while we had a tug-of-war between these
three MC’s.
Go forward a couple of years to 2005. The rise
of the South in hip-hop was in full effect. And
coupled with the steady effect that West Coast
rappers still had along with influential MC’s from
the Midwest like Eminem and Common making
strides, the East Coast - and New York - felt
their magnetic appeal slip. Being the ‘King Of
New York’ didn’t really matter outside of the city,
and to some degree some folks in the city didn’t
give a damn whatsoever. It wasn’t the case in
1996 when Tha Dogg Pound along with Snoop
Dogg did the song ‘New York, New York’ complete
with a video that showed the three kicking over
the buildings in the city. Capone-N-Noreaga,
along with fellow Queensbridge MC’s Mobb Deep
and Tragedy Khadafi put out an equally controversial
response with ‘LA, LA’ and the video had its own
hard-hitting moment with the kidnap of cats
who looked like Daz and Kurupt and their being
thrown off a bridge. But since then, most of the
rap music coming out of New York had their
eyes on getting radio airplay and to do that,
it was about seizing on what was popular. Trap
beats. Autotune. Trends over lyricism. By this
time Nas, Jay and 50 had hit grand heights as
music superstars. Being the tops in your town
was put to the side for national, and possibly
global appeal.
Kendrick Lamar’s verse got many people really
buzzing. I wrote about its effect a while ago,
especially with regard to his line about being
King Of New York. Cats were looking for heavy
hitters to respond. Heavy hitters like Jay, Nas.
But truth be told, both MC’s are in the stages
of their career where they are full-fledged
entrepreneurs as well as artists. Hell, Jay Z
has had a share in an NBA franchise no matter
how minute it was. Nas is now involved with
hip-hop education and mentorship. You can
even add 50 in the mix with his acting career,
and his business savvy with Vitamin Water and
his own energy drink line. These three in their
own right are kings. But that title isn’t exactly
coveted by them. They’ve managed to transcend
a need for it on their end. In their own way,
they each love their hometown and never fail
to pay it homage. But hip-hop culture has
grown beyond a need for demanding a King Of
New York exists outright. The city itself doesn’t
even stress it too much, for different reasons.
One being that the city itself has changed thanks
to the Giuliani and Bloomberg era. Those years
have seen an exodus of natives to parts down
South, out West and all points in between due
to rising costs, foreclosures and lack of jobs that
make it tough to live in a city of grittiness. You
can’t rep a city that at times, doesn’t seem to
want you with all of its luxury condo madness. Put
that with a corporate label driven onus on radio
stations in the city that at certain times in the
day all sound the same and disenchantment is
the key emotion. Not to mention the fickle fans
out there hopping on every trend and trying to
be up on whatever’s hot instead of whatever’s
actually good. For every nice MC on the New York
landscape, there’s a craptastic rapper getting over
because of hype. And before you protest, think real
hard over some of the rappers that have come up
since 2004 in New York City. At one point you might
as well have traded the title to Atlanta for a Waffle
House loyalty card. As for older MC’s like Rakim or
KRS-ONE, the ingrained need for fans to look to
younger MC’s disqualifies them somewhat from
that title. They get a veteran’s love, but not many
would appoint them king. Am I throwing shots at
other regions? No. Because let’s face it, arrogance
also plays a part here as I alluded to earlier. That
arrogance that you reach when you actually know
your stuff but don’t take time to acknowledge
change let alone hold your own standard. It would
explain how I’ve been going to shows recently and
seeing lauded MC’s have to furiously hype up the
crowd and express their frustration that other cities
get much more live. Yes, that really happened.
Even with that said, having a King Of New York
is still someting to be valued. It demands pride
and talent enough to justify the swagger. It
serves as a mountaintop to try to ascend to
without being aided by corporate hype machines
or fast-talking A&R’s or party promoters who
got a little bit more Take 5 money to burn. There’s
a few up and comers who may just follow through
without faltering. And one can hope that the next
generation of MC’s fully grasp what that means.