D-Nice has worn many hats throughout his storied career: rapper, beatboxer, dj, producer, photographer, and now a successful blogger.

His blog contains a series called “True Hip Hop Stories,” where he interviews rap legends like Masta Ace and Monie Love. I have spent the better half of the afternoon checking out these videos, and was most intrigued by a comment that Doitall from Lords of the Underground made.

He says that, and I am paraphrasing here, “when we were at our peak, the people in Lords of Underground ranged from ages 18-20, so we made music for people in that age group. Nowadays, those people that listened to us back in the day, they are professionals: lawyers, teachers, etc. No one makes music for them anymore. So what they’ve done is, they’ve moved onto R&B and other kinds of music.”

I agree whole-heartedly with this statement. It is sad that there is a lack of music being put out for (former?) hip hop fans in the 35 year old range, many of whom stopped listening to rap over a decade ago. Superstars from that time, the Rakims, the Big Daddy Kanes, haven’t put out music since that time. Guys like KRS-One still manage to put out records frequently, but they pale in quality to the music they put out almost 20 years ago.

I find it strange that this largely untapped market goes unnoticed. This older generation of hip hoppers are more apt to buy records than the younger kids, because they grew up buying cassettes and cd’s, and it’s quite likely that they are just not as computer savvy as we are.

I remember three or four years ago, when Lord Finesse came to Pittsburgh, there was a large group of fans that I had NEVER seen before. These people knew EVERY word that came out of Lord Finesse’s mouth, while younger guys like me who were not as familiar with ihs material, could only bop our head, watch and smile. Towards the end of his set, some dude came to the front of the stage wanting to battle Lord Finesse. Totally disrespectful.

Anyways, here is the Doitall interview, but check out the website because there is a ton of stuff on there.

True Hip-Hop Stories: Lords of The Underground from D-Nice on Vimeo.