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To Whom It May Concern,
Hello world…the reason I am saying to whom it may concern is because if your reading this…this more than likely concerns you…I hope I haven’t lost you yet…

My name is Raul Martinez, Jr. AkA Ra Da Pro…this still doesn’t tell you why it is important for you to be reading this article…well first off Toni P asked me to write this article/letter…partly because I am probably the most verbose person he knows secondly because I am a fan…I am an artist but I am a fan first…a fan of music and specifically a fan of hip hop…I love hip hop and of late I am concerned with the state of hip hop…I am not trying to sound like some sort of true school fanboy blogger who is here just to bitch and complain…I am 24 years young and I am concerned because some of my favorite artist many of which are still more than relevant today are considered old school…I’m considered old school…thinking about it…it makes alot of sense…hip hop is and will almost always be geared and oriented towards youth…and the average teenager was in elementary school when Pac and Big passed(RIP)…but I wasn’t and I am perturbed when these teenagers have a hard time knowing a Pac or Big single let alone alot of those unforgettable album cuts…I mean I was born in ‘84 and I know “Paid In Full” (the album not the movie for all you teenagers out there) and that came out in ‘87…I was three years old…if you asked a rock fan about Led Zeppelin they’d know…they’d know Black Sabbath…they’d know Bob Dylan…they’d know Pink Floyd…and they would understand the importance of those artist and the impact they made on the art form…see now that’s another thing hip hop is filled with characters and not enough individuals with character…too many chiefs not enough indians…everyone is trying to play the same roll…again for all those out there who don’t know me…I am a 24 year old hip hop head from New York…I live in Washington Heights and if you are from New York you pretty much know that is the hood…but I didn’t grow up in the hood…

I spent my childhood in Bay Shore, Long Island…a mixed town with lots of diversity…some of hip hops great luminaries spent time in or around Bay Shore (EPMD, Biz Markie, K-Solo just to name a few)…and I spent my adolescence in upstate New York in a town called Montgomery home of the Orange County Chopper Boys…Montgomery unlike Bay Shore was not as diverse…I say this because I am not an atypical hip hop artist…I am not a thug, a drug dealer, a pimp…I do not fit the stereotypes nor would I like to perpetuate them…and because of my upbringing and my attitude toward the stereotypes I get discriminated against…my realness comes into play…but the misunderstanding is that when I spit I spit about my experiences and my attitudes…now tell me how real is that…but I feel like I have deviated from point (sorry Toni)…maybe I am old school…but with that I have the understanding that back in the day there was no blue print…there was room for everyone…there was room for the Rakim’s, and the KRS-One’s, and the Biz Markie’s and the SLick Rick’s and the Run DMC’s and the Beastie Boys’…there was diversity…you didn’t have to dress a certain way…there were no hip hop stores to buy your clothes from…hip hop heads in the beginning created there own style there was room for everybody…even still I am deviating from my point slightly (again sorry Toni)…my point being that Biggie and Pac are old school…this is crazy…a crazy concept to me…because the average hood dude teenager on the street who swears that he’s more hip hop than me…who may like Biggie and Pac…fails to realize there significance…I could probably write a whole article on the artistic significance of an album like Life After Death…and the importance of Ready To Die before that (sorry I’m partial to Big…I’m from New York)…these two artist are and will always be important to hip hop because they brought complexity…genuine complexity…Pac said what he felt…some saw him as a thug but he was genuine…he merely reflected all that he was…that’s why he could do songs like “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and “Dear Mama” with the same passion as songs like “Hail Mary” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted”…the same as Biggie…Biggie is known for his versatility…I haven’t seen Notorious yet…but I plan on seeing it…I have mixed ideas going to see it…but I understand the importance of this movie on hip hop as a whole…I know I started this by saying that alot of relevant artist today that I grew up listening to are being disregarded…I had a talk with someone the other day that told me that Nas was irrelevant…are you serious…if u have picked up the last Nas album you are crazy if you even agree with that notion…the man set out on a theme…a solid concept…and while not every song hits with the same impact each song is a reflection of that central idea…it is a testament to how albums should b made and executed…I started to fall in love with hip hop between ‘95 and 2k…some of my favorite artist from that time are Big Pun, Jay-Z, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Snoop, Dre, Wu-Tang, Boot Camp, Outkast…I could go on and on…and some of these guys I mentioned were around before ‘95…but most of these artist are what I would refer to as second generation hip hop artists…these guys all understood that there was a generation before them…and paid homage…all I ask is that these new hip hoppers…these third and fourth generation hip hoppers pay homage and respect to those that came before them…hip hop is more than entertainment…it is art…and art requires a little reflection…there is no future without the past…well I am sure I lost my point somewhere but I hope you enjoy and this sparked some ideas in somebody’s mind somewhere…
ONE,
Ra

P.S. feel free to leave me comments on my myspace page… www. myspace. com/prophecydapro …holla!!!