Ever since the emergence of trap and the rise of mumble rap, battles between the
old-school veterans of hip-hop and the new generation have been ongoing. With a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding, the young MCs of today often feel unsupported by their predecessors. Many rappers, such as Denzel Curry, have highlighted that different generations will always have an affinity for the music of bygone eras and that evolution and change are inevitable. However, Big Daddy Kane seems to be receptive to the new generation.
However, unlike Denzel Curry, many of the new generation have stopped communicating with their predecessors as they know it will result in confrontation and conflict. Irrespective of the cultural barrier that exists between the golden-age artists and the newcomers, Big Daddy Kane has reached out to his younger counterparts to learn and grow with them.
Ahead of his Netflix documentary, Paragraphs I Manifest, Kane (real name Antonio Hardy), the Brooklyn artist, posted various clips of people he had interviewed to preview the documentary and pay homage to those he admired. However, although Hardy is a renowned 1980s artist, he took the time to shower J. Cole with praise. In the Instagram post, Hardy revealed that the North Carolina native is his current favourite artist of the new generation.
In the video clip, the Juice Crew act stated, “A lot of people are coming to people like us now and giving us our flowers while we still here. But listen, damn that. I wanna give this young brother right here his flowers. On the real. I want this brother right here to know that he is my favourite MC out right now. This is the brother right here that makes me feel like hip-hop is still alive and here to stay when I listen to this here brother spit and I listen to his music.”
Grateful for the kind words, Cole responded, “Love, bro. Thank you man. Legendary. Sh*t.” You can view the post below.