The Thrill Is Gone

The title of this post came from a song I was listening to by Styles P. & Talib Kweli (featuring a B.I.G. sample) of the same name.  The track, of course, deals with the artists’ issues with hip-hop, but the title can be applied to several other areas of life as well, in which things have been watered down to the point that they’re only a shadow of what they used to be.
“I have a college degree.”

There was a time when this statement, to me at least, meant that the speaker existed above a certain threshold of intelligence. That no longer is the case, as I come across a plethora of higher-educated fools who lack basic “adult” knowledge, grammatical skills, and even the ability to infer. And I’m not stating this to be funny in the least; being a bachelor’s-degree-holder, the folks I speak of make me, and you, look bad by loose association.

“I play (professional/ college) basketball.”

I covered this topic in depth here under “PGP.” But I’ll tell a story now that’s not covered there:

In Fall/Winter 2005, I frequented a certain gym in the Philadelphia area and played with/against a group of solid-to-really-good players daily. There was one guy who came in one day and appeared to have a high level of skill, even though he was missing a lot of his shots on that particular day. I didn’t know his name (found out later he was a city bball Legend), but he kept coming to the gym and we matched up vs. one another a lot, as we never seemed to be on the same teams. One afternoon we were playing spirited game of three-on-three full court, and I did a move and scored the game-winning basket, with this Legend covering me. Being the competitor he was (along with the important fact that it appeared to me that he didn’t believe anyone in that gym could get the best of him, even on a single play), the Legend disputed the play and claimed I had committed a violation on the move. After a snarky retort from me, which basically stated that the basket counted and the game was, unequivocally, over, the Legend, with a dismissive wave of his hand, stated, “Whatever, nigga. I played PRO BALL (note emphasis).” As if to say, ‘Yeah, you got me in that game, but it’s not significant because I have competed at levels much higher than where we are at the moment.’

A statement like this is what I like to call "Copping a Plea," because this Legend tried to use his pro baller (PB) status as a crutch for his lack of performance in the present moment (not to mention he had no idea who the person was he was speaking to). THIS IS NOT ALLOWED! But it happens a lot in basketball and I see it often with my own two eyes.

“I be in the gym (fill in daily or weekly frequency count);” or, “I work at a gym.”

I think this used to mean that this person had a certain amount of knowledge of the workings of the body as it applied to exercise & physical fitness. As the old cliche goes (or as I’ll paraphrase it to fit my needs), going to a gym every day don’t make you an expert of fitness any more than going to church every Sunday makes you an expert on God.

“I’m a rapper.”

This is a really good point I heard Redman make recently when discussing some new rap artists…

In the 90′s when a rapper came onto the scene, you just KNEW said rapper had certifiable skill, because record deals weren’t being handed out like bus schedules back then. To sign a deal, you needed to display your skill, network and be persistent, all the while fighting your way through all the other rappers who had the same goal as you had. There were no rappers starting their own labels, no rappers whose albums were available only via MySpace (or download), and rappers spurning labels to get in the game independently could be counted on one hand.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m in full support of artists making moves to get more of the money they generate to go into their own pockets and to have ownership of their work and the like. But the flip side to that coin is that any Joe off the corner can claim “rapper” status now without having had to reside in the crucible and earn his chance. And that has watered down the genre. And this fact has hurt the perception of all rappers, especially the ones who had to earn their shots. So I can completely understand the “hatin’” that comes from 90s-era rappers towards the new generation of artists who attain a measure of “fame” 60 days after deciding to rap.

“…The thrill is gone/ the shit is pathetic…”

Tags: Basketball, College, competition, gym, Hip Hop, Pro BBall