Legendary status vs Extraordinary Talent
Author: Drills
The Week of Jan. 7th 2019

I am sitting back. Thinking about Legends of Hip-hop and realized that all of them didn’t necessarily have extraordinary talent. The theory worked vice versa also. Of course, I’d rather have both but if I had to choose which one would I? The question is not as black and white as it seems. I’ll weigh out both sides.
The level of legendary status is great. In most cases, your legend gets stronger as time goes on. Biggie and Tupac are legendary. Their status is Teflon. You can’t take that from them, ever. The only downfall to legendary status is that talent level is often forgotten or irrelevant. It may be hard to do with music because nostalgia hits you and the music brings you back to a time in history and it makes you happy but try this with movies or sports. They tend to not have the same effect and some ‘great/legendary movies’ do not stand the test of time. The acting is not that great. The plot holes are bad and so on. A great sports example is the “legendary” slam dunk contest between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins in 1988. Watch it, then watch the 2016 Slam Dunk contest that consisted of no superstars. It’s not even close…..don’t @ me.

I don’t want my legend (if/when I attain that status) to overshadow my talent-level. Legendary status is a great honor but…I know for a fact that it is close to impossible to become a legend in music. It seemed easier in the Motown years but as I said time makes legendary status stronger. I don’t control that. What I do control is my talent level, my craft. I will be able to make myself as talented as possible. Time and energy is what I have and it is what I will use. Most believe talent is within you at birth, which I believe to a certain extent. A more accurate explanation would be ability is within you at birth. Ability at times is mistakenly considered talent. (i.e singing with no training, being extreme athletic) Talent comes in mastering your ability. Mastering talent makes you extraordinary.

In closing, the choice is hard and again I’d want to be known for both but if I had to choose I would choose extraordinary talent. Touching back on me stating that legend overshadows talent level, take a late 80’s/early 90’s hit that you love and ask yourself if this came out today would I like it? Uhhhh….at best it’s 50/50 just as songs today will be in 20-25 years. The song or artist is legendary in your mind. To support my choice, take a song from the 50’s-90’s and listen for the first time. Let’s say you like that song. Now that song is in your head, you play it everyday, and it’s now on your playlist of choice. You didn’t know the artist or you just hadn’t been exposed to that particular song but that’s good because there is no bias (Legend status) in your head. You love that song because the artist is an extraordinary talent. Timeless even, that is what it’s all about.

Drills the Legend
vs
****Drills the Timeless, Extraordinary Talent**** (Winner)

What is your choice?

Food for thought…..you do the dishes!