Opinions drive progress and determine an individual's status within a community. Every discipline or field hosts a wide variety of specializations and regional specialties. One could think of the heavy black pepper used in central Texas barbecue, and the contrasting liberal use of apple cider vinegar in Northern Carolina style. Likewise, hip hop music has spread and diversified itself in an incredibly fractal fashion. The fast, cutting high hats in "dirty South" trap-style hip hop popular in areas of Alabama and Georgia, can be contrasted by the traditionally soulful, almost jazzy variety found in Chicago and New York. Among these varieties, very rarely is there a consensus among the various sub-populations; each group usually tends toward their own homeostatic preferences. Sometimes in exceptional cases, like Franks BBQ in Austin, TX and Nas's Illmatic record, everyone seems to automatically and unanimously agree: this is some fantastic shit.
Nas released Illmatic on April 19th, 1994, I was exactly 731 days old. Because 2-year-olds don't usually hit the record store in search of the hottest new street drops, I discovered the album later on, when the XX version was released. Reading about the album and the influences it seemed to have made me feel bad for not hearing it earlier. Songs like "The World is Yours" and "NY State of Mind" sounded great on first listen, but as it the case with these things, it takes a good amount time to appreciate and understand. But, what I immediately felt was the theme of the record, the sort of driving mantra behind it. Themes of positivity, perseverance and triumph are there, and while being contextualized by the obviously hard street-vibe, provides almost a hood professor-student interaction between Nas and the listener. It's something Nas does incredibly well, and it works beautifully.
"Beef with housing police. Release scriptures that's maybe Hitler's Yet I'm the mild, money-gettin' style, rollin' foul. The versatile, honey-sticking wild golden child Dwelling in the Rotten Apple, you get tackled. Or caught by the devil's lasso, shit is a hassle."
Maybe for this reason, and his immense technical rhyming abilities, people started really praising the album, regardless of their regional affiliation.
Franklin BBQ is a restaurant in Austin, TX, and it's open from 11:00am - 3:00pm only. Aaron Franklin started the business in 2011, following a success with a mobile barbecue trailer. If there's anything you should know about this place, it is that it has sold out of brisket every single day it's been open, since it was established five years ago. In that sense, it isn't a restaurant, it's an institution; with people ceremonially starting to line up out front at five in the morning, just to get lunch six hours in the future. People may be strange, and not always rational, but there must be something about the food to warrant such a wait. Pilgrimages are often made by meat-lovers from other states, with completely different flavor profiles associated with their region, because somehow a mutual agreement has been made between them and Aaron. Something about his style is accepted by all, and because of that, his is considered to be one of the greatest BBQ restaurants in the entire world.
"Barbecue isn’t about recipes. The more you do it, the better you get at it. You learn to look at things, smell things, hear things, and that’s what I wanted to get across in the book. You flip through [recipe books] once, you get the idea and then you’re done. Books like On Food And Cooking or Modernist Cuisine are more like reference books, that’s what I wanted to create. Something you keep coming back to, to jog your memory. I don’t really follow recipes myself, and I’m much worse at actually writing them, so I thought more words and pictures was the way to go."
Few things are considered constant among sub-cultures despite regional preferences.
I think these things are, and while they are incredibly different, they share in a narrative which holds a unique gravity and influence. Such things are worth reflection, contemplation, respect, and praise.