Singing Telegram: Big L - I Don't Understand It

RIP Big L

Happy Tuesday, people!! Yesterday was a day of love by most accounts, and I love hip-hop, so today's Singing Telegram is a song that applies just as much today as it did in 1995 when it appeared on Big L's 'Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous'. 'I Don't Understand It' is a tribute to the MC's in the game that switch up their styles in the hopes of a greater paycheck, and/or profess to be the hoodedest of rappers.

That said, L was ahead of his time in writing this. He was in the midst of a changing of the guards in hip-hop. The Golden Era of hip-hop was slowly hitting it's peak, the South hadn't taken over as yet and the Shiny-Suit era was about to take flight. L regaled his hip-hop compatriots to stay true to what they knew. That's not to say he was against experimentation or evolving with time. In Big L's two albums (one posthumous), the listener sees the same hunger and ravenous rhymes, all while getting better. L said it himself: "I'm older and smarter, this is me at my best."

It's a shame that today, rather than listening to L's 3rd or 4th album, we're mourning the death of Lamont Coleman. Hip-hop heads will list L as a GOAT, but the mainstream might never laud his greatness adequately (listen to Hot 97's Throwback at Noon and tell me if you've ever heard a Big L track). That said, as a hip-hop fan, it's impossible to not see the Harlem native for what he was: an amazing MC. That L could write a song that holds true and stands the test of time is a testament to that. Rest in peace to Harlem's Problem Child...