Can We Complain About Free Music?

I love free music. If you browse this site, I am guessing that you like free music too. Glad to know that we have something in common. I also have a love for this underground industry thing. That is another thing we have in common. Finally, I am also very impatient

I already can guarantee you share that same value.

I dislike waiting for things and I always have. As a child, I used to ask to move my birthday (June 7th) a month earlier so I did not have to wait. I was that kid that would open the gift so fast that I'd break it. Let me tell you a few things that I am waiting for at the moment, that I could really do without waiting for.

Kush and Fuckin’ Orange Juice

Where is the Pilot? Talk

Exhibit Clandestine Music (only dope in secret…)

I sit here as an angry, ornery, disgruntled Hip Hop fan waiting for these tapes to hit a blog near me. Yet every day I am inundated with music that is not part of the above. All of the mixtapes I listed above are being dropped for free. I do not have to pay to download these tapes, yet I am still angry they have not come out yet.

I am angry… about having to wait for something that I do not have to pay to procure…to drop. Does this make me spoiled? Does this make me ungrateful? Does this show my misunderstanding of the concept of "free music?"

Yes, it does.

How can I sit here and storm the Bastille for not receiving free music in a timely enough manner? It is such a common thing in the comments to grow irate at a FREE mixtape NOT dropping. “Where is ___?” “Why hasn’t ____ dropped yet?” “Does ___ Electronica even exist?!”

I think the majority of Hip Hop “blogheads” forget that all of this music is being given to us for free…which also means the artists are taking a loss.

We all know CDs barely sell shit anymore meaning all of these sessions to record the music are coming out of the artist’s pocket (or label) themselves. If you support the independent hustle, the money is coming straight out of the revenue generated from their 9-5’s (while many artists NEVER talk about it…the majority of them have jobs just like you do).

Now for the select few that I mentioned…namely Kush and Orange Juice, which was supposed to drop forever and a day ago, is something I check for daily. Can I grow angry and proceed to curse out Shake because it hasn’t dropped yet? Of course I can, Wiz nor Shake do not control my emotions…however I can control my tongue.

I can understand the anger though. Even though it is free, we get attached to the music. I feel the level of fandom has risen in the past 10 years because of the internet. We are now no longer inept at finding dope music and sharing it with our friends and family. I feel since we can take music everywhere with us we are more attached to it…even if it is free.

But really though…where is Kush and Orange Juice?