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Why didn’t Mitchy Slick get nominated?
This year is no different. Where are heroes like Black Mikey or Orko Eloheim, two of the most well-respected and well-seasoned rap veterans in San Diego? They both released albums within the past year—Blackula and Forbidden Physics, respectively—and neither of them have been nominated for “Best Hip Hop” or “Best Hip Hop Album.”
And where is Mitchy Slick, the biggest rapper from San Diego, who performs the world over representing his Southeast San Diego roots in every line he spits? He released his latest album, the solid Yellow Tape, earlier this year. But he isn’t on this year’s SDMA ballot, either.
MC Flow, a white, female rapper who’s won in the Best Hip Hop category each of the last three years—landing her at the center of the controversy—sees the problem clearly: The SDMA Academy, the group that nominates artists, is biased toward indie-rock and crossover acts.
“If you look at the list [of SDMA Academy members], it’s people from the indie-rock radio stations, people from the publications that cover mostly indie rock and people from the venues that are indie-rock venues,” Flow says. “I think the main thing that should change is the representation on the actual committee who creates the nominations. The committee itself needs to be reflective of the hip-hop community.”
Jimmy Powers, another nominee in the hip-hop categories, agrees.
“What it is is a bunch of indie-rock people,” he says. “They’re making decisions based off just their knowledge and not reaching out to the community at all.”
Where’s CROS1, one of the most active members of the hip-hop community? He organizes the hip-hop-themed Generations Party every Thursday at U-31 in North Park, runs the prolific Armory Massive DJs outfit and owns the Armory Survival Gear brand and its Downtown shop.
Nobody at Access Hip Hop, a shop in Pacific Beach that’s a central hub for local underground hip-hop, is on the Academy. Neither is Coop DVill, who runs Siccness.net, a popular site that covers San Diego street rap.
Kevin Hellman, CityBeat publisher and president of the San Diego Music Foundation, the nonprofit that organizes the SDMAs, says he’s heard it all before.
“The people that are involved in [the SDMA’s] are more along the indie-rock lines,” Hellman says. “Because they do spend their time promoting music. And some of the other genres may not be as active.”
Hellman says he’s worked with figures in the local hip-hop community in the past, but they would “participate once and then they’d disappear.”
CROS1 and Wes Champan of Access Hip Hop counter that nobody from the San Diego Music Foundation has contacted them in the past.
When the nominations were announced this year, I voiced my concerns on my blog, SDRaps.com, which provoked a discussion in the comments section that reflected the concerns of the rap community.
Now, Coop DVill has reason to be optimistic. Amid the uproar, one of Coop’s associates contacted the foundation on his behalf. The foundation sent Coop a ballot to vote on the “Best Album” categories in the SDMAs, a privilege reserved only for the SDMA Academy members.
Since the initial outrage, more experts in local hip-hop have trickled into the SDMA Academy. The foundation has invited a representative from the Brick by Brick, a club that often features local rappers. It has even invited me to join the Academy.
Time will tell how this will change the Academy’s dynamics—for example, will hip-hop heads be able to judge rock music accurately? But now, local hip-hop has a voice in the San Diego Music Awards. And we may see artists like Black Mikey, Orko Eloheim and Mitchy Slick on SDMA ballots in the future.
Quan Vu is the founder of SDRaps.com, a blog that covers local hip-hop.
