So I just read that today is Pharrell’s 35th birthday. This dude is 35 years old? Damn. This got me thinking most of these rappers that the kids look up to are old as funk. Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Wu-Tang, are damn near 50 years old. Dip Set, Kanye, 50 Cent, Rick Ross, and Common are all damn near hitting 40. LL Cool J’s got to be 80 years old right now. This is just pretty funny to me considering the average rap album buyer is probably 15. But I know, I know the 20 somethings are probably the ones buying all the Common and Rick Ross albums what with all their Call Center money to blow.

I used to look at artists my mom listened to and they would look old as hell on their album covers. Artists like Al Green, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, these guys look to be damn near sixty. I would think to myself, how lame is it that the teens in that time would listen to these old geezers? But now I’d probably rather the teenie boppers listen to Nas than Soulja Boy. I mean when I was a young stallion, I listened to Wu-Tang. But that neither here nor there.

What I want to know is how long can this go on? How long can Snoop Dogg be putting out records? Until he’s sixty? As hip hop turned into rock & roll where acts go on into there seventies. Jay-Z even recently said, “I’m like the Rolling Stones”. Wow. I don’t know whether to give props or shake my head. I’m a huge Jigga fan, but I really don’t want to see this man continue rappen into his seventies, let alone when he turns fifty (he did say on Reasonable Doubt, “Minds thinken’ longevity till I’m seventy”). But really how long can these guys go on? Does LL Cool J really think women are going to be swooning all over him?

What these rappers have to realize is that age is the great divider. And it’s time to past it on to the new generation, it’s not cool to be old. Sorry.

But my how times change.