Kemba (formerly YC The Cynic) Leaps Forward With “The New Black Theory” [VIDEO]

I met YC The Cynic years ago, when I was first beginning to build Birthplace Magazine. I wanted the publication to properly document the vast array of New York-area talent that I was coming across, in an era when New York hip-hop was being diminished by hip-hop media, and public opinion.

For a while, I was caught up in that sentiment. What did I know? I was making a mediocre name for myself as a remix producer, from my home studio on Long Island. I had no idea what was going on in the ‘Big City.’

But when I started poking my nose around town, when I started witnessing artists like Homeboy Sandman and Joell Ortiz, event series like End of the Weak and Freestyle Mondays, I realized that the essence of hip-hop was tremendously alive and well in The Big Apple.

To be fair, I thought, I’m older, as were some of these artists, more in tune with the Golden Era or the Daisy Age than the Trap. Surely we as a unit were all moving through time together, paralleling each other’s growth. Surely the younger generation wasn’t tapping into hip-hop’s historic creativity. They were all on some new shit, right?

Well, then I stumbled upon YC The Cynic’s You’re Welcome. A 19 year old YC The Cynic. A YC The Cynic who somehow embodied all of the things I loved about the Golden Era, without sounding like some of the artists perennially stuck in that era. It was as if this young Bronxite somehow took the DNA from rap’s most prolific, creative time frame, and morphed it with modern NYC sensibilities, to create the perfect old-to-the-new hip-hop hybrid.

Plus, he was saying things. Clever things. Smart things. Profound things.

Again, he was 19 at the time, which further validated my strengthening theory about the viability and vibrancy of New York’s hip-hop landscape, at at time when nobody significant in the so-called “hip-hop media” was echoing my enthusiasm.

It wasn’t long before I realized that YC The Cynic was a prodigy. The quality of his output never wavered, and often rose in exponential ways. His 2014 release, GNK, proved that not only was YC The Cynic willing to integrate a less-than-standard subject matter, he would do so fearlessly, exhibiting the artistic audacity the hip-hop world was clamoring for.

Yet soon thereafter, YC The Cynic would enter a cocoon of sorts, a hiatus, right around the time the hip-hop world found itself completely smacked, flipped and rubbed down by the black-self-love, musically avant-garde and lyrically intense masterpiece of To Pimp A Butterfly. Those who knew YC The Cynic knew that he embodied a Kendrickish sensibility, while Kendrick was still pre-Section 80. I can speak for his fans and followers when I say many waited expectantly for their favorite young upstart to emerge from his chrysalis an evolved species of lyrical beast, ready to pounce upon an increasingly welcoming industry.

He took his time. He changed his name. But now Kemba has emerged where YC The Cynic once stood, forcefully driving his new wings against the status quo, immediately expressing thoughtful social commentary through poetic prowess and powerful visuals as he rekindles his ascension.

Kemba is the kind of rap artist who could cut most peers to shreds with magnificent metaphors and punchline pugilism, but he is perfectly content crafting songs that enlighten, nudging listeners to take a slightly different train of thought regarding the world around them. Such is the case with “The New Black Theory,” the hypnotic first single from Kemba’s upcoming full-length project NEGUS, scheduled for a 7/22/16 release.

In “The New Black Theory” and its accompanying video (which he co-directed along with Sense Hernandez), Kemba is unapologetic as he stakes his claim on what will likely be a recurring theme in his new music — critique of the sorts of perceptions and associated comments made by those who would, for whatever reasons, downplay the complexities of the “new black” experience in America and attempt to place blame on the victims of this country’s evil deeds — sparing no one — not FOX News commentators, nor even cultural powerhouses like Pharrell, from whom the phrase is originally attributed.

It’s a forceful, albeit slightly risky, foray into a frontier of hip-hop music that, for the first time in a long while, may actually have the audience necessary to sustain its practitioners.

Time will tell if Kemba can rise to the level of other contemporaries who are finding ways to surpass the stylistic and substantive ceilings that rap artists were previously expected to stay under, but one thing is fairly certain:

There are few better equipped, who have the following, skills, experience and support network, than Kemba, to properly navigate this complex, modern, evolving hip-hop landscape while dropping quality material that sounds good while saying something.

This is what hip-hop has been asking for, and, in light of recent, less than savory hip-hop related incidents and a tarnished public perception about all that hip-hop can be, this is what hip-hop needs.

Here’s to hoping hip-hop is ready.

YC The Cynic is dead. Long live Kemba.

UPDATE: Kemba’s latest single, Greed