As the Nation is slowly finding out I not a huge fan of Hip Hop music well at least modern day rap.  When I want to listen to some music you might find me throwing on the Jazz sounds of one Miles Davis.  However I am a product of the Hip Hop culture through and through and bleed that ish.  So when it comes to Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis and his continued but baseless attacks on Hip Hop music, there’s no question what line I stand on…I go to war with my people.

In yesterday’s New York Daily News Rush and Mallow Gossip Column they revealed a smoldering beef between 27 time Grammy Award Winner, Quincy Jones and the trumpeter Marsalis.  Apparently Jones thinks Marsalis could use a music “lesson.”  Apparently Jones feels that Marsalis Jazz at Lincoln Center program falls short on diversity and should teach its students the link between jazz and hip hop.

“He won’t let students play other kinds of music.  No trumpeter in America wants to play like Wynton in his style. Every great trumpeter - Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Miles - borrows from someone before him and adds his own thing. But nobody wants to play like Wynton…Wynton knows how I feel.”

Like any good reporter the columnist followed up to see if in fact, Marsalis DID know how Jones felt…apparently he didn’t and had a few choice words for him.

“We’ve never had that discussion.”  He did however admit “Hip hop is a form of music for which I don’t have much respect. But I always recommend that my trumpet students play all kinds of music - funk, classical, all kinds of jazz.  That’s what my father taught me. He used to say, ‘Earn your prejudices. Don’t be prejudiced against something you don’t know about.’

“Before [Run DMC member] Jam Master Jay got killed, he and I were talking about having a deejay academy in my House of Swing,” said Marsalis, who has out a new book, “Moving to a Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life.  But it’s incumbent on the hip-hop community to develop their own musical initiative,” said Marsalis. “There’s no need for a jazz person to be called upon to do it.”

Now its a far cry from some an East Coast/ West Coast, 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule style beef but I’m glad a highly respected musician with some credibility and musical equity in the game finally had the decency to step up and say something to this clown Marsalis.  First off his music is aiiight.  People give Marsalis way too much credit.  He’s the black Kenny G on the trumpet.  Maybe I’m hating but he’s been bashing Hip Hop for years without and sound check.  I feel what he’s saying about “earning your prejudices” but when did he earn the right to be critical about Hip Hop?  If he doesn’t like it or support it he should keep those views to himself.  Publically speaking out against the artform is devisive and detrimental to his people and the students he looks to help.