Andres “Dres” Titus of Black Sheep says he doesn’t like ageism in hip-hop.
On Jan. 29, Dres sat down with Noreaga and fellow 90s rapper Chi Ali on the hit REVOLT show, Drink Champs, when he brought up the topic.
“I don’t dig the ageism that cats try to play in hip-hop,” he said. To drive his point home, he compared being a seasoned old-school rap artist to being a veteran in other fields of work. “If you’ve been a mechanic for 20 years you’re a master mechanic. You been taking Taekwondo for 30 years, 20 years, you’re a master Taekwondo teacher, If you been a chef you’re a master chef.”
The 54-year-old musician also called out the younger generation, saying their skill level can’t compare to the skill level of the oldheads.
“Yo these kids cannot compare. How you gon wash us at our nicest?”
On the flip side, he gave them their props for knowing how to monetize their talent in a way that his peers didn’t back in the day.
“We didn’t recognize our power as we should. The younger generation is recognizing it much more as they’ve learned how to monetize every movement,” he said. “We had no idea that type of shit existed and it existed then, it wasn’t the internet, but the relationships existed to be brokered. These kids figured it out.”
Dres added that if Black Sheep’s 1991 hit song “The Choice Is Yours” were released today, it would be worth a ton of money. He also said that he paved the way for today’s young rappers to get the money they do.
“If ‘The Choice Is Yours’ came out now, it’d be worth $20 million. I never saw a tenth of what cats get. These cats don’t go outside for less than $100,000…I know they wouldn’t get that money if I didn’t do what I did.”
Dres and rapper William, Mista Lawnge, McClean formed the legendary Black Sheep in the early 1990s. They were born in Queens, New York but grew up in North Carolina, where they met. Lawnge, a DJ and producer, recruited Dres to be a part of the duo after being inspired by another 90s rap supergroup, Native Tongues.
On Oct. 22, 1991, they dropped their debut album A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, with their first single being “Flavor Of The Month.” It was one of the most popular hip-hop songs that year. Then, their follow-up, “The Choice Is Yours” was released, and its video was a big hit on MTV. The track grew to become one of the most memorable songs from hip-hop’s golden age.
In 2018, Dres dropped a solo project under the Black Sheep moniker, titled Tortured Soul.
