Success Is Destiny

What is hip-hop? MTV tells us it’s a culture of women in G-strings, money, P-Diddy and drugs. Studio rapper/notorious “thug” Dr. Dre is still out there, making cheap chocolate and a few nasty chemicals into Eminems with bad attitudes. But hip-hop really is the most progressive and influential music out there today. The Grouch tells us it’s “Prevalent minds of all kinds under one roof enjoying the truth.”

The Grouch is part of an underground hip-hop collective called the Living Legends. They press and sell their own records and own all the rights to their music. Success Is Destiny is The Grouch’s third release (not his most recent), and his earlier albums are a bit rawer and angrier. His newest album, Crusader for Justice, is more light-hearted. But Success is the place for the new listener to begin; it is The Grouch at his finest: full of love and hate at the same time.

He raps to the harp and the trumpet about being celibate in response to the self demeaning attitudes of the dating world, about musicians’ rights, about his car not starting, and about the cost of water being too high. He is angry about being taken advantage of. He believes in the power of hard work and discipline. The Grouch says: "Success is destiny/ Choose your own path/ Put in work and do it fast/ Use your heart and it will last."