To continue looking at the therapeutic qualities of Hip Hop, I want to briefly mention Lewis Parker's Rise 12”; one of my favourite UK Hip Hop records. What I love about it is how in both tunes ('Rise' and 'Visions of Splendour') Hip Hop culture is treated with almost religious awe. Parker places Hip Hop at the centre of his world, finding hope and strength in its various aesthetic elements. We hear his therapy expressed in and through the medium of beats and rhymes, not incense and bell chimes. Armed with a stack of records, some fat-lace puma suede's and a microphone, Lewis Parker attacks life's 'Wackness' in all its forms. Have a Listen...
Saturday, 11 December 2010
These beats got me glue when life gets blue...
'Know this. It was the lack of money and other resources that caused Hip Hop to exist. Hip Hop existed outside of the mainstream and its validations. Hip Hop was what WE did independent of the World's value systems. Hip Hop was (and still is) our only salvation. Hip Hop is what saved us - nothing else!' (The Gospel of Hip-Hop, p. 35)
Big Claim! I believe Hip Hop is a positive movement that has little to do with the mainstream garbage that gets assigned the label of Rap or Hip Hop. But mad heads be hating on Hip Hop today: they see it as destructive, hyper-materialistic, even oppressive. Yet, as the quote above shows, there are many who see Hip Hop as a life-affirming movement, offering therapy (even hope?) to the disillusioned. Here are two opposing articles to consider...
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