Style > Substance

Great article from the T.R.O.Y. blog: droppin knowledge on the subject of conscious Hip Hop:

Pacewon and Contemporary Rap Consciousness 

"The social and political consciousness that is evident in rap songs during the late ’80s and early ’90s is invoked by nostalgic admirers as a defining characteristic of rap’s earlier years. Its gradual decline in visibility and relative absence in popular contemporary rap is lamented and occasionally cited as a symptom of the genre’s degeneration, and spuriously linked to a related growth of apathy and ignorance among listeners. The “conscious rap” of the past is incorrectly assumed to be  a sub-genre that is diametrically opposed to the values and aesthetics of “gangsta” or “commercial rap;” the running story is that it faded from popularity because neither the music industry nor a critical mass of fans respected its cerebral content or capacity for exposing the truth." Thun

Peace, Love, Unity and having FUN!

KRS-ONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment: Part 1

KRS-ONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment: Part 2

Not a lot I need to say about these videos... Its hard to watch something like this and deny the quasi-religious/spiritual character of Hip Hop. In this lecture KRS unpacks Hip Hop's existential positivity, creativity, and the way it transcends the mainstream to provide new and exciting avenues of hope, empowerment and self-validation for marginalised young people - starting primarily amongst African American youth, but now encompassing people from all races, creeds, and nationalities. AND on top of all of this, its FUN! Still a doubter?

This may conflict with your current understanding of Hip Hop, because:
"What you see on television and radios does not represent the totality of us." KRS-ONE

Now let's get off this negative tip and go positive...

Gonna hit you with some different perspectives:


Check it:
Hip-hop: Negative Effects on Today's Youth
This article may have a point, however, the writer appears to have a fairly limited grasp on Hip Hop. He fails to differentiate between the mainstream and the underground - the former being validated by the trends of music industry, the latter being validated by Hip Hop itself - and thus places no blame at the door of the record labels themselves who favour materialistic, chauvinistic, highly-sexualised, and violent music. The reason for this is that it sells. So why doesn't he blame the kids who persist in buying it?

Thoughts from the P Brothers...

Continuing the topic of my last post here is an extract from an interview of Nottingham Hip Hop duo the P brothers. For the rest of the interview, check Unkut blog...

"Because you’ve got the internet... It seems very easy for people to make records or come out rapping, and as much as the art form is very expressive and people are supposed to come across and do their thing, there’s a lot of people that aren’t ready yet to do their thing, coming out doing it – thinking they’re ready – when they’re not. A lot of people coming out nowadays – to me – aren’t ready. They need a few more years working on what they’re doing. That used to be an old school rule – you wait, see how people get down, you develop you’re thing and you just move forward. That’s kinda been lost. Now everyone wants to be famous or they want to be ‘The Man’, but the world ain’t like that. In the spiritual world you’ve gotta develop and wait for your turn and then do your thing. But you’ve gotta know when you’re ready, and people nowadays, they don’t seem to know when they’re ready or not. The standard of hip-hop is so low and the quality control is so low that people think they’re ready when they’re not."

Access vs Wackness

A Quiet Reminder of Why I Love Rap Music

Peace! I saw this ^^ post from Straight Bangin' blog last month about Pete Rock's contribution to the Hip Hop remix. But what interested me about the post was that he mentions in passing how via email him and his mate trade YouTube clips of various Hip Hop tunes of interest and the original records those tunes sampled. Presumably they then geek-out over when those records came out, who produced them, who else has flipped that sample, whatever whatever.. that's what I'd do anyway. I got some friends who im always sending or recieving links of that 'old, real sh*t' to. I guess finding and sharing a dope original sample or a rare 12" b-side is a must and the internet has made this so much easier, but prolly much less cool, than the mixtape days of old!

Wack-italism

Back in February, Bronx mainstays Showbiz and KRS-One collaborated to release Godsville, a relatively short, yet potent record combining Show's intelligently understated beats and KRS' firey lyrical propagation of Hip Hop culture. At the beginning of 'Running in the Dark' (see below) KRS says: "I aint tryna live poor, but we were created out of poverty...its what we DIDN'T have that created Hip Hop...The minimum, not the maxium. Makin a dollar outa 15 cents..." Word: "Thass real", as he puts it... Check this article by Aisha Ali:


Hip-hop meets its ultimate fate: Hip-hop surrenders to capitalism (dollar dollar bill, ya'll)

Multi thousand pair of sneak freak...

SPLASH TV MAG - RAEKWON & LEWIS PARKER INTERVIEW

Found this video (click link above) of a Lewis Parker and Raekwon interview. At 6:20 Rae talks about Hiphoppas being into sneakers and hats; that they are flawed characters who seek sanctification through the practice of Hip Hop. I think this sums up the tensions of Hip Hop well: "we got issues, but we deal with them, and we let the music soak up all that negativity into a positive." Dude knows what hes talking about for real.

Hip Hop undeniably has the power to "therapize", but what about those seemingly peripheral elements that Raekwon mentions: sneakers, hats, smoking, and drinking? Are these peripheral or integral? Are they just unnecessary elements, or do they have real, almost sacred, value to the Hip Hop community? In my love of Hip Hop, which involves collecting records, spending time on Hip Hop blogs searching for those slept-on gems that I may have missed, and making beats of my own, I find I also love sneakers, caps, certain brands of clothing, drinking cognac and smoking cigars. Is this just mad materialism brought on by immersing myself in something for so long? Or do these things have a value similar to the way certain objects are cherished by religious communities?