Friday, May 29, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Street Art Festival in Morocco
"A few months after inaugurating Morocco's Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in the capital, the National Museum Foundation helped to organise Rabat's first street art festival, Jidar. The festival, which wrapped up last week, reflects a growing interest in contemporary art within the kingdom."
source
source
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Violent Hip Hop is Racism against Black Men?
"One of the issues that came up is hip-hop music and the massive effect that it is having on the black community. According to Broussard, any form of music that teaches young black men to be violent toward one another is a form of racism sponsored by corporations that are fine with black male extermination, all for the sake of profitability."
source
Dr. Dre earned 20$/second in 2014
A new list compiled by Sky Range, using data from Forbes, has ranked the highest earning musicians of 2014 according to how much money they made per second.
Following his massive windfall from the $3 billion sale of Beats to Apple last year, Dr. Dre raked in no less than $620 million (before tax), which equates to a whopping $19.66 per second. Dre’s total was the highest annual income of any musician, ever.
Beyonce came in at second spot earning approximately $3.65 per second, followed by Justin Bieber ($2.54 per second) and Taylor Swift ($2.03 per second). The other hip hop artists to make it on to the list were Drake ($1.05 per second), Jay-Z and Diddy (both $1.90 per second).
source
Following his massive windfall from the $3 billion sale of Beats to Apple last year, Dr. Dre raked in no less than $620 million (before tax), which equates to a whopping $19.66 per second. Dre’s total was the highest annual income of any musician, ever.
Beyonce came in at second spot earning approximately $3.65 per second, followed by Justin Bieber ($2.54 per second) and Taylor Swift ($2.03 per second). The other hip hop artists to make it on to the list were Drake ($1.05 per second), Jay-Z and Diddy (both $1.90 per second).
source
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Friday, May 22, 2015
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Malcolm X and Hip Hop
"Malcolm [X] set a tone, which recognized or not – influenced politically
vocal artists like: the original Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Kendrick Lamar,
X Clan, early Latifah, Bahamidia, Wise Intelligent, United Front and
Afrikan Insurrektion Muzik, perhaps Azealia Banks -and – even Kanye West
who in the beginning of his career showed elements of knowledge of
self. Malcolm X remains a hood hero. Always will be. And being the
international tastemaker that he has been over the last four decades Hip
Hop has played a huge part in establishing his legacy with a
generation, which is now passing it on to their children and grand’s.
“My grandfather spoke out against the social ills that led to situations
that produced criminal lifestyles,” said Malcolm Latif Shabazz. He told
a journalist that his iconic elder relative was a beacon to people from
all walks of life. Young Shabazz himself, was killed in suspicious
circumstances in Mexico City in May 2013, but speaking in May 2011 he
said, “One thing is though, people from all walks of life, from pimps to
a drug addict, drug dealer, convicts, they all can all look at him and
think, ‘He’s been in my shoes and look where he is now.’ What did he
represent to our people? Inspiration He’s the epitome of change.”
Kendrick Lamar revealed to the Madd Hatta morning show late last year
was asked to name one book that changed something about him, he quickly
replied; ‘The Autobiography Of Malcolm X.’ He said the book played a
role in helping him speak with people from different walks of life.
...
The fight against injustice is the under belly of much hip-hop. There seems to be a general consensus in the Hip Hop community that Malcolm X had a definitive “influence even in the subconscious of the least conscious. Fifty years later the words and legacy of El Malik El Shabazz are still fundamentally relevant and omnipresent in 2015."
read the rest here
...
The fight against injustice is the under belly of much hip-hop. There seems to be a general consensus in the Hip Hop community that Malcolm X had a definitive “influence even in the subconscious of the least conscious. Fifty years later the words and legacy of El Malik El Shabazz are still fundamentally relevant and omnipresent in 2015."
read the rest here
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
DJing as part of Music GCSE
"Exam board AQA has announced a series of changes to its GCSE Music syllabus, which includes to addition of DJing as a solo performance option.
Candidates have always had to demonstrate a performance skill to get their Music GCSE, but if exam regulator Ofqual approves AQA’s changes, students will be able to gain credit by scratching and showing how they’d prepare for a gig among other DJ skills.
“They originally said that jazz wasn’t real music, and they said it about rock and pop too,” AQA music head Seb Ross told BBC Newsbeat. “Dance music – like any kind of music – is about performing with skill and understanding how music creates mood and meaning.”
source
Tupac (2Pac) - Who Do You Believe In?
[Verse One: 2Pac]
I see mothers in black cryin, brothers in packs dyin
Plus everybody's high, too doped up to ask why
Watchin our own downfall, witness the end
It's like we don't believe in God cause we livin in sin
I asked my homie on the block why he strapped, he laughed
Pointed his pistol as the cop car passed and blast
It's just another murder, nobody mourns no more
My tear drops gettin bigger but can't figure what I'm cryin for
Is it the miniature caskets, little babies
Victims of a stray, from drug dealers gone crazy
Maybe it's just the drugs, visions of how the block was
Crack came and it was strange how it rocked us
Perhaps the underlyin fact they hide explain genocide
It's when we ride on our own kind
What is it we all fear, reflections in the mirror
We can't escape fate, the end is gettin nearer
[Verse Two: 2Pac]
Can't close my eyes cause all I see is terror
I hate the man in the mirror
Cause his reflection makes the pain turn realer
Times of Armageddeon, murder in mass amounts
In this society where only gettin the cash counts
I started out as a beginner
Entered the criminal lifestyle became a sinner
I make my money and vacate, evade prison
Went from the chosen one to outcast, unforgiven
And all the Hennessy and weed can't hide, the pain I feel inside
You know, it's like I'm livin just to die
I fall on my knees and beg for mercy, not knowin if I'm worthy
Livin life thinkin no man can hurt me
So I'm askin -- before I lay me down to sleep
Before you judge me, look at all the shit you did to me, my misery
I rose up from the slums, made it out the flames
In my search for fame will I change? I'm askin
[Verse Three: Kadafi]
Faith in Allah, believe in me and this plastic
Cause so far I done witnessed to many dead niggaz in caskets
With they chest plates stretched like elastic
And what's worse I'm on front line, holdin down camp, still mashin
Heard my cousin, one of the old heads from the block
Just came home October of '95 back in Yardsville stuck
with a three to five, if he don't act up, now he realize
If you don't stay wise, then in this game you fucked
Talk to my baby girl, give me the word on what she heard
One of the grimmies is snitchin, Diamond a stool pigeon I talked to him
He said he didn't, my man said he did, in fact he's sure
Cause he just came home off of bail
Monday, May 18, 2015
Jay Z and Beyonce: "thousands of dollars to bail out protestors"
As with most Black multimillionaires, Jay Z’s contributions to the Black community are often questioned. He’s even been called out in
the past by the likes of actor, activist and singer Harry Belafonte for
his perceived lack of keeping up with his social responsibility. There
have always been whispers that Hov does more behind-the-scenes giving
than most people are aware of. Writer, film-maker and social activist,
dream hampton recently peeled back the curtain on Hov’s clandestine
contributions saying both Jay Z and Beyonce have been giving to the
protest efforts in Ferguson and Baltimore by spending thousands of
dollars to bail out protestors.
hampton, who co-authored Jigga’s book 2010 autobiography Decoded, recently took to Twitter to stand up for The Carters and revealed they privately help out on a number of causes. “I’m going to tweet this and I don’t care if Jay gets mad,” she started. “When we needed moeny for bail for Baltimore protestors I asked hit up Jay, as I did for Ferguson, wired tens of thousands in mins [sic].”
more here
hampton, who co-authored Jigga’s book 2010 autobiography Decoded, recently took to Twitter to stand up for The Carters and revealed they privately help out on a number of causes. “I’m going to tweet this and I don’t care if Jay gets mad,” she started. “When we needed moeny for bail for Baltimore protestors I asked hit up Jay, as I did for Ferguson, wired tens of thousands in mins [sic].”
more here
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Ice Cube interview 25 years after AmeriKKKas Most Wanted
A lot of the themes you spoke on 25 years ago on the album—social, political, police issues, racism—are just as fresh and relevant today. How do you feel about that?
It just lets me know what I’ve always thought; the powers that be don’t want it to change. They want the status quo. Nobody wants to give up power. People will give up money but nobody wants to give up power. I just think that’s really what it is. And America, the system now that we’re under and that we use, is a pyramid system of capitalism. You’ve got the bottom and you’ve got the top. Somebody has to be relegated to the bottom of the pyramid, it just happened to be the minorities in this country who have been relegated to the bottom. And you have to fight your way to climb up that pyramid. And that’s really, to me, the issue and why it can’t change.
Do you think there’s any way that can change at all or is that the status quo that will just keep continuing?
Well, I think that if people keeping fighting the good fight then things will change. If people sit back and be complacent and not really care then it’ll stay the same. Or not care until there’s an incident, a killing or a shooting. You gotta care when when something’s not going on.
And that’s the hardest time to get people mobilized, when there’s not something going on.
Yeah, because people like to use their emotion and their adrenaline to help get things done. But sometimes the best work gets done in the quietest room.
Do you feel like enough rappers today are speaking up on the issues that you were rapping about 25 years ago?
Yep. Yep. Because artists should have the freedom to do what they feel. So if they don’t feel like talking about it, they shouldn’t. They shouldn’t pretend to be something they’re not. They shouldn’t take on issues that they’re really not equipped or concerned to take on. Just to satisfy who? I don’t care how many records you put out about what’s happening in the world today, they still gonna play the booty records in the club. The radio station who wants to be so positive, all they play is booty records, they don’t play nothin’ positive. They want us to stop rapping about it, but they won’t even play it if we did. It’s crazy. It’s hypocrisy. Rappers shouldn’t deal with hypocrisy. Rappers should just be as real as you feel. That’s what it’s all about.
read more here
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Monday, May 11, 2015
Study: Hip Hop, not the Beetles, revolutionised Music
"A group of researchers from Queen Mary and Imperial College London
measured musical patterns in the US pop charts between 1960 and 2010 to
pinpoint trends and track their duration. Gathering data through
Last.fm, the group used signal processing and text-mining to analyse the
musical properties of songs.
Their findings suggest that far from the “British invasion” of the 1960s causing a revolution in the pop charts, the musical style of those bands – measured by elements like chord changes and tone – was already established. The real revolution came 30 years later, the study claims, when hip-hop went mainstream and began to take over the charts in 1991, changing the musical landscape forever.
The study’s lead author, Matthias Mauch, says the research breaks new ground in the way it measures musical trends. “For the first time we can measure musical properties in recordings on a large scale. We can actually go beyond what music experts tell us, or what we know ourselves about them, by looking directly into the songs, measuring their makeup, and understanding how they have changed,” he said.
The study also disputes the widely held idea that pop music has become more homogenous over the years. The researchers pinpointed 1986 as the least diverse year in US chart history, which they attribute to the emergence of drum machines.
Other academics say the study is flawed, however. Mike Brocken, a senior lecturer in music at Liverpool Hope University, argued: “Popular music cannot be ‘measured’ in this way – what about reception, the political economy, subcultures? So my first instincts are to question any study that uses the dreaded data analysis.”
read here
Their findings suggest that far from the “British invasion” of the 1960s causing a revolution in the pop charts, the musical style of those bands – measured by elements like chord changes and tone – was already established. The real revolution came 30 years later, the study claims, when hip-hop went mainstream and began to take over the charts in 1991, changing the musical landscape forever.
The study’s lead author, Matthias Mauch, says the research breaks new ground in the way it measures musical trends. “For the first time we can measure musical properties in recordings on a large scale. We can actually go beyond what music experts tell us, or what we know ourselves about them, by looking directly into the songs, measuring their makeup, and understanding how they have changed,” he said.
The study also disputes the widely held idea that pop music has become more homogenous over the years. The researchers pinpointed 1986 as the least diverse year in US chart history, which they attribute to the emergence of drum machines.
Other academics say the study is flawed, however. Mike Brocken, a senior lecturer in music at Liverpool Hope University, argued: “Popular music cannot be ‘measured’ in this way – what about reception, the political economy, subcultures? So my first instincts are to question any study that uses the dreaded data analysis.”
read here
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Friday, May 8, 2015
Tupac (2pac) - The Rose That Grew From Concrete
Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.
-'The Rose That Grew From Concrete' by Tupac Shakur
"You see, you wouldn't ask why
the rose that grew from the concrete
had damaged petals.
On the contrary,
we would all celebrate its tenacity
We would all love its will to reach the sun
Well...
We are the roses
This is the concrete
These are my damaged petals
Don't ask me why
Ask me how"
-Tupac Shakur
You can listen to him reading this here:
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.
-'The Rose That Grew From Concrete' by Tupac Shakur
"You see, you wouldn't ask why
the rose that grew from the concrete
had damaged petals.
On the contrary,
we would all celebrate its tenacity
We would all love its will to reach the sun
Well...
We are the roses
This is the concrete
These are my damaged petals
Don't ask me why
Ask me how"
-Tupac Shakur
You can listen to him reading this here:
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2015
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