I've noticed that YG, an entertainment company in Korea, has been collaborating with dance choreographer Parris Goebel in a few music videos. I have to admit, I like the incorporation of dance crews. They add a certain charisma that is absent in many hip hop music videos - at least at the populist level - and provide a certain edge that so many try to mimic.
At a social level, what this does is to bring the music (which has detached itself from the other elements of hip hop - dance crews, djs, graffiti artists - due to capitalist pressures of the industry) back to re-merging with the aspects of hip hop culture that has been marginalized in the mainstream.
From an artistic/aesthetic point of view, despite its capitalizing aspects, I applaud this move of bringing dance crews back into the manifold of visible hip hop. And Parris Goebel is certainly one of the best out there to collaborate with - if you need additional evidence I suggest you check out her megacrew 'Royal Family'.
In this sense, I would like to see the mainstream further incorporate the djs (the backbone of hip hop) and the graffiti artists. The MCs have taken so much of the pie in the visible eye of the public of what constitutes hip hop that it is about time that they've started to bring the diversity of hip hop culture along. The industry has fragmented the culture and it is a welcome sight to see the culture beginning to dictate the industry; hip hop needs to take back the modes of production and pay homage to the people that keep it alive.
*the two examples are, of course, mainstream examples that are within the modes of reproducing capitalist moralities. Nonetheless, I think there is something to be said about the social and aesthetics
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