Hip Hop and James Baldwin

"The critical response to this project came with nothing but praise and many classified it as a proto-Hip Hop album due to the way Baldwin’s verses rode the beat. Although the validity of that statement is up for debate, the evidence is there and influence on Hip Hop can be felt. Artists like Nas, Most Def and Talib Kweli have by name stated Baldwin’s influence on their writing and career. Today, as Hip Hop expands, more artists are leaning towards jazz and funk inspired instrumentation. Most recently, Kendrick Lamar has pushed the envelope for poetic jazz rap with his To Pimp a Butterfly and untitled.unmastered albums, once again bringing the connection between jazz, poetry and Hip Hop to the forefront of pop culture."

http://thesource.com/2016/08/02/celebrating-the-life-of-james-baldwin-hip-hops-unsung-innovator/

Korea's acceptance of breakdancing

"Wing got his big break after winning first place at the prestigious Red Bull BC One competition in Paris in 2008. Then in 2010, Jinjo Crew went on to win the Battle of the Year competition. They emerged as one of the hottest B-boy crews in the world and continued to win at major competitions across the globe.

Since then, the B-boy craze in Korea has skyrocketed. It is now not only a well-recognized type of dance, but a popular form of entertainment enjoyed by both younger and older audiences, attracting local and international spectators alike.

Today, there are countless nonverbal plays featuring interludes of break dancing and even plots based entirely on B-boying, including shows like “Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy,” “Jump,” “B-boy Musical Marionette” and the popular “B-boy Kung,” the only B-boy musical in the world to have an exclusive theater.

“I can’t even begin to explain the huge boom in the B-boy movement in Korea over the past several years,” Wing said. “The B-boying culture has become so popular in Korea that even many senior citizens here have heard of it and know what it is, which was unthinkable to me years ago.”

“Even though break dancing was invented by Western dance crews, Asian B-boys have created a reputation for elevating the level and complexity of the dance moves,” he added. “Something about our body type allows us to make for the ideal B-boy dancers.”

The country continues to make great strides in promoting local break dancing and creating an internationally recognized reputation for its pool of talented B-boys and fiercely competitive dance crews.

Capitalizing on the dance form’s substantial popularity here, the Korean government established in 2007 the R-16 Korea, an annual international B-boy competition hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism."

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KRS-One interviews Rakim

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Graffiti and Glory

Mr. Tape @ 1991 DMC World

RIP Sean Price

"Whether or not you were familiar with Sean’s body of work, hip-hop lost an important voice this weekend. A voice that was part of the dwindling chorus that is the music’s consciousness, and what is art without conscience? Price was a man who placed himself in stark contrast to the music’s adulation of fame and money, who had no time for its games and even less for its niceties. The brokest rapper you knew, who could still split the craniums of the richest rappers everyone thinks they know while cracking jokes that showed he was human, just like you and me, and not some unattainable star in the sky." Read rest here

A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat

 
"This “read-and-play-it-to-me-again” collection of poetry with a beat entertains and educates all ages. The introduction by Nikki Giovanni recounts the history of rhythm, rap, and hip hop, emphasizing stories of resistance and creativity during enslavement, including the funding cutbacks in the 1970s that led young people to invent their own sound in the absence of school bands and arts programs."

here

Hip Hop music as Literature

Had an interesting discussion about how English literature can reflect working class conditions and by looking at certain literature in the 50s, 70s, 90s, we can see how the working class has changed over time. In other words, literature becomes a social mirror. This is not a novel methodology into the investigation of social structure and "cultural evolution" in defining the working class and investigating how the boundary has shifted over time. Nicole Toulis in her study of Jamaican women immigrating to England, not only draws on sociologist Stuart Hall but also looks to literature as indicative and reflective accounts of working class conditions and how black women were treated in England.

This approach is, in part, also my own approach to a study of hip hop. And while I appreciate the music's aesthetics (the beats, the rhythms, the lyrics), more importantly the music provides social commentary and is reflective of social conditions. If you look at the history of hip hop from the 70s, up to now, we can see how the music reflects accounts of police brutality, poverty, and racism (and for those who think that racism had somehow gotten better during the late 80s and 90s in the US and then for some reason got much worse in recent years would be grossly mistaken. Shit has been happening throughout and just because you become aware of it now doesn't mean the conditions were better when you were ignorant of it). Moreover, in spite of the violence and brutality, we see a celebration of "black culture" and life. Simultaneously, as we trace the histories, we can also see how the market and record labels usurp the music by restricting what the artist should/can rap about and how the DJ was cut out during the capitalization process. For example, "Gangster rap" started as a reflection of social conditions but then became a marketable enterprise for white suburbia. This also lead to the "Bling Bling" era where rappers would wax and wane about how much money they have, the cars, and the "bitches." As 50 cent and many other rappers have indicated, most of the shit they showed in the music videos were rented - the cars, the jewelry, and the women. What is refreshing today, is that we see a return of the conscious rapper. Dudes like Kendrick Lamar and Killer Mike are bringing social issues back into public eye. This isn't to say that MCs have not been doing this over the years, we can look to KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Immortal Technique, and many many more who have been talking about social issues for quite some time.

So, when I get some time, I'll try to go through each decade 80s, 90s, the 2000s, and the present decade and briefly note some of their reflections. But to jump it off, 'Rapper's Delight' by the Sugarhill Gang is largely considered to be the first album/record to hit the market after Kool Herc, Afrikaa Bambaata, and company give birth to the movement. 

George Clinton on his Hip Hop Legacy

After all these years, what keeps you going?

The funk. When you love what you’re doing, you figure out your position and a way to keep doing it. It’s not hard when you like what you’re doing. I’m having fun being able to just be here. What gave me the energy this time was this fight again with the court [over my copyrights]. I vowed that I wouldn’t get sick or tired until I kicked they ass. The Mothership is going into the Smithsonian next year. For that music to be disrespected the way the record companies are trying to do—nuh uh. I’m not gonna stand by for that. I won’t be funkin’ in the name of that.

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Kid n Play - Battle (House Party)

Fresh Dressed

"Fresh Dressed’s journey starts in pre-Civil War America, winds through the hyper-localized group identities defining New York street style in the ’70s and ’80s, and ends up discussing the flourishing niche culture of today’s visual landscape. But as much as the film is about fashion on its face, the politics of why people dress the way they do—how that’s changed and why it matters so much to begin with—is the heart of Fresh Dressed."

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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."


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Street Scape v. The Lockers

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.

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Afrika Bambaataa 2006 Tribute

Grandmaster Roc Raida

Jada Pinkett Smith on Hilary Clinton

On April 18, Jada Pinkett Smith penned a facebook post on race, gender, and Hilary Clinton's run for POTUS:

Race vs GenderHillary Clinton is running for President. When Hillary made her announcement, I was more confused and...
Posted by Jada Pinkett Smith on Saturday, April 18, 2015

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Hank Shocklee from the Bomb Squad

"I had a ridiculous record collection. And I wanted to prove that it was the records that inspired me. Because ... I understand scales and musical arrangements and that stuff but I didn't have — I was not a player. I'm not going to pick up a bass or a guitar or keys and I'm going to, you know, put some virtuoso stuff down. That's not going to happen. But what I do have is a turntable and records. And so I just want to create this collage, almost like a Romare Bearden kind of a painting."
 
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A Conversation with Hip Hop's Pioneers

1520 Sedgwick & Cedar