Table of Content
Hip Hop vs. America........... 1-4
What Is Hip Hop? .............. 5-20
Rap Is ............................... 21-46
Hip Hop Will Never Die ...... 47-60
Hip Hop Resources ............ 61-70
A Nu Flav Media Presentation
Copyright ©2009 by Ray Nelson
All rights reserved.
Hip Hop vs
America
America
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About a year ago, I began work on a presentation to highlight the basic differences between Hip Hop & Rap. Somewhere in the mist of my project, I turned on the TV to find out Hip Hop had been murdered and Rap declared legally insane. And while George Bush was held responsible for the war in Iraq and a weak economy, everything else wrong with America was being linked to Hip Hop. Drugs, teen pregnancy, violence, the high school dropout rate, the victimization of women (including rape and abuse), the reason racism existed in American, cop killings, pornography, did I leave out global warming. Okay maybe not global warming, but there was a serious witch hunt taking place. Later I saw David Banner and Masta P in front of a committee in Washington, DC defending their music.
shooting, one media outlet went so far as to place a picture of 50 Cent next to the shooter’s picture, claiming that 50
Cent’s music was responsible for influencing the killer to commit violence.
Oprah’s “Town Meeting On Hip Hop”, BET’s “Hip Hop vs. America”, Paula Zahn’s “Hip Hop: Art or Poison” allowed out of touch black leaders, right-winged whites, and angry women groups to all scream “Hip Hop”. They screamed “Hip
Hop negatively influences youth to do this...”,“ Hip Hop pro- motes that...., “Hip Hop is the source of all society’s ills”. To make matters worse the people on these panels who were invited to speak for hip hop were mostly rappers and members of the rap industry out to preserve their moneymaker. The legitimate members of the hip hop community on these 3 panels could be counted on one hand, Common (Oprah’s Town Meeting on Hip Hop), Chuck D & Nelson George (Hip Hop vs. America), and a couple of others.
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tally out of control with the statement of the year “Hip Hop Is Dead”. This declaration was first made by Nas when he released the self-titled single, for his 2007 album, “Hip Hop Is Dead”.
R.I.P.
Did he really believed the statement or was he using it as a clever way to create a buzz and draw attention to his album release? His response to the controversy bother me even more, saying he was referring to, not just hip hop, but the whole music scene in general, as far as creativity was concerned. Though I agreed with him 100% about the lack of creativity, I could not believe that he perceived hip hop as being a once active member of the mainstream that, after being exposed to a disease called commercialism, fell victim and died.
Luckily, hip hop had major medias to represent and defend it against the assault...it... wait... what am I talking about... once the Source magazine started trixin’ with Rap, the love affair was over and hip hop got kicked to the curb. And hip hop lived at Hot
97 FM, in the beginning, but after they attracted enough listeners off that claim, they raised the rent so high it downgraded hip hop from the penthouse apartment, to a one room studio in the basement, finally back to the streets.
That’s when I decided to expand my presentation to do more than just highlight the differences between the culture of Hip Hop & commercial mainstream rap. I also had to prove that Hip Hop was still alive. I decided the best way to do this was to present a clearer and more detailed description of what Hip Hop was. I had to go deeper than just identifying the 5 elements, which is what my original idea was, but to explain why people love hip hop, what it means to live hip hop, and what other than the 5 elements separate hip hop from rap. As a result not only did I create a 3 part presentation, I developed what I feel is the most important part to this presentation, what I call the “Essence of the Culture”.
Hip Hop has a soul, an essence that is made up of 3 main factors: Creativity, Originality, and Skill Development. These are the main factors that fuel hip hop culture. It is the force that governs it and the foundation for which it’s built. It dictates the art, fashion, and media of hip hop. When the music industry attempted to bring the music element of hip hop culture to the mainstream, it failed to include (or purposely excluded) the essence, leaving them with nothing more than a product called Rap music. Once an element (or person) of hip hop culture is separated from its essence, it becomes disconnected and no longer part of the culture.
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What Is Hip Hop?
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I remember the first time I saw a graffiti artist paint over his previous work with white primer paint. (The reason why they do this is to prep the wall for new graffiti art.) I thought it was crazy, wondering why someone would destroy their own masterpiece. Even as crazy as Van Gogh was, he would never purposely destroy any of his artworks. Did the graffiti artist not appreciate his work enough to preserve it? How could he be sure the new art would be as good as the one he was destroying?
I remember asking myself these questions. What I didn’t understand was, this thing called hip hop is an unstoppable creative force that cannot be contained and that all obstacles attempting to restrict its creative nature must be destroyed. In this case, the artist had limited space to paint, so he was forced to make a choice, let his beautiful work remain or continue to create. Of course, if he could have created a new work and preserved the previous he would have. Since I was failing to recognize the nature of hip hop, I was un- able to see it from the artist’s perspective. From his perspective, his new work was going to be better because it would be different from the last, it would be new, it would be FRESH!
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First let’s breakdown hip hop and examine each of the following.
ELEMENTS MUSIC ESSENCE COMMUNITY SPIRIT
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The 5 Elements Of Hip Hop Culture BREAKIN’ DEEJAYIN’
EMCEEIN’
BEATBOXIN’ GRAFFITI
“From the break dancers to the scratching
From the graff n’ to the sampling
From the beatboxin’ to the freestylin’, their all expressions
Reflections of the inner spirit”
Excerpt from the song “Expressions” by Mohammed Yahya
Emceein’
Performed by emcees commonly spelled MC
MC is short for Mic Controller or Master Of Ceremony.
Examples of emceein’ would be freestylin’, rhyming over a beat, droppin’ lyrics accapella, instructing the crowd to yell out a word or sayin’, to make noise, clap hands to a beat, etc ...
“Eric B. easy on the cut and no mistakes allowed/ ‘Cuz to me,
‘MC’ means ‘move the crowd’“
Excerpt from the song “My Melody” by Eric B & Rakim
“Some MCs were naturally talented, like some people are born to sing. Other MCs studied, practiced and persevered.”
Grandmaster Caz
Breakin’ / B Boyin’
Performed by B-Boys & B-Girls aka break boys / break girls. They are commonly referred to as break dancers
Breakin’ usually involves Poppin’ & Lockin’, Different poses, and/ or moves performed on the floor like back spins, head spins, the dolphin, the spider, etc...
“B-Boyin’ is like the ultimate body manifestation of hip hop. Not only do you have your feet movin’ your hands movin’ your using every single part of your body, your head, your neck, and also your character.”
Quote from “Freshest Kids” DVD
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Graffiti / Writing
True 222 (Formerly known as Phase 2)
“Graffiti art has a function of not only communicating to others, but it also beautifies the community by appearing on areas that normally would be eyesores, such as a wall in a vacant lot or an abandoned building.”
Author George C. Stowers
“There are some people out there who believe these (graffiti art works) are actually eyesores and nuisances. But there are so many people who believe these are creative works of art that express emotion, tell a story, and show the heart and soul of the city. Just like Van Gogh and Monet these people will never be truly understood.”
Reporter Ivy Prosper
“It’s tricky to call graffiti `art’ because it was born to operate outside the system, and art has a system. So when you put graffiti in a gallery, you are taking an outsider inside. It’s like putting an animal in a cage.”
Graffiti artist Haze
“Graffiti Art’s free for all to come and view, no one can own it, it belongs to all of us.”
Graffiti artist Eskae
“If Graffiti is a crime, may god forgive me.”
Common phrase seen on inner city walls
Beat Boxin’
“Beat boxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musi- cal sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and more.
It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments.”
Excerpt from Wikipedia
“It’s a movement combination with your lip tongue and throat
Use your teeth and your nose for a mysterious high note.”
Biz Markie lyric Excerpt from “Make the Music with Your Mouth”
“On the streets, beatboxers serve as human beat-machines, often providing the rhythmic backbones on which MCs lay their flows.”
Excerpt from WordIQ.com
“Beatbox is the 5th element of hip hop and is known for its cre- ativity of a person making sounds or beats with their mouth.”
by EJL (Urban Dictionary.com)
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DeeJayin’ / Turntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating mu- sic using phonograh turntables and a DJ mixer. The word ‘turntablist’ was coined in 1995 by DJ Badu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer to manipulate sound. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
“Somehow, after 400 years of displacement out of Africa, the true hip-hop DJ can still feel the rhythm of the drums of Africa.”
DXT aka Grandmixer DST
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Hip Hop Is Not...
Though I respect other people’s viewpoints, I do not recognize hip hop as any of the following.
Movement
This is a cool way to describe it, but I feel it’s inaccurate. I do, however, recognize that there are movements within hip hop, such as, hip hop’s black conscious movement in the late 80’s & early 90’s. But as a whole, hip hop is not a movement.
Nation
Yes, it’s as large as a nation but it’s not organized in such away. We do not have a process to elect leaders & officials. Even if there were those who volunteered for the positions, we presently do not have an actual, agreed upon, agenda for them to push. We also do not have a flag, official anthem...I could go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point that hip hop does not fit into the frameworks of a nation or have a system that allows it to operate as one.
Religion
There are aspects of hip hop that can be compared to religions such as looking at New York as the Mecca or the universal law that “thou shall not bite” as some type of commandment. But overall it’s not a religion. People are not hip hop because they follow teachings or because they believe in particular lessons on how to live, rather it’s the mind state they possess.
“Hip-Hop
It’s bigger than religion
Hip-Hop
it’s bigger than my niggas
Hip-Hop
it’s bigger than the government”
Erykah Badu lyric excerpt from “The Healer”