Race and Identity

Hip hop, while being one of the most changing and progressive musical genres, also has deep rooted attachment to the race of not only the artist, but the listener as well. On one side of the argument, there is a desire to respect and transcend race barriers; this viewpoint is shared by the "color blind" Americans. The opposing viewpoint believes in the continued segregation of the genre, maintaining an ugly history; these people believe that only people of their same race can listen to and identify with hip hop. This can be exemplified in Wale's "The Kramer" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp05cNnsR3I. The song starts with a sample of an angry man repeatedly shouting the n-word, showing the still-existent racism in America today. Wale comes in with the line "The color of my skin, content of my character", he perfectly describes how his race is his main identifier of personality.  The song ends with the same man who opened, but he is apologizing for his words at the beginning of the song; this shows that through Wale's words and message he converted the racist to judge people based on their actions and character, not appearance.  This song can be drawn to parallel the progressive evolution of black suppression in America and how it can affect all of the people who come into contact with racism.

Hip hop started at a very racial genre, but has since made progress towards becoming universally accepting.  Originally, hip hop was a strictly black genre where rappers would convey their messages and struggles to an audience not much different from themselves.  The progression of the hip hop "battles" is as follows: East and West Coast, Underground and Commercial, and now white and black.  But, as time went on and the genre expanded and prospered, there became a much more balanced listening audience.  The phenomena of people listening to artists of their own race and subsequently being more harsh when listening to other artists exists today; this is not necessarily a bad thing.  Although race can be a factor which can have negative connotation, it is still a part of our identity and who we are.  It is important that we properly embrace our race and heritage in order to make the world a better place for everyone who is in it today and in the future.

Below is a video of a documentary which discusses hip hop's mix of race and identity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ypVo5kZ8u_c

Sources used:

http://www.daveyd.com/articleultimatebattlerace.html

http://rapgenius.com/Wale-the-kramer-lyrics

http://newsreel.org/video/blacking-up

The Art of Storytelling (Ca'Maya is doing her blog post as a comment on this blog post, so read her comment/blog and comment on that to please)

 

The art of story telling! You could argue that anytime a rapper puts pen to pad or steps into the vocal booth, they are telling a story.Whether it be some lyrical masterpiece with creative wordplay and multi-syllabic rhyme scheme about our generation's hardships or redundant degradation of women with catchy hooks, some story is told. Hip-Hop listeners are constantly hearing stories being told because that is essentially what hip hop, or any genre of music, is. I strongly believe that it is impossible to make a hip hop song that doesn't tell a story. Artist often times make songs about instances they've experienced and been through. So right off the back they are giving you insight into their life. They are conveying to the listener a scenario and these scenarios cause the genre to be loved and welcomed by people all over. Hip Hop has such very universal appeal, in part, due to its incorporation of vivid imagery into its narrative sequence. Musicians paint a pictures and make mental movies with their lyrics. They describe things in a more elaborate manner than what is strictly realistic.Sometimes, the most simplistic concepts can be broadened and turned into beautiful works of art. For instance,  “Poe Man’s Dreams” by Kendrick Lamar is a great example of amazing simplicity and storytelling blended. A line from the song reads, “And don’t call me lyrical cuz really I’m just a nigga that’s evil and spiritual, I know some rappers using big words to make their similes curve, my simple as shit be more pivotal.” In laymen's terms Kendrick basically stated that he has listened to other rappers and isn't impressed by their use of large and complex terms. He can still be great and simple at the same time. Also, you are given insight into Kendrick's life as well. You are told that he listen's to his competition, he is considered lyrical by his followers, and that he may even consider himself to be a hypocrite. It is all subjective, but you still get a story. All in all, whenever you listen to hip-hop you are always going to be told a story. So shut up and enjoy it. 

A few storytelling songs, Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjNTu8jdukA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpRpzvV7K2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1ZvUDvLDY

follow me on instagram & twitter: @justafewtats 

Language, Politics, and purpose

Make it Matter: language, politics, and purpose

                The claim that hip hop has an effect on society cannot be denied. There are three major places that its effects can be seen: Language, Politics, and Purpose. In the ever changing universe that is hip hop, there are constantly new revolutions that bring their own message and lingo.

                The language of hip hop has changed, so too has English. When rap first hit the mainstream, it was filled with good time lyrics that were meant to get people in a good mood. For example in Rappers Delight

 “I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie, the hip ,hip a hop, and you don’t stop, a rock it to the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie, to the rhythm of the boogie the beat"

Rhymes from this time period didn't necessarily need to be extremely lyrical, they just needed to put the crowd in a good mood and get the people dancing. As time has progressed though, certain words have taken on new meaning as a result of hip hop. Words such as bad, shorty, and cheese now have alternative definitions as a direct result of hip hop.

super short video: How Hip Hop changed the English Language

                Politics and government has also been influenced by both hip hop music and hip hop artists and produces. With blatantly anti-police tracks like “F*** Tha Police” by NWA and smartly written equality anthems like “Fight the Power” by public enemy, it is easy to get behind a cause. Tracks such as these addressed the discrimination and sometimes brutality shown against black Americans by the police force. They also attracted attention to issues and caused change. Icons such as Russell Simmons used their high influence to get directly involved in politics. Simmons, for example, attended a meeting with three prominent politicians to discuss the repeal certain drug laws that punished petty offenders too harshly. He even started The Hip Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), an organization dedicated to “helping provide a voice for those who did not have a voice”

                The most interesting question, in my opinion, regarding hip hop is what is the purpose of hip hop? Is it meant to be used as a political tool to spark change? Is it meant to simply allow the artist to vent out his or her feelings onto a track? Is it meant to get people on their feet dancing and in a good mood? I know it may seem like the easy answer but I feel that it is meant to be all of these things. Hip Hop is like a ship, where it goes is up to whoever happens to be its captain that day. It can go to wherever it is needed. If there needs to be a spark for change, hip hop can be that spark. If there needs to be a time for thought and reflection, hip hop can be that journal. If there needs to be some sunshine on a cloudy day, hip hop can be that ray. No matter how you feel about hip hop, you can’t deny that it has power.

Sampling

According to the free dictionary, Sampling is the process of taking a short extract from a record and mixing it into a different backing track.  Sampling developed in the 1960's when people would literally alter or manipulate tape loops and vinyl records.  However, hip hop was the first large scale genre to adopt the sampling technique.  In the 1970's, Dj's would sample using turn tables.  These Dj's utilized sampling to create continuous music while the songs kept changing.  They would eliminate song breaks which meant the party never stopped.  

An example of one of the most common Samples is the drum intro in "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrjRKB586s

A few artists that have used this song for sampling include The Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, and Eminem.

Sampling is a great way to show how one song can affect such a large amount of people.  Led Zeppelin’s song had a large impact on the rock and roll world when it came out in November 8, 1971.  Music has a different affect on everybody and this one song, is just one example of just how big of an affect music really has on people.  This one example was powerful enough to inspire to some extent the Beastie Boys song “B-Boy Bouillabaisse,” Dr. Dre’s “Lyrical Gangbang,” Eminem’s “Kim,” and the list keeps on going. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuYFexR_pg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq6VJxewjNg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYKMRY5Rr9I

Sampling was and still is a major part of hip hop.  I think it is awesome how one piece of music can inspire hundreds of other pieces of music.  Sampling originally was generally only used in hip hop, today sampling can be seen in almost every genre.  

            We often hear the same words being used over and over again to describe hip-hop. People often use terms such as: lifestyle, power, inspiration, poetry, struggle, culture and beat to describe this complex form of music. Even though these words have a direct correlation with hip-hop and all that it encompasses. I recently came across a new word that was used a long time ago to describe blues music that I believe could also be used to describe hip-hop music today.

            The word that I am referring to is matrix. It was used in1984 by Houston Baker, American scholar specializing in African-American literature, in his book “Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory”. In this book Baker elaborated on his idea about blues geographies. He also touched on the topic of orality, which is thought and verbal expression in societies where different types of literacy, like writing and print, which are unfamiliar to most of the population. Baker argued that  blues is a “"matrix", a code that acts as the foundation for African American artistic production insofar as blues music synthesizes numerous types of early African American oral genres”.

            The part of this theory that I mainly want to focus is where Baker says that “blues synthesizes numerous types of early African American oral genres”. This is exactly what hip-hop is today. If you were to go back to the time when hip-hop first started and listen to the music chronologically to now, you would hear a story being told, which is what blues music did. A perfect example of this would be songs that were made during the Harlem Renaissance. Some songs almost remind me of keepsakes or mementos, as if they were created for my generation to tell me about what was happening back then. That is why I feel like hip-hop is so relevant today, it has the power not only to tell stories form decades ago but also to bring people together from all walks of life to hear these stories and learn from them today.

Baker also described a matrix as “a point of ceaseless input and output, a web of intersecting, crisscrossing impulses always in productive transit”. As I read this description I could not help but think about how this sounded so much like hip-hop music. There is always a constant flow of songs and messages being exchanged in hip-hop. And it is amazing because regardless of the message that is being delivered the audience can always learn from it which creates the productive transit that Baker used to describe blues. Blues and hip-hop are two different oral genres but they have a lot of things in common that I did not pick up on before researching Houston Baker and this theory of the blues matrix. This blog post and the research it required shows how we are still learning from hip-hop music and all of the different forms it comes in, wither it be an actual song, the analysis of that song, or theories about hip-hop.

Work Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_A._Baker,_Jr.

http://books.google.com/books?id=NupmI7XenIcC&q=matrix&source=gbs_word_cloud_r&cad=5#v=snippet&q=matrix&f=false

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/465203?uid=3739600&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102611057783