"... Now back to this thing we call Hip- Hop and what it meant to D.J Scott La Roc" KRS-ONE
For my first Urban Code blog, I had to go home to the cultural event that help shape me. The birth of Hip-Hop and the very varied forms of art that the modern culture entails.
Of course there is so much to go in to. It means so much to me and many others that I won't be able to do it justice with a single wordy online essay. We will return to this quite a bit.
I love to ask the question 'Is it art?' Now the question is more for others than myself. Every where I go, I see the lighter and darker side to a multiverse of forms and styles of artistic expression. Most times I find that the masses (that's you folks) denies art that is darker, sexual or raw in nature. It forces people to call entire forms in to question because we are conditioned to. This is partly why I'm doing this in the first place.
Odd thing with Hip-Hop related art forms... the darker side is all but disproportionately pushed mainstream. Gangsta rap has become the norm. Losing the educational value that came from earlier groups such as N.W.A. and Ice T on the subject of gangs. Most mainstream Rapper have all but forgotten the D.J element of the music as well.
I love hard and dark art..... but the balance being off is a problem. But it's your problem... if you want more from your Hip Hop related art, seek it out. It's out there Under Ground in every city around the world. The business men who has package and mass produce it, only understand that they can sell it.
They are(for the most part) not concerned with promoting the wide, vast, wisdom and riches that can be found out there.
It's call show business not show art... If you want to see or understand the art.... go where it's done without the promise of money and a guest shot on B.E.T.late night.
These art forms are perhaps the purest most natural progression of a hybrid civilization in history. It can conform to and or conform any other existing form to it's complex simplicity.
Back when this thing started many people said this culture didn't have real music.... that what D.J's do is nothing like playing an instrument. That spray painted letters on highways underpasses isn't visual art. Rimes on beats isn't a form of singing. This hasn't changed much. I have to disagree, each and every time. Art is a reflect of reality rehashed through a talented persons chosen medium. This view may be rose colored or jaded...and the entire spectrum in between. With that in mind I must insist This Is Art on the most earthy and elemental level.
I have a few videos of a Fat Beats show taken on a trip back to where Hip-Hop was birthed , New York, N.Y . Fat Beats (an indie label almost as old as the culture itself) put on a show featuring a great collection of artist from around the country, with more than a passing interest in keeping the music alive and expanding.
Listen to Rap artist like Acro (Acrobatic) and his crew then tell me this man doesn't have something on his mind far removed from material things and bling. Look and listen to D.J. J Roc. and tell me this doesn't take the same talent and education as guitar.
I had a group of vids of these talented performances, sadly my cameras audio feature didn't work very well. I also recorded the colorful offering of the spray-paint can masters of three to four states while traveling by train.
Now if you just don't like it, you don't, there are plenty of forms I don't enjoy. But lets begin the task of erasing the mind set that states if I don't like it it must not be art.
SAINT
© 2008, SAINT. All rights reserved.
No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.
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4 comments:
It's capitalist nature to take what you can prefab the cheapest with the least amount of hassle (ie, true artistic input) and sell to the lowest common denominator for the highest profit possible. Just go out & procure copies of the top 3 selling magazines in 7-11, write raps based on what you see in the purty pictures, put it over some 5 min to make Fruity Loops beat-in-a-box, (WARNING-Oven times may vary. DO NOT OVERCOOK), then give it a $10 million marketing push & overplay it on every media possible, until it's hammered so far down people's throats they have no choice but to hear it everywhere they go, not even sparing one's personal headspace, and you've got a guaranteed hit. Ever seen a marketing meeting among major label execs? This crap is formulated more carefully than malboros, specific genres made for specific consumers.
Music that makes you want to shop, to dance, to fuck, music that makes you want to start a myspace account & start whining about your feelings, and in some cases, (for me, at least), music that makes you want to forcibly incarcerate the 'artist' & make them listen to their own shit as many times as it's played in YOUR head. How about some music that makes you want to listen to some fucking music?
Oh, I forgot, there are such artists out there. Just don't look for them on any of the major labels.
yay, i say. nice to see your up and blogging!
I agree with everything you've said. I refuse to listen to today's rap, instead listening to the old-school stuff and the undiscovered, independent artists. Great blog, can't wait to read more.
Yay!!!! My name is Jinga from the west side and I am feelin every word in this blog.
If it wasn't for real hip hop...If it wasn't for the mighty spray can, I don't know where I would be. I'm the b-girl that still wants to be in love with this thing called hip hop but...these large record lables aren't feeling me these days since they'll continuously pump out rap with no meaning and depth. So...I've divorced myself from tired ass music with no meaning a long time ago and kept it underground since 1993 and will continue to be dedicated in finding and listening to various artists that will show us what real true hip hop is untill I'm six feet underground. I mean...I'm so tired of hearing tired ass music being played constantly on the radio.
There are some wonderful underground hip hop artist out there that still carry a message filled with meaning. I have so many hip hop artists in my music archives. A few names that I'm about to drop do give me tingles. You never know...maybe you would like them as well. Azeem an the Variable Unit, 2Tall, Dj Mitsu. I could go on and on about this subject but since it's
2:09am, I think I'd better cool my jets and say thank you for having such a wonderful topic posted on here. Keep doing ya thang Saint...Peace.
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