Hip-Hop Observation 3: Slingshot Hip-Hop

"So what the heck is 'Slingshot Hip-Hop'?", you ask. Well, it's the cry of young Palestinians who see their people being decimated day in and day out. These Arab emcees want to get the world's attention to show how their merciless occupiers are doing them waaaaay dirtier than any Black person was done in the South Bronx by Robert Moses and the State of New York. Similar to how folks in the SB had their homes burned to the ground, theses people are having their homes straight bulldozed, and the world (much like it was in the the Bronx) is not doing a damn thing about it.

"And then they wonder why we crazy..." -Tupac

Trying to get the word out about the injustices experienced by the Palestinian people is a Palestinian trio of lyricists who call themselves DAM, a triple-loaded name: an acronym for 'Da Arabian MCs, the Arabic for "blood" and the Hebrew for "eternity." Far from the bling-bling lyrics that flood western airwaves, DAM is a vanguard for a politically charged subgenre of Hip-Hop that focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It should come as no surprise that they say their major influence was Tupac Shakur's music in the 1990s, and artists that came before like Public Enemy and KRS 1. Primarily spittin' in Arabic, they have no problem getting their point across to the brothers in the region. So, will DAM and others' music cause Arabs to come to their aid? Will it expose the apartheid being leveled against them as the world chooses to look the other way? In my estimation, all it takes is one bangin' joint, one track... and people just might start sayin', "Yo, what the hell is goin' on in Palestine!!"

Hip-Hop Turns 30 - Whatcha Celebratin' For?

Greg Tate packs so many jewels in his 2004 article entitled, "Hip-Hop Turns 30 - Whatcha Celebratin' For?" that it would be enough to make Liberace hate on him. I won't recount every nugget in this diamond-studded medallion, but I will touch on some of them, which I believe deserve an honorable mention.

"The moment "Rapper's Delight" went platinum, hiphop the folk culture became
hiphop the American entertainment-industry sideshow."

In my opinion, Tate is saying this was the moment HH lost it's virginity. No longer pure and unadulerated, the corporate sharks smelled blood in the music waters and decended upon HH like an abandon baby seal. The artform we once came to know and love was history.

"Hiphop's ubiquity has created a common ground and a common vernacular for Black folk from 18 to 50 worldwide."

One one really thinks about it (and prior to taking Intro to HipHop Culture, I never gave it much thought), Hip-Hop has fostered a sort of brotherhood similar to some of the world's religions. No other music seems comparable to HH in it's following. Interestingly, many of HH adherents in America are oblivious to this fact. I personally think the powers that be perfer it this way. The would hate for a kid in the inner-city to know that kids world-wide hang on his every word. That, as the crooked cop in the movie Malcolm X said, is too much power for one man to have.

HH is "parasitically feeding off the host of the real world's people—urbanized and institutionalized—whom it will claim till its dying day to "represent."

This is an undeniable fact, which every HH Head ought to know. The suits behind HH are making billions off the pitiful plight of the inner-city down-trodden, and aren't giving a red cent back to these very people who belt out these bars filled with blues. For this reason, we need to support every Emcee who ventures out to start his own record label, but on one condition: that he earmark some of his profit for the betterment of the hood.

I could go on and on, but I'll end this article review by highlighting the best passage, which comes near the very end. It goes...

"Twenty years from now we'll be able to tell our grandchildren and great-grandchildren how... fools thought they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of hiphop...when they were really presiding over a funeral."

Rest in peace, HH.

Tupac Shakur : Keeping it Real vs Keeping It Right

First of all, I want to salute Prof. Ryan on his exceptional, in-depth article, which examined the two tales of Tupac. Prior to reading this thought-provoking piece, I was not aware of how socially concious Tupac was prior to be incarcerated. Up until this point, I was under the impression that he blinded these two personas (activist and gangster) throughout the course of his career. What I came to know was that he actually morphed into the gangsta rapper, which he's commonly remembered for being today.

The ‘real’ vs ‘right’ argument . . . which is more important?

Clearly, what sets Tupac apart from the vast amount of rappers that have picked up the mic were his "keeping it right" lyrics. Only a few emcees dedicated their careers to making socially-uplifting music, and among them, Tupac was by far the most charismatic. He did it in such a way where he didn't speak down to his listeners, but rather he encouraged them to aspire for goodness, as Prof. Ryan pointed out in the following lyrics to "Keep Ya Head Up":

I think it's time to kill for our women //Time to heal our women, be real to our women.

In all honesty, would we really be disecting Tupac's bars if all he did was "keeping it real", like every other rapper hungry for just a record deal? The answer is absolutely not. Tupac continues to mean something to us because he had the courage and decency to defend black folk, talk heart-to-heart with black folk, and show black folk a better way to live. This type of good can't be transmitted in "keeping it real" lyrics.

How did the media shape Tupac’s legacy?

The media has tried to make us forget all the goodness we cherished so much about Tupac. They have worked night and day to etch in the minds of young people that Tupac was a gangta for life, and that this is what they should strive to immulate. If they could do away with his earlier work, they would, but fortunately that's next to impossible. We shouldn't expect the media to paint a decent picture of our freedom fighter because to them he was a major terrorist. It is up to folks, who truly respect him for his valiant attempts to uplift his people, to keep his real legacy, or rather his right legacy, alive.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop - Ch. 6 Analysis

"...Kool Herc couldn't draw a crowd after people saw Flash." (Chang, pg. 114)

In chapter 6, Chang highlights the work of a young man who, today, is an obscure figure in the minds of Hip-Hop headz. Grandmaster Flash took DJing to a ho nuva level. Being the inquisitive type that he was, he looked at DJing with a scientific eye and listend to it with supersonic hearing. When people thought Herc was doing damage on the wheels of steel, Flash heard Hearc doing real damage on the wheels of steel. "The break went around, but it never came back on beat because Herc was dropping the needle all over the place" (pg. 112).

Grandmaster Flash understood how to move the crowd like no other. Hi introduced the world to scratching, though his prodigy Grand Wizard Theodore, and displayed scratching techniques never seen before. Teaming up with his homies Cowboy, Melle Mel and Kid Creole, only made his shows hotter than before. And to think that it all started "(b)ack in his room with his screwdriver, soldering iron and insatiable curiosity...trying to figure out how to turn beat-making and crowd-rocking into a science" (pg. 112).

I take issue with Chang for giving the impression, all the way up until chapter 6, that Kool Herc mastered the aft of Djing. It's only at this point that we learn that Herc was pretty "sloppy" on the one's and two's. And yet Flash, who actually elevates DJing to a science, is mentioned rather briefly in no more than a page and a half. Just because Herc agreed to do the forward to Chang's book, that shouldn't have skewed his representation of how DJing took shape.

Hip-Hop Observation 2: Cool Disco Dan

The name says it all. Growning up in DC, one could not ride the metro bus or rail without seeing the tag "Cool Disco Dan" spray painted on some wall or bridge. I always wondered who this guy was, and why he never got caught (he's actually been busted many times.). His style wasn't anything to jump up and down over. He never used bubble letters, or fancy colors, however, he was just EVERYWHERE!!! Back in '91 when The Washington Post did a piece on him and crowned him, "The Urban Phantom", he says:

"It was kind of good and bad at the same time. It exposed me so i had to slow my graffiti down. If the article would have never came out i bet i would have written on the White House by now. But the article gave me the worldwide exposure I always wanted."

No longer lurking in the shadows, today Cool Disco Dan has his very own website (http://cooldiscodan.net/), where he shows off a ton of his scribblings, sells multi-colored printed paper bearing his name (Was: $35, Now $28), keeps in contact with his legion of fans via his blog, provides answers for your frequently asked questions (FAQ's), and touts his soon-to-be realeased documentary, entitled, "The Legend of Cool Disco Dan". What I find most interesting is not so much how he has taken his hustle to the internet, but rather how he sees his body of work, calling it "Go-Go Grafitti".

Can't Stop, Won't Stop - Ch. 3 Analysis

In a March 1968 memo, J. Edgar Hoover had laid out the objectives of the FBI COINTELPRO operation against "Black Nationalist-Hate Groups", including the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers. Hoover’s last goal was to "prevent the long-rang growth of Militant Black nationalist organizations, especially among youth". (Can't Stop Won't Stop, pg. 46)

In my opinion, Chang fails to elucidate how the Black Panthers planned to win the hearts and minds of Black and Brown youth. To know would really give one a different perspective on what the Panthers were like. What I recall seeing in documentaries about this era was a group that was livid with the White power structure, and so they used a lot of fiery rhetoric to get their point across. End of story. Those types of documentaries painted a distorted picture of this organization, and these skewed perceptions still permeate the minds of young Black people today.

But do you know the real reason why J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI made the Black Panthers enemy #1? It wasn’t for their scary militancy and their black berets and fatigues. It wasn’t even their call for Black Power. From the best of my knowledge, it was the galvanizing effect that their social services would have on the poor Back and Brown youth. In particular, their feed-the-hungry programs were of the utmost concern to Hoover. He understood that people seldom bite the hand that feeds them, and so such a program would translate into extreme loyalty to the Panthers, which would be nearly impossible to undue. With that kind of loyalty, the Black Panthers would have been a real force to reckon with.

One of our pious predecessors in Islam once said: “Give to whomsoever you wish and you will become his master; ask from whomsoever you wish and you will become his prisoner; and do not seek help from whomsoever you wish and you will be his equal.”

-Verbal

Hip-Hop Observation 1: Loon

In The Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

"Those who believe, and do deeds of righteousness, and establish regular prayers and regular charity, will have their reward with their Lord: on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." (The Holy Qur'an, Ch. 2, v. 277)

Peace Be Unto All of You,

I'm dedicating my first blog to my dear brother, Amir Junaid Muhadith, who is also known as Loon. Once a side-kick to P. Ditty, he wrote the lyrics to many songs including the hit, "I Need a Girl", Part 1 & 2. His career in Hip-Hop seemed to be taking off like a space shuttle to the moon. But in 2008 while on tour in Dubai, he did something his peers or his fans never imagined. He migrated from the Hip-Hop cipher known for its "blunts and broads, tits and bras, menage-a-tois", and entered the cipher of Islam, beautified by its Salaat and Zakaat (the 5 Daily Prayers and Manditory charity for the poor), and its Siyaam and Qiyaam (Fasting and Standing in the late night hours in prayer).

Some may wonder, "Why would he do such a thing"? From all of the interviews he's given since his conversion in 2008, his answer to that has always been along the lines of ,"Because I've finally found the peace and happiness I was searching for in the music business, which in actuality is purely a mirage". Emcees go on and on about wealth and how many women they have, and yet Loon informs us how everything that glitters isnt' gold.

Today's commercial Hip-Hop is deluding a lot of our youth into chasing after this material life, promising that it will bring about happiness beyond their wildest beliefs. However, trying to acquire happiness this way is like trying to catch one's shadow. The more you run after it, the more it runs away from you.

-Verbal

"What is the life of this world but play and amusement? But best is the home in the hereafter, for those who are righteous. Will ye not then understand?" (The Holy Qur'an, Ch. 6, v. 32)



(See Loon's Interview on Al-Jazeera)