HIp-Hop and sports

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In the older days sports used to just be for recreation and competition. You rarely heard music playing in the background or anything except the cheer of the fans. Now though, Sports are much more than just a competition between two teams, but a form of entertainment for people of all ages. Now, at everysporting event, there is usuallys some form of hip hop that is involved with one is going on down on the field or on the court. When team members are introduced in basketball what do you usually hear? Hip-Hop. When baseball players come up to bat what do you hear? Hip-Hop. You see the style of NBA ballers on the court with the baggy shorts and the headbands, and what does that remind you of? Probably Hip-hop.
One ad that was one television a couple of years ago that had a hip-hop root was a nike basketball commercial. The comercial used different sounds that a player would make while playing basketball to create a real funky rhythm. You can see the video here http://youtube.com/watch?v=UQk6gBhB5fE . at different points in the video you can see to players dancing with hip-hop style and another actually is spinning on his head via b-boy style. So what nike did is take two things that appeal to the masses, basketball and hip-hop, and were able to gain world-wide attention from what they did.
Athletes often try to give their hand at hip-hop, and in reality it takes much more than money to put together a good albums. Atheletes such as Shaq, Allen Iverson, Deion Sanders, and Ron Artest of all put out or tried to release a rap album. Most, as you could have guessed, have done very poorly. I think that these atheletes should just stick to what they are best at and play sports, while the true hip-hop heads do their thing with the music. Maybe if everyone becomes too involved with hip-hop, like some of the atheletes mentioned above, it might lose its appeal.
This way we are looking at hip-hop becoming to assimilated to culture. This is one reason that Nas has said the hip-hop is dead. If we use something too much it loses it's meaning and in turn loses its importance for what it stands for

Hip-Hop in comedy

As hip-hop becomes more and more part of our culture it shows up in places that we might not have seen it before. Hip-hop is now showing up in comedy, not only on film and television, but in the nightclubs too. I think that Dave Chappelle is probably one of the leading comics that is in to the Hip-hop culture. At the end of his shows he usually as a hip-hop performance touching on artists from snoop dog to mos def. He plays on the joke that tupac is actually still alive (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ABquFTDGOUM ). Dave has the hip-hop style and moreover he is in touch with the culture. Dave's love for hip-hop is played out in his skits, his jokes, and it is truly appreciated when he invited hip-hop artists to his show to perform to the audience. He has helped spread hip hop to more people through his television show and allowed his viewing audience at home and in the studio to experience hip-hop in a different form.

Another Hip-hopper that has used comedy to spread the culture is Nick Cannon. Nicks show Wild'N'Out on MTV is probably one of the better shows on television that brings hip-hop and comedy together. one of my favorite segments is when they take a nursery rhyme and put a hip-hop twist on it. This clip is of Lil Jon remix in "london bridges falling down" (it's the second peformance after nick cannons group performs http://youtube.com/watch?v=eDPMIiERpZk). At the end of the show they have a freestyle comedic battle where a track is played and the comedians and the guests battle eachother with jokes. Its a really entertaining show and mixing the comedy with the hip-hop is an instant winner in my book.
I think that ice cube probably is one of the innovators of bringing hip-hop and comedy to the big screen. Although his series of movies (Friday.....Friday After Next....etc) we not necessarily hip hop based, they did show African American culture as Ice cube had probably experienced it. Because Cube is a hip-hop artist, he did a very good thing that help bring hip-hop to the big screen in a very big way

HUSTLE & FLOW (the way of the record industry)

The title of the film Hustle and Flow brought the record industry to my mind. In the large scheme of things it is the record industry that is the 'pimp' and the artists that end up being the so-called 'hoes'. Too many times as the industry pimped out the artist to the mass media and the consumers just to make an easy buck, and too many times the artist has fallen victim to what the industry does. You see many cases where the hit artists are here one day and then gone the next. My main example is that of MC Hammer. He was a hit with "you can't touch this" and "too legit too quit", but where is he now? Probably trying to revamp his career. In fact here is a remix of "you can't touch this" at the 2005 MTV video music awards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhH8Sxe9XkU . You see some people vibin' to his remix, but it looks like others are laughing at his new style. This is mainly because after Hammer phased out he went completely bankrupt. Yet the record industry stilled banked on hammers work.

I think that groups that have the "one hit wonders" are taken advantage the most. They put out a great song and are never heard of again. The industry can take that single from the no good album and rape the benfits. The record industry just seems to hustle everyone including the consumer. Because the record industries have such a stranglehold on who makes and who doesn't we as the consumer need to voice what we want and make sure that the artists and ourselves don't get taken advantage of.

This is a little off topic but it is crazy that today's artists are lacking a lot of creativity. Many either sample songs such as Kanye West's "Through the wire" is sampled from a song called "Through the Fire", McHammers song Can't touch this was sampled from Rick James' Superfreak. Some go as far as Covering a song, i'm pretty sure that method man and a couple of guys covered the Sugar Hill Gang. I beleive that the music cycles through every couple of decades and that many things that were popular twenty years ago can be remade into a hit today.

Alright....Stop Collaborate and listen

Okay....so not all rappers give a good meaning to what we might decide as Hip-Hop, but even though Vanilla Ice is considered a joke at most by the Hip-Hop crowd, we can't deny the his hit song ICE ICE BABY didn't do anything for the rap game. I think that Vanilla did help white America become more involved in hip-hop and rap. Not only did Ice put a good flow down but he could dance, and that was very important in the Hip-hop movement.
Without Vanilla i really doubt that we would even see the amout of white rappers that are present in Hip-Hop. Namely, Emenim, because he has blown up over the past couple of years (i think his first album hit in 1999) . At first everyone saw Emenim as just this silly white guy with his video Slim Shady, but once his popularity grew you got to hear some great songs like "Stan" ( see the video here http://youtube.com/watch?v=NQaRw-F4JT8 ).
Another artist who is really cool is Matisyahu. He's this white guy from Pennsylvania and he does reggae. his songs are really great and you can just sit back and chill and listen. Who would of thought...a white guy doin' reggae, but it's all part of the Hip hop movement and you can't deny the talent of this man. the video i linked here -----> http://youtube.com/watch?v=hHPfUCNpxWA is called 'King without a Crown', you should really check it out. Matisyahu is a man who raps about real issues, what we have been talking about as conscious rap. He doesn't have a need to degrade women or change his style to talk about loud stereos and big rims. Hip-hop has allowed Matisyahu to express himself in a way that gives hope for others to do the same.
ONe last performer i would like to bring to your attention is a white canadian who had the hit regaee song called "informer". This guy is probably more of a joke than vanila ice. Infact, this is his only and only hit song http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fki7agpULSY . If you want a good laugh you should check it out. Even though this guy is a joke to the rap game, he does have some crazy skill to speak as fast as he does in the song.

Women can Rap too!!!

So Yesterday we discussed the role of Women in the rap game. Some are taken seriously while others are seen as jokes, but it is important to know that Women do have what it takes to spit rhymes and be able to uphold the status of being a rapper. One of the main points that we discussed when talking about women in Hip-Hop is the double standard. While men can talk about sex, drugs, and murder; it is seen as wrong if a woman raps about the same things. I think that this just all goes back to gender roles that we are used to seeing. Men are supposed to be manly, rude, crude, "players", and tough. Women are supposed to remain calm, lady like, and keep from using profanity. It is hard for a lot of people to take women rappers seriously when they rap using hard-core lyrics because it might seem like a ploy to make money. But women rappers like Queen Latifa and Lil Kim have made a name for themselves in the rap game. They know how to flow, rap about important issues, and they definitely have the part down. I Think that within the next ten to fifteen years there will be a decent amount of women who can rap and are respected by those who listien to Hip-Hop. We have to remember that Hip-hop has only been around for a little more than 35 years and with each decade that passes there are sure to be changes.
When women are in hip hop we mostly see them used as sex symbols. In almost every rap video on television, you can't not see a woman walking around in a thong and a bikini. Sure all men love women, but it starts to become degrading at a point. Sir-Mix-A-lot was probably one of the first rappers to have a hit song that had a video that exclusively showed women in a slightly degrading form (even though the song itself is fun and catchy), now videos such as Nelly's "tip drill" are much more graphic and degrade women even more. Many of these women have a choice and by putting themselves in these videos they give a bad name for women in hip-hop and in the rap game.


Fun Links

http://www.hiponline.com/artist/music/q/queen_latifah/

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_1_55/ai_57046400

Breakin' (all of the rules)

As bad as the acting is in the movie Breakin', the film seems to serve a central point that Hip-Hop can be for anyone; white or black, male or female, young and older. It was great when the opposing breakers showed up with a girl, and that is what made them win the first battle. The film also showed that to be Hip-Hop you didn't necessarily have to be a B-boy or a B-girl, because the main character (the girl whose name i can't remember) was breakin' at Venice Beach using the ballet moves she was accustomed to. The fact that a white female and a black male can join as a team shows that times are changing and that is becoming acceptable for anyone to be Hip-Hop.

This film isn't the only one to show Hip-Hop themes. The recent movie "Step up" is about a white hip hop dancer who joins the ballet of some girl that he meets. I feel that this is just a newer version of Breakin' but in the reverse action. Once again Hip-Hop extends over all networks of people

Another show that was recently on television was all about hip-hop and Break dancing. This show was called "DANCE 360". The show featured B-boys and B-girls battling against eachother to see who could out do their opponent on the dance floor. They would draw the contestants out of the audience to do a certain move and then their opponent would have to copy it and the would be judged on who had the best style. This show also featured children who were learning the skills of being a b-boy or a b-girl. All styles of dance were competitive and even some middle aged people battled against the younger crowd.
Being a b-boy or b-girl is really awesome. The amount of work that goes in to accomplishing something like that must be crazy. I've even see a group of b-boys at our own university, usually bustin' their moves in the Will Rogers room late at night. It is awesome to watch the practice and pull off some amazing stuff. Hip-Hop is everywhere and we better start to accept it because it is here to stay.

Letter to the President

First off I'd like that the film " Letter to the President" is really eye-opening. I'm a white male and for me, I've never lived in the ghetto, been poor, or harrassed by the police because of how i dress or what I look like; and i think that this film really lets everyone see what it is like to be a member of the Hip-Hop Culture. Reading about these same stories just doesn't do justice as viewing it, because seeing is beleiving to me. I never thought of many rappers as activists for the Hip-Hop culture because I've just always listened to the beat of a song and not really the lyrics. I never knew that our own government was using drug money to fund a war and that really bothered me. Our own government really doesn't seem to care about the minority in this country, they only care about getting that cold hard cash.
I also liked listening and viewing a different side of the Hip-Hop culture that I wasn't used to seeing. When I see hip hop on tv it's all big rims, fancy cars, and hot girls; but many of the artists that were featured in this film had a very educated view on today's and yesterdays politics. I can see that almsot everything that I saw in the video was something that mainstream society has done to put down and place a negative stereotype on Hip-Hop. The fact is that many rappers have charities and help out their own neighborhoods because our own government won't (they'd rather take Iraq, than help our own people) (http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/17/people_crusades/main2195007.shtml , article on Jay Z , with his proceeds going to charity).
I felt the most real acting person in this documentary was David Banner . He was real with everything that he said. He didn't change the wording of his thoughts to make it sound more acceptable, he was real and he let his Hip-Hop beliefs and culture show through.

POWER 103.5

Having people from a real radio station was pretty cool. It was cool to see that Jasmyn and Eddie Brasco are normal people just like you and me. I always had the idea that DJ's on the radio were always just putting on a "show", but Eddie Brasco is the exact same in person. I also learned that Hip Hop is much more than just music and that is a part of culture not only for African Americans but for people of all ethnicities. I am looking forward to this class but I think i'll be able to learn more about Hip Hop and why it is an important factor in today's society.

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