the end of an era.....or is it?

Yesterday we held our last class period where we would be discussing Hip-hop as a class altogether and it was probably the most intriguing class yet. Usually in class we only hear the opinions from the same group of people, but yesterday we got to hear the thoughts and beleifs of everyone and their ideaology of what hip-hop actually is. I thought it was very interesting that while some beleifs differed on what hip-hop is, we all seemed to hold similar ideaology's about hip-hop as a culture. Many of us, myself included, beleive that hip-hop is able to bring people together no matter where they come from, how old they are, what language they speak, or even their style of fashion.
I learned that many people of our class had no idea what hip-hop even was before they enrolled in the course, but now they are no longer have to say that they are uneducated on the culture of hip-hop. i also learned that you can't judge someone as not being hip-hop based on how they dress or what their skin color is. We all can see that from different people in class, such as Tony "trouble". I would have guessed at first glance that he would be in to bands such as Incubus or Foo Fighters, but i learned that he might know more about hip-hop than anyone in the class.
The poster idealogy of what hip-hop is was also a good expression of the classmates thoughts. I think that the poster ideas of the tree growing out of the ground with the roots representing the begining of hip-hop such as Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Africa Bambaataa; and the branches representing the movements that hip-hop can cause such as a sense of freedom.
Overall, i have enjoyed this class very much. I learned much more about hip-hop than i ever thought i would from the beginnings in Harlem and the Bronx to the styles of conscious rap and the g-funk style. I reccommend this class for anyone who can take it while attending the University of Oklahoma.

i'm not a buisnessman....I'm a Business, Man!!!

"i'm not a buisnessman....I'm a Business, Man!!!" This is what Jayz-Z had to say the remix of Diamonds are forever with Kanye West. This lyrical statement shows that being involved in Hip-hop can be taken to a much higher level than just being an artist or a producer. Artists and producers such as Jay-Z, P. Diddy, 50 Cent (and the g-unit click), and many more artists have crossed the line of just being a businessman to making their name synomynous as being a full blown business in itself.
Let's look at some of the accomplishments of the artists listed above. Jay-Z was the head of Rockafella records, he is now a top the Def Jam lable, and he has his own line of shoes called the S . (dot) Carters. P. Diddy was known for being a producer and a successful artist and now he is the owner of Bad Boy entertainment, he has a very nice clothing line called Sean Jean, and not to mention that he is known for holding the most bad ass parties in the ring of celebrities in hollywood. Diddy also was a lead proponent for the Rock the Vote on Mtv with his slogan of "Vote or Die" and he has also dabbled his hand in the television industry with his show "making the band" 50 Cent has also made a name for himself as much more than just a rapper. He has made his own movie "Get Rich or Die Trying" and he is sure to star in many more films. With his group (G-Unit) , they have launched their own clothing line with the same name and they also have their own shoes.
The examples of these artists show that hip-hop is becoming an overwhelming force in Americas culture, but also in many cultures around the world. By making a name for themselves as a BUSINESS rather than just a buisnessman, they are able to gain more attention for their talent, intelligence, and what it means to be living the hip-hop lifestyle. It takes a lot more than just being a great artist to accomplish what these men have done. They continue to make a name for what they are doing and they evolve with what the people want to see.


Links:
http://www.seanjohn.com/ (P. Diddy's Clothing line)
http://g-unitclothing.com/ (50 Cent and G-Unit)

Ghost Ride the Whip

Every time something new comes along a new fad comes with it. During the history of hip-hop many fads of come and gone. Remember when it was "semi-cool" to wear your clothes backwards like Kriss Kross, how about those parachute pants that the king of cool Mc Hammer used to rock, and I can even remember that about 5 years ago when "C-walking" was a dance that everyone was trying to do. Since Lil' Wayne everyone has been trying to wear all the iced out jewelery and have "bling" everywhere, and the rims on our rides just keep getting bigger and bigger. What i'm getting at is that fads of any kind are usually something that can be fun for whatever is "in" at the time. But one fad that is known across the hip-hop world as turned out to be fatal. This fad is called "Ghost Riding the Whip"
When a person "ghost rides the whip" they get out of their car and dance around it while it, and sometimes on top of it, while it usually moves at a slow pace, sometimes the cars are left in a higher rate of speed. Recently though there have been some deaths attributed to this new fad. Most of these deaths have occurred from a head injury that happened during the stunt, but other injuries such as broken arms and legs also occur frequently. the article linked here http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4433963.html/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4433963.html gives a more in depth look at what ghost rinding can do.
Rapper E-40, with his song "Tell me when to go" is probably the person that brought ghost riding to a main stream level. However, he is not the first person to use the term. you can check out these links for videos of "ghost riding the whip" --------------------------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWy_Hanw_RE&mode=related&search= , this next ones kinda of joke but it's a higher quality and you'll get the point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZqXb53TeSY

This stunt is obviously dangerous, but there is always someone out there willing to take the risk to be popular and get the attention of others. Just like most fads though this will probably someting that loses its flavor in the next couple of years

HIp-Hop and sports

TO










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