Got inspired this time decided to dive deep and share my thoughts about my Love....not the usual Lost Sun scripts.
Wrote this in 2013.
“When Hip Hop was born I was the first one that held her”, deep words Last Emperor-Jungle cats, the basis of the birth of Hip Hop is a controversy to many.To many it is a myth of how Hip Hop came to be, praising the field slaves who take it way back, singing in the cotton fields. Bringing the rap and Hip Hop concept to the actual perspective respect, we date it back to the late 1970’s and progressing to the early 1980’s. Examples of some of the pioneers of Hip Hop such as Public enemy, The furious five and Grand master flash who participated in bringing Hip Hop as a musical category to the lime light and to a worldwide recognition.
To fully understand the depth of such phenomenon we could use the movie “Wild Style” as a case study. This set piece produced in 1983 by Charlie Ahearm breaks down the basis of Hip Hop, clearly staging all the five elements of this genre. Street battles also known as free styling are seen in various scenes of the movie. Free styling was one of the basics of Hip Hop. Those who did not believe in the myths about Hip Hop settled their thoughts on the street battles, which were seen on conventions and different rappers or artists would meet and level off their skills in a word play, may the better Mc win fights. Free styling was an art, rappers came up with words without rehearsing and rhyming at the same time, and the best artist exhibited word play in terms of rhyme skills and a short story line. In parallel, the most visited aspect in the movie is the other element of Hip Hop: graffiti. Graffiti and Hip Hop go hand in hand in terms of revolution. Graffiti artists used to paint their thoughts to speak to the society and the government. It was a way of expression and this is how it came to be affiliated with Hip Hop as one of its elements.
The protagonist graffiti artist “Zorro” was used as a symbol of defiance to the system and encourages the youth to stand up for their beliefs. The movie tries to explain the thought behind the birth of Hip Hop. Being the first rap motion picture made, it gave an understanding to this art which was also associated with politics in that era. The movie establishes the use of Dj’s in the production and stage performance of Hip Hop, this also being an element of Hip Hop. Often the skills of Grand master flash is shown on different sets of the movie, either as a background sound clip or a scene demonstrating the art of DJ’ying. The trend of Dj’ying has been from the birth of Hip Hop criticized “sampling”, a term which many have failed to establish its legitimacy, depending on the technique used.” I’m black and proud – cold sweat” beats used from different artists; artists such as “Clyde Stubblefield” one of the major sampled beats of Hip Hop. They used artists like Jimmy Hendricks, James Brown and many more.
Another element that was widely given time in the movie is break dancing It is a style of expression that was a form of battling skills; dancers would meet on the streets and fight it out to show who had better skills or who the better dancer was. It was no ordinary dance style though. Break dancing was a unique way of dance, involving the robot man movement and fancy foot works.
Simultaneously, beat boxing was the other element shown in the movie. A vocal technique mainly used to provide percussive elements of music and various effects of Hip Hop Dj’s. “Double trouble free styling on the stoup”, on the streets this kind of element was used as a background beat to free style, with no radio beats. It also gained recognition in the Hip Hop industry as a unique feature.
“Just like music-Eric Sermon feat Marvin Gaye” as time moved so did Hip Hop evolve, in terms of style, lyrics and formation of new beats and production houses with different genres of rap and Hip Hop. With the emergence of new artists changing the feel of Hip Hop, illustrations have been developed to show the change of this genre as an art. The movie “ Brown Sugar” ca be taken as an example; it illustrates the true meaning of Hip Hop, the difference between rap and Hip Hop, and the changes that have surrounded the evolution of Hip Hop. In terms of beats and instrumentals, we still see sampling and DJ’ying being used to date; major changes in the DJ’ying part would be the use of new technologies such as virtual DJ systems instead of the old school LP and a turn table. This brings conflicts between DJ’s who still prefer the use of LP’s to be more superior and more original than the new digital DJ’ying. The introduction of technology to this industry has brought both positive and negative changes, in terms of production, underground artists( these are artist who consider themselves as the real Hip Hop artists) argue the introduction of new methods of production, such as software for instrumentals and production” fruity loops”.
Over the years the lyrical content has slowly changed to satisfy the fans. Going back to Hip Hop being an empowerment tool for the Black youth to put their points across and fight for their rights. Now most Hip Hop tracks are associated with money and parties “living large” being the street slang for it. The new generation of rappers has come in with new ideas, changing even the three beat notes. Sampling is slowly fading away, as more generic and computer generated beats are introduced. This disturbs the true essence of sampling “copyright criminals”, the reasons for sampling and the effect of keeping the legends of music remembered, such as Marvin Gaye, James Brown. Comparing the lyrics and word play of the early rappers such as Public Enemy. One old school instrumentalist once quoted” funk is the DNA of Hip Hop”. Stating that the Back bone of Hip Hop is the art of skill and variation, beats and metaphors or lyrics put together. The essence has changed, this is seen in the current music videos and the lyrics used by the current artists.
Not to be misunderstood the art is still interlinked by simple elements that founded it such as break dancing which is seen to be making its way back to the 21st century music. And more DJ’s are embracing the art in mixing samples, are putting in various beats of different artists in a concert to still bring back the feeling of Hip Hop. Street battles are also paving way into the industry in staged fights for supremacy with lyrical champions using their skills to showcase the art. One last element which is not categorized in the basis of Hip Hop is fashion. In the movie we see bit of the landmark of “adidas” which was mostly associated with the rap artist in the first stages of Hip Hop, seen in many videos from Grand master flash, Public Enemy to artist like L.L. Cool J. Now often seen with the artists in their videos, and the old school break dancing.
In conclusion Hip Hop has evolved in various senses, but still retains its meaning. There are still a few rappers who maintain the cause and try to keep the movement going “underground artists” such as Nas, Last Emperor, Mos-Def , Common sense and many more from groups such as the Wu tang Clan to the Dilated people. Breaking from the main stream to the underground:Hip Hop is a way of life, a culture. Rap is to me is just a word.
