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Rap is Something We Do; Hip-Hop is Something We LiveRap is Something We Do; Hip-Hop is Something We Live
by Dino Harambasic, De Anza College - Nov. 2004
Hip-hop is like a good movie with sequels gone bad; a trilogy where the first part is the most creative, true to the art and poor in form of production quality, yet satisfying. We can say that with years, the visual graphics and sound arts get better, but the content becomes mediocre. So how come the hip-hop has not died out today like movies Terminator 2,Jaws 2 and Die Hard 2? How come hip-hop has become the fastest growing industry in the world? The answer is simple; we started to be it, instead of just living with it. We started to listen to it, instead of just hearing it. We started to wear it and politicize it, instead of swear it and “polluticize” it. Therefore, in contrast to many other music genres, hip-hop has emerged from being an underground urban, sub-culture to a universally expressive super brand. Because of this booming evolution, hip-hop is the most productive and prosperous music branch in the world today.
In contrast to many other music genres, hip-hop was the first to have the critically important breakthrough in to the mainstream. One of today’s most influential underground rap artist, a lyrical dragon that goes by the name of KRS One, mentions this in a song called “Hip-Hop Rules” and explains how this whole culture survived where other music died:
Way back in the days, 1979
Fatback Band made a record usin rhyme
In the same year come the Sugarhill Gang
with the pow pow boogie, and the big bang bang....
all thought Hip-Hop, was just a little fad....
Now, they had to pay attention to the scale
Where other music failed, hip-hop prevailed
See rap music has gone platinum from the start
So now in eighty-nine we gettin present as an art.
KRS One says that hip-hop was so near to dying out, but there always came some hope and saved it from disaster. It emerged from being a “pow pow boogie” to a form of art, simply
because urbanized, oppressed, African-Americans one after another saw a way of expressing themselves and thereby finding a way to make a statement. Especially in the mid and late 70s when black communities were in a state of transition period and who, I believe, were still in a modern day slavery. Therefore, hip-hop became like Picasso’s abstract expressionist paintings: rebellious.
When hip-hop emerged in the mid 70s, the transition period, it was this very way of expression that bonded African-Americans together. A decade earlier, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King used their words as weapons, so people on the streets started to use it and developed rapping. Rapping with hip-hop broke ways into many fields, opened doors and gave job opportunities. It overpowered a larger scale of blacks and they became involved in hip-hop. It became a pride that connected the black community in glove, and it also became a symbol of expressing the 400 years of “medievil”, not just physical but also audible slavery. The expressionism became very important since they as a group were much stronger and what bonded that group together was simply hip-hop.
So how come this “fad” has not faded out yet? One of the main reasons is its involvement in nearly everything we do today, and competition among its followers. I overheard a conversation on campus about this, when a black male said that “if the cat next to me is wearing something nice, I will make sure I wear something flashier”. The competitive way of publicizing the belief through clothing and talking, rapping would simplify the marketing of this brand and therefore help it to became what it is today, the largest music industry in the world . Hip-hop is in almost every street corner, in almost every clothing store, and in almost any form. From college cafeterias to malls, hip-hop can be heard, and indeed felt, which is the primary reason why hip-hop is here to stay. It started to live with us, instead of just being a form of entertainment. From being a little underground “secret society” hip-hop has developed a strong and mainstream brand. Like a tattoo, this culture became deeply engraved in our skins and we will live with it forever.
Hip-hop literally started from scratch, and grossed into a multimillion dollar worth industry, as those involved in it have became more powerful than some senators. The infamous rap-star and entrepreneur P. Diddy is a perfect example of the power brought by hip-hop. Today, he has his hand in everything that has to do with this music genre and he is considered being a positive spokesman for this culture. From running New York City marathons to gain resources for ill kids, to encouraging people to vote with his “Vote or Die“ campaign, P. Diddy has shown how he used hip-hop music to be heard and gain power. In his article “The Rap on Rap“, David Samuels describes “rap as the heartbeat of urban America”, meaning that today’s rap is something people are living off of. It has created many job opportunities within various powerful media oriented fields, such as journalism, film and fashion, which employ and empower thousands of people worldwide, such as P.Diddy.
But not all of them are selling their souls for some ”bling bling”. Even though the majority of hip-hop being produced today is mainstream, or profit-making, there are some individuals, such as KRS One, who still believe in originality of what hip-hop stands for. In one of his songs called “HipHop Knowledge” he raps:
Cause New York DJ's changed the flows
to clothes and hoes, but that wasn't me
I'll be damned if I dance for the MTV.
KRS One says that no matter what, he will stay true to the art instead of merely getting rich by going commercial, making videos and leaving what he believes in. KRS One does not rely on following the trend, and he urges rappers to stay true and not to sell the pride to the others who want to experience it through “controlled fear“(Samuels 280). If we analyze KRS One’s songs more thoroughly, we can understand that he does not want to belong to someone, like
slaves belonged to their masters, unlike many other rap artist who literally belong to their producers. In KRS One’s lyrics we can hear this repeatedly.
So where did this metamorphosis happened? We can date hip-hop’s transition from underground to mainstream after the appearance of Yo! MTV Raps, a one hour rap-rich informative show, on the Music Television channel. Almost every television set that had an antenna connected to it was exposed to “hoochie mommas”, and one were most likely to catch a glimpse of the flexing LL Cool J in his Kangool hats and not to talk about MC Hammer’s baggy pants in “Can’t Touch This” video. MTV was first to promote hip-hop, and the appearance of Yo! MTV Raps” educated and entrapped more audience then ever before. Whether people liked it or not, they became increasingly exposed to this fun-looking culture. What Yo! MTV Raps did was mobilize not just blacks, but also people of different race and culture, in to hip-hop. Samuels mentions this in his article by saying “hip young white professionals watched [Yo! MTV Raps] to keep up with urban black slang and fashion."
In European countries such as Germany, Great Britain and Sweden, hip-hop can be dated to late 80s, not just a coincidence because this was when hip-hop in America became commercialized. Because of such a strong media device as Television, hip-hop could easily distribute its message all over the world in just a heartbeat. Hip-hop grew internationally and the oppressed people, such as African-Americans of the 70s, could be found in almost every country. Ironically, the only difference, besides rap being in different languages, was that here 95 percent of those who claimed that they became a part of hip-hop culture were white males, in their 20s. These rappers often came from mid-class families where a problem, such as parental separation, was for them the most vicious drama that could happen in one’s life. Even if in the European countries hip-hop did not rap about killing, drugs and “ghetto-fabulous”-syndrome like their fellow rappers in the United States, they all share hip-hop as a form of artistical expressionism .
If we take our “pimped out” Cadillac, with 24 inch spinners, and roll back to the United States, we can see similarity among white population. Even though rap is more popular among the blacks, the majority of the hip-hop listeners and its greatest consumers are white males in their early to late 20s. Like Samuels says in his article, hip-hop became something white people desired and when they wanted to find out how the life felt to a black person, they would simply buy a hip-hop record and listen to the lyrics. We can simplify this and say that the biggest reason why hip-hop became a powerful industry is because they have overcome the majority. “Hip-hop is all about victory over the streets” (“9 Elements“, KRS One), which is what this lifestyle, started on the street, has done.
I usually say that hip-hop is in its mid 20s, a bachelor who just graduated and started to enjoy his own money, simply being self-governing. Hip-hop is still youthful and strong and still able to “skippity-hop“, but it is just a matter of time before it becomes hip-“pop”, if it is not already on its way. The four elements, or the four expressions, that hip-hop stood for are changing because the producers wanted artists to follow the trend and thereby sell, rather then just express themselves. To publicize their belief by dressing and talking differently, KRS One says in “HipHop Knowledge”:
So rap music, is something we do, but HIP-HOP,
is something we live. And we look at hip-hop,
in it's 9 elements;
which is breaking, emceeing, graffiti art,
deejaying, beatboxing,
street fashion, street language, street knowledge,
and street entrepenurialism.
The puberty is over and the 4 elements are developed in to the capitalistic 9 elements. Hip-hop has become the business to be in, hence: winning over majority. The question that I am raising is if hip-hop would be the same if it stayed underground like punk-rock?
Equal to film sequels’ contents that involves less creativity, commercial hip-hop sells more because the beats, the rhymes and the rappers have been tailored by the producers to the perfect image people want to affiliate to. As a matter of fact, in a song called “Just to Get By“, Talib Kwali mentions how “[w]e go through ‘Episodes II,’ like Attack of the Clones’[…]We survivalists, turned to consumers to get by.. just to get by”. This underground rapper openly admits that hip-hop has become better, but it has taken a large step from what it formerly stood for. Of course, more lyrically. YaknowImsayin?
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