1. Busta Rhymes
I know, I'm starting off with a "surprise".
It shouldnt be no fuckin surprise tho, stupids.
Totally unparalleled energy. flows - stop playin. Hip Hop's first ambassador to Hollywood (if you say kid n play i will reject pacifism and hurt something). n honestly, i'm basing a lot of this off of just his first 3 records! and scenario. well, the lons shit too. n niggas know about what he did on arsenio. (tangent: dave chappelle should do the arsenio hall show next. and CALL it "The Arsenio Hall Show"! n have arsenio as ed mcMan!!)
The cementer, tho, is that the man aint snitch. you know viacom aint go to ask busta why he aint snitch - they use cam n make a mockery of him, harlem and the fight against this corruption. a trust fund baby too they get to do the interview, a grayheaded nigger that got his bread off the backs of slaves. for shame, viacom. pay dan rather, bitches.
let's get into this. do you know WHY you dont snitch? (cbs wont tell you) it's because you're no different from the slave masters then. you perpetuate this oppression. this is a system we are fighting against.
Also, niggas get caught up in the energy n flows, n rightfully so, but listen to the words, n ya wont be disappointed. the nigga smile a lot, but he sayin deep shit.
oh, and the videos. the videos! he changed the game with that.
2. krsone
among the first to connect christ consciousness to the hiphop experience. very very serious about upholding our "k"ulture. also, baptized me this august (then again, so did a bird). tho we've yet to build on earthly terms, i am quite appreciative to the dude. n that HipHop Lives is just splendid. someone told me once he's not a rapper so much as a teacha of metaphysical principles.
word.
3. nas
his work is what most compels. actually, that's true of all 5, but just to say it.
for me, it starts with ether (do we really gotta talk about illmatic?). an exceedingly humble dude, he put the c-rapitalists in their place quite definitively when niggas started to get confused. that was really nice of him. merciful, even.
then i seen part of that interview with sway, n the dude gon sit there n let jay say he thought takeover was a better song or some shit. and just sat there! WOW - nas a king.
add to that his signing to def jam. people dont get it. nas was destroying the willie lynch paradigm by doing that. dont you see how powerful that is? for hundreds of years they've pitted us against each other. n the dude broke that shit. by the by, it's entirely possible that's what moved kris to work with marley. obviously, it inspired the title, but the coming together itself was modeled by nas (and jay too).
4. RAKIM
the eighteenth letter's contributions are manifold. the way i understand it, he was among the 1st wit a slow flow. clearly, hiphop already had a social consciousness and arose from it, but the slowing down makes it quite clear to a listener that the man speaking wants you to listen to what the fuck he is saying.
recently, a child made a mixtape with me on it. he called the shit "spoken word". i suppose the poor kid was tryna protect himself - ya can't very well go around emboldening niggas from east new york like that. n i get the distinct impression his masters are scared of me. but like i like to say, it's not poetry, it's just GOOD (no kanye).
part of me suspects the haters of the 80's tried to say the same shit to ra.
do check out the tape, tho - it's got gil scott heron on it. and dave banner. the kid'll sort hisself out - dont shit on him.
i wasnt in town then, but the fact that they snatched the god up b4 he was gonna rock here in ny says a lot for him too.
and that he would reject the aftermath model of making records is truly beautiful, and of God.
and again, the music.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
I bomb graffiti on the tomb of nefertiti
Welcome.
I begin this blog with graffiti cuz i was thinkin about it today - so it gets to begin it.
We'll get to all of it.
Graffiti i associate with the north direction. earth, mind, HH interacting with the physical world surrounding. painting on stuff, you get that.
see, cuz yes, it's even a "popularly held notion" that graff is like a commentary on the blight of industrialization n shit. most people already get that it is not some slapshot at self-aggrandizement. graff aint ego games. graff is the expression of a deep-seated (/seeded/ceded) spiritual esteem (/awareness/consciousness) - watch as it glides thru the city.
your community is treated like it's a cemetery - but - oh! - someone's alive, aint they? cuz look at what they did to the train.
but "all you see is crime in the city". but that's what birthed graff.
however, it's more. it is ALSO the process of people modeling a way of seeing and a BETTER way of life. it's HH saying " these structures we have, this cityscape - it needs beautification. it needs humanity invested in it. we will do what we can."
graff is not meant to demean - even if it used as medicine for psychic wounds (what someone might wanna call "defacing" or whatever, like if it's just 400 throwups on 2 blocks), that is in itself a political and social commentary. it's the cry for help as a social bookmark. it's a kid up late alone at night just putting his name on shit.
isn't the opportunity afforded him as within this or that part of our single gene pool challenging enough, rigorous enough, that he can be engaged in other ways? don't he got an art class - prolly not. "baby, stop sellin crack! go home!" there is a pain, a uniquely "American" loneliness, isolation. it's steinbeck, hemingway. probably faulkner or something.
art is a study of life, is visions. - and today it's very obvious. we have not turned all of that limitless energy and attention to 3 fundamental problems: poverty, economic exploitation, and militarism .
that is just about a quote from dr. king. i read recently the nobel acceptance speech.
graff -
so, i been doing paintings. and one of the things i've told some people is that certain paintings i wish people would paint on - whoever has em.
n i was sayin how it's like takin abstract art's gift of the story to the viewer, and going beyond, to empowering/reminding as storyteller and storycreator.
the "you da god, god" principle. an exercise of our very real potential as 2007ites.
graff. it's involvement. it's a call to action. it's creation right on death's door - beauty on brawn. from communities largely ignored, while still being targeted for extinction.
so i urge you, paint on your Self.
paint on democracy.
paint on the trains.
paint on the page.
paint on ya face.
of course, graff is more and less than this.
i'm just sayin.
I begin this blog with graffiti cuz i was thinkin about it today - so it gets to begin it.
We'll get to all of it.
Graffiti i associate with the north direction. earth, mind, HH interacting with the physical world surrounding. painting on stuff, you get that.
see, cuz yes, it's even a "popularly held notion" that graff is like a commentary on the blight of industrialization n shit. most people already get that it is not some slapshot at self-aggrandizement. graff aint ego games. graff is the expression of a deep-seated (/seeded/ceded) spiritual esteem (/awareness/consciousness) - watch as it glides thru the city.
your community is treated like it's a cemetery - but - oh! - someone's alive, aint they? cuz look at what they did to the train.
but "all you see is crime in the city". but that's what birthed graff.
however, it's more. it is ALSO the process of people modeling a way of seeing and a BETTER way of life. it's HH saying " these structures we have, this cityscape - it needs beautification. it needs humanity invested in it. we will do what we can."
graff is not meant to demean - even if it used as medicine for psychic wounds (what someone might wanna call "defacing" or whatever, like if it's just 400 throwups on 2 blocks), that is in itself a political and social commentary. it's the cry for help as a social bookmark. it's a kid up late alone at night just putting his name on shit.
isn't the opportunity afforded him as within this or that part of our single gene pool challenging enough, rigorous enough, that he can be engaged in other ways? don't he got an art class - prolly not. "baby, stop sellin crack! go home!" there is a pain, a uniquely "American" loneliness, isolation. it's steinbeck, hemingway. probably faulkner or something.
art is a study of life, is visions. - and today it's very obvious. we have not turned all of that limitless energy and attention to 3 fundamental problems: poverty, economic exploitation, and militarism .
that is just about a quote from dr. king. i read recently the nobel acceptance speech.
graff -
so, i been doing paintings. and one of the things i've told some people is that certain paintings i wish people would paint on - whoever has em.
n i was sayin how it's like takin abstract art's gift of the story to the viewer, and going beyond, to empowering/reminding as storyteller and storycreator.
the "you da god, god" principle. an exercise of our very real potential as 2007ites.
graff. it's involvement. it's a call to action. it's creation right on death's door - beauty on brawn. from communities largely ignored, while still being targeted for extinction.
so i urge you, paint on your Self.
paint on democracy.
paint on the trains.
paint on the page.
paint on ya face.
of course, graff is more and less than this.
i'm just sayin.
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