"Mainstream" Lyricism

Proof that "mainstream" artists can be lyrical heavyweights. Everyone here comes sick. And as a new artist, Drake hasn't come weak yet. I love this cat.

A few links while folks are waiting

Two recent links on Ernesto Aguilar's new blog about two different hip-hop films are worth checking out. At least one of them, anyway. Dirty States of America, a throwback to 2003 looks at the roots of Southern hip-hop music. I'm a little disappointed that I'm so late discovering it, but I'm excited that a documentary like this is available. For those on Netflix, its available for instant viewing.

A previous post is for a more recent (I believe) documentary that looks at the relationship of white folks to hip-hop, Blacking it Up. I gotta say, I'm not one bit impressed with either the concept nor the trailer. For one, its a bit of an afterthought. About 25 years after. Two, implicit through the trailer is that white folks are co-opting hip-hop music, an analysis as unsophisticated as it is disingenuous. It becomes all the more clear when two of the personalities who are interviewed are Amiri Baraka and Paul Mooney. Now, as much as I have a historical respect for these two, they are probably the most ideal people you can find who are completely out-of-touch with our generation's politics and sensibilities. In short, it looks to be a film that wants to lock white folks into their whiteness and very likely lets racist black and white intellectuals and pundits--who hate on all hip-hop and use it to point to black folks' supposed depravity--off the hook. And I thought Byron Hurt's documentaries were weak.

Marc Hall jailed for angry 'Stop-Loss' Hip Hop song

Technical Note - In making some technical modifications to the blog an unforeseen consequence changed all of the individual links to our blog posts. So if any folks have run in to broken links lately, that is the reason.

D&HHP

--

Marc Hall jailed for angry 'Stop-Loss' Hip Hop song

Please donate to the Marc Hall Free Speech Defense Fund at couragetoresist.org/marc

By Courage to Resist. Updated December 22, 2009

Stop-lossed Army Specialist Marc Hall (aka Hip Hop artist Marc Watercus) was placed in the Liberty County Jail Friday, December 11 for speaking out against the continuing policy that has barred him from exiting the military, including recording an angry and explicit song. Servicemembers do not completely give up their rights to free speech, and certainly not when they do so artistically while off duty. However, the military intends to hold Marc in the county jail for months of pre-trial punishment before court martial. This could become a precedent setting case for boundaries of dissent within the ranks. Free Marc! Free speech! Free the troops from Stop Loss!

Jay Smooth on Larry Johnson and the Stonewall Riots

Very good video blog from Jay Smooth that challenges the heterosexism of KC Chiefs Running Back Larry Johnson who calls one of his many haters on Twitter a "Christopher Street Boy." As Jay explains, Christopher Street in New York City was the site of the Stonewall Riots, a rebellion against police brutality experienced by queer people of color in 1969. Jay rightly disputes anything associated with queerness as weak since these folks valiantly fought off police attacks. By Johnson's logic, he might as well have called this person a "12th Street Boy" which was the location of the Great Rebellion of 1967 in Detroit, MI.

--

How I Understood Hip-Hop at 17

The following essay was written when I was just 17. By this time, I had already been thinking and writing about hip-hop for the better part of a year and had identified as a "hip-hopper" for nearly two, although as indicated elsewhere on the blog I had been influenced by hip-hop culture from a very young age.

This was an overly ambitious project that was to be the first chapter in a book called "The Hip Hop Manifesto" which was used for the purposes of building a national hip-hop organization through a website I maintained in the late 90s called "The B-Boy Call E-zine." While I had recruited twenty or so people locally, a few people nationally, and one person from Canada, I didn't have the experience, perspective, or commitment in terms of where to take the organization and how to build and consolidate locals.

I'll expound later in the comments section.

Tupac on Black Struggle

From Advance the Struggle, here comes an old video of Tupac from 1992 talking about the failures of the older generation of black activists and militants, and the new conditions under which black youth must struggle.

Bastards of the Party

Earlier this week Joaquin Cienfuegos posted a pretty insightful documentary called Bastards of the Party on his blog. In the past D&HHP has discussed some of the basis for gangsta rap, and its political and social significance, so I'm re-posting the documentary here as it adds to that discussion.

Here's a brief description of the film from its website:

BASTARDS OF THE PARTY traces the development of black gangs in Los Angeles from the late 1940s, through the charged atmosphere of the '60s and '70s, to the breakdown of community in the '80s and '90s, and the brief truce between the Crips and Bloods that followed the Rodney King riots in 1992...BASTARDS OF THE PARTY draws its title from this passage in City of Quartz [by Mike Davis]: "The Crips and the Bloods are the bastard offspring of the political parties of the '60s. Most of the gangs were born out of the demise of those parties. Out of the ashes of the Black Panther Party came the Crips and the Bloods and the other gangs."

Honduras, Hip-Hop, and the Radio: some notes

I apologize in advance for the notes format. I presently don't have the time to work this out in a more presentable form and need to get this up so it can be digested and expanded further. This was off the back of a recent phone conversation with mlove over at Gathering Forces, a blog project I am a part of.

A return to C.L.R.'s American Civilization and a further study of culture and mass communications will be necessary, but that will have to come at a later time.

Hip-hop is reflective of the self-movement of the working class and its myriad particularities and subjectivities (people of color, women, poor white folks, college kids, etc), meaning it moves on by its own logic and not by the force of external factors (bosses, cops, capitalists, repression, climate change, etc.) even if these have influence.

Hip-hop on the radio is only a partial expression of the whole of hip-hop, but it has its own totality and self-movement and the music still found on radio has validity. This much we have said before.

It's partiality is due to the limitations of the radio medium not only technologically, but in its monopolization and standardization--which is, consistent with the growth of capitalism. This is a fact I have not given enough credence to. It was an attempt to guard against conservatism and the "external factors" issue, but it must now be more explicitly acknowledged.

Hip-Hop Has Saved My Soul (and Spirituality) by BYC

I'm reposting this note that I was tagged in from my Facebook page. It is from a very good friend of mine in Seattle, BYC, who I and LBoogie also collaborate with (among several other good folks) on a new blog called Gathering Forces which I hope all of you will read and participate in too.

This is a very introspective and striking essay that means a lot to me on a very personal level. Personal, because everyone has their own story of how hip-hop has transformed them. In the case of BYC, as a conservative youth evangelist who was repelled from hip-hop due to its apparent violence and patriarchy, to his process of becoming a revolutionary who finds within hip-hop a deep sense of spirituality and struggle and not the cartoonish and proselytizing forms we see with Jin, Toby Mac, or still worse manifestations.

Is Kanye Our Generation's Muhammad Ali?

Ok, so admittedly the post title is an exaggeration, but Kanye's making headlines again and it got me thinking (and I'm not the only one). Apparently, at the MTV VMAs when country artist Taylor Swift was giving her acceptance speech for Best Female Video of the Year, Kanye got up on stage, took the mic and in no uncertain terms said Beyonce had the best video of all time (ergo, Taylor, you shouldn't have won that shit). The audience booed, Taylor looked stunned, and later Beyonce made a conciliatory move and invited Taylor back on stage to give a real acceptance speech.

MTV Shows