Hip Hop and music

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Greetings all,

As you will have noticed, I haven't been too prolific at posting blogs on this page. The thing is, as much as I enjoy the medium of the written word as a form of communication and expression, I'm not really that good at putting my often random thoughts into sentences that are both coherent and interesting (to someone else, I mean). I usually have to be quite passionate about a subject in order for me to take the time and effort to write something on it, even if it seems trivial or inconsequential to others.

One such subject is Hip Hop. Now I won't try to portray myself as a living, breathing, thugged-out G, hustling for my paper or doing all the other things that 'rappers' are supposedly renowned for. For a start, I can't rap for shit, that's why I make instrumentals, duh!

However, I have been involved in Hip Hop in one capacity or another (and usually more than one at a time) since the days of 'Planet Rock'. This makes me old; I'll accept that, but not old school because Hip Hop was around long before that. It's just that as a youngster growing up in suburban South London in a family that were into Reggae (which I have always loved dearly, but it's not the subject of this blog); my first exposure to Hip Hop was limited to say the least.

Yet even back then I knew that Hip Hop was never just about the music. Sure, music and rappers are an integral part of it but there's so much more. And I'm not just talking about the writing (a.k.a. graffiti), b boys (a.k.a. breaking, popping, locking, etc.) and stuff. I mean the whole philosophy and common goals that make Hip Hop what it is; a community!

Now within any community there'll be factions and occasional disputes/conflicts and the way in which these opinions are expressed and received are what shapes that community and makes it distinct from the others.

In my experience of Hip Hop, the code is honour born of respect. Respect is earned not by having skills, but by knowing how and when to use them. For example, if you're a fire emcee and someone comes to battle you, you don't use your best rhymes on the weakest opponent, you size 'em up and squash 'em without breaking a sweat - that's what gets you respect.

Many say that the influence of Hip Hop is a negative one. I agree that some 'rap' music will have a detrimental effect on some of its more suggestible listeners. However, the real, overall influence of Hip Hop (i.e. the community) is very positive.

The 'Stop The Violence Movement' was a Hip Hop initiative. How many other communities have dedicated so much time and effort at educating/re-educating Black youth? Hip Hop has given very many young men and women from all over the world a sense of purpose and given them access to knowledge that they might otherwise never had. It embraces so many different cultures, which is reflected in the diversity of sounds and 'genres' that make up Hip Hop music, without bias or prejudice.

Anyway, fuck it! I love Hip Hop and I'm glad to be a part of it.

One Love, Spy!

Move the crowd

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Now, I'm no rapper. In fact, I'm not a performer of any kind, although I did use to break and pop in public but that was a long time ago – if I tried it now I probably would break and pop, but I digress.

Like Rakim, I believe the definition of an MC is to move the crowd. Not just physically but intellectually and spiritually too. In my not so fucking humble opinion, there are very few rappers who are able to do any one of these let alone two or all three!

I've tried rapping (immersed in Hip Hop from an early age, I've tried most things related to it) and I can tell you it's not easy. Even for those that have a natural talent for chatting/rhyming it still requires, amongst other things, great timing, breath control, concentration, determination (especially in a battle scenario) and I still haven't mentioned the obvious things such as flow, lyrical content and the tone of the voice itself.

Personally, I fall down on almost all of these criteria, however, at least I recognise that about myself. There is a large (and ever increasing) number of rappers out there, some of whom you've heard or heard of, many of them with deals and joints on the street, that do call themselves MCs and fall pretty fucking hard on my criteria too.

It's not all doom and gloom (although we could do with some more MF DOOM) as the many  talented MCs on some of the social networking sites proves, but we can't afford to be slack in our defence of the real Hip Hop or the WMD (wack mic deviants) will force us to go to war.