Everyday when I am out and about in Berlin or Atlanta, or even when I just surf the Internet, I get annoyed by these "promoters", "DJ's" and "Rappers" that supposedly are promoting and representing "Hip Hop". One look at their content, one visit to their event and one listen to one of their tunes is all it usually takes to convince me that they got it all wrong. Clearly these people have not understood what Hip Hop stands for or even means. Maybe they just use it to try and get more customers, but anyway this needs to stop. We can't let these people continuously slander the name of Hip Hop. I usually feel a deep urge to educate them but with the ignorant people of today all that this would lead into is me screaming at them, missing the effect that I had hoped for.
"DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT HIP HOP IS
AND WHAT IT STANDS FOR???"
So instead of complaining and turning into a miserable grandpa one day, I am writing this post to put a piece of my mind out there. I am praying that it not only educates a one or two, but also inspires people to partake in this "lifestyle", this "culture" that true Hip Hop represents.
"Once upon a time
on the planet somewhere
a bombastic beat was born...
To get to the beginning of it all we travel back to 1974 when
Afrika Bambaataa had just returned from Africa where he was crowned a Zulu King. It is that year, that he turned and formed the world renowned "Zulu Nation".
Besides forming a movement that is still represented to day in most of the countries of the world, he sat down and decided to define the elements and principles of Hip Hop. What he came up with is what we today call the
"4 elements" and the "4 principles" of Hip Hop:
4 elements:
- The DJ
- The MC
- Graphiti Art
- Breakdancing
4 Principles:
- Peace
- Love
- Unity
- Having Fun
Afrika Bambaataa even joined forces with James Brown and made a song about the 4 principles.
Hit it!
As time passed Hip Hop evolved and grew. At this point
KRS-ONE made interesting statements about the genre.
KRS-ONE personally said that Hip Hop didn't just include the 4 elements laid out by Afrika Bambaataa anymore, but that people evolved Hip Hop to 9 elements extending the original by 5 and that they are to be included when one speaks on or about Hip Hop. The elements he was talking about are:
- Beat-boxing
- Street-Fashion
- Street-Language
- Street-Knowledge
- Street-Entrepreneurship (not including illegal activities)
Once you include these additional 5 elements, it becomes clear that this is no longer a Genre, but it has evolved into a lifestyle. Please note that there are no mentions of faking the funk, lip singing or any other way to get one unskilled self on a big stage. There is no place in Hip Hop for fakers.
Hip Hop is such a beautiful thing cause the music alone can be expressed in different forms ranging from "militant" to "conscious" , "joyful" to "sad", "educational" to "dancing & clubbing".
Its about time people started living the lifestyle again.
Before I am done I would like to share this with you:
A MC (Master of Ceremony) is a Rapper, but a Rapper is not automatically a MC.
Hip Hop entails Rap, but Rap is nothing else than "rapidly" speaking over a beat.
Violence has nothing to do with Hip Hop.
"The courage to be yourself is the essence of Hip Hop"
that means:
"BEEING ORIGINAL"
is what makes you part of Hip Hop.
Real Hip Hop music comes down to
3 essentials:
2 Turntables and
1 Mic.
(no computers, no effects, just naked skills)
Of course you still need a phat MC on the set!
I myself, born into the CD player and computer DJ age am trying to work my way back to the old way. Out of respect, out of the urge to learn and last but not least out of love for Hip Hop.
