hip-hop, ya don't stop! (but it might be a good idea to change directions)
i've written this post twice but due to unforeseen computer drama, it got erased twice. here is the least poetic, most concise version of what i was tryin' to say:hip hop is in a hot, shitty mess horrible state of affairs.
this is what ani has to say:
serpentine
and the music industry mafia is pimping girl power
sniping off their sharp shooter singles from their styrofoam towers
and hip hop is tied up in the back room
with a logo stuffed in its mouth
cuz the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house
fuel
...except all the radios agree with all the tvs
and all the magazines agree with all the radios
and i keep hearing that same damn song everywhere i go...
people used to make records
as in a record of an event
the event of people playing music in a room
now everything is cross-marketing
its about sunglasses and shoes
or guns and drugs
you choose
this is what esthero has to say:
we R in need of a musical revolution
I'm calling all creators in the movement
It's time to offer a solution to the dilution of what we love
And the greats would be so disappointed
'Cause we've sold our souls for what we don't own anymore...
ain't that the truth girl...but what are WE saying cuz i don't we don't believe this madness. hip-hop used to be about revolution and truth and real voices. now it's about bling and selling things and bullcraznap. i remember independent black radio stations before everything (read: BET, VH1, MTV, radio, magazines) was owned by the same company. i remember when black culture and our music meant something before pricetags determined our worth. (but if we want to go a little deeper, which you know i always want to, when was that ever really a time? it's more like we just did our thing independently and "mainstream" media did theirs. now it's all one, literally.)
so last night was good. it reminded me why i used to love her and why i don't any more. but it was sponsored by T-MOBILE and STARBUCKS. do you see what i'm saying? is kanye really the best thing that hip-hop has to offer? if so, that's really saying a whole hell of a lot about the sad state of affairs. nothing is centralized any more. where is our hope? how can i create change in such a powerful and detached entity? it hurts my heart to even describe hip-hop as such...
i am thoroughly enjoying vh1soul's flashback hip-hop marathon. oldy but goodies that i completely forgot about. today i say "ladies first," "oochie coochie," countless public enemy and krs1. kid n play. nwa. mc lyte. pac. it wan't even that long ago that we had a real voice...
love,
me
posted by Phoenix @ 3:48 PM
5 Comments:
I watched that VH1Soul oldie but goodie flashback videos all weekend.
Thats when I realized that Bonita Applebum meant Pretty Ass...it has taken me this long to figure that out.
Yet I'm still proud of myself. LOL
i can't give up on her. and maybe that's because we give each other space. i go to coldplay and coltrane and marvin gaye and fiona apple and lizz; then i come back to her. surely the predecessors are pissed, but part of the problem is economy. the richer are steadily getting richer, the poor poorer and the hood rats who would have been creating the real about 30 years ago ain't even got the cash to save up for a turn table - let alone a beat machine. they have to eat. they have to feed families. wanna leave a mos quote about it:
"people talk about hiphop like it's some giant living in the hillside, come down to visit the town's people. we are hiphop.... so the next time you wanna know where hiphop is going, ask yourself, 'where am i going? what am i doing?'"
infinite love in bushels,
-bzzzz
despite the politics of the whole thing, the hip hop honors was great.
three words: BIG DADDY KANE!!!!
i miss you boogie down
simone- i think puffy, dirtydirty blingeration, the mass production of "ghetto fabulous" (of course in part due to puff). i think it had a lot to do with a lot. and i'd really have to meditate on it a little deeper to have a more clear answer. but i think it really boils down to when we started getting a piece of the american dream. when record companies started realizing how profitable ghetto to riches stories were...when the southern value of appearance partnered with black folk hunger to be seen/heard/recognized as equal really started to take over...
omni-you're possiblymaybe the most specialist. :)
fruitfly-as we discussed last night, i think when mos made that statement, hip-hop was at an incredibly pivotal point. and it could have gone in a way that really made that true. but i think it sold out to itself. now it's a matter of the good old bait and switch. i am not hip-hop any longer. the roots' "what they do" is more accurate although it came out before mos said that great statement. now it's just an aborition of what used to be a dream of actualizing something dynamic. like my mama say, "it's time for black folk to create something new..." but is that our only responsibilty to our creations? to keep birthing children to be stolen, abused and renamed?
summer (and 'em)-yes it was. yes he is!
moybeans-you have no idea how much i miss you. so very, very much. and please send me your addy. on the real.
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