Crank Dat

Soulja Boy off in this OH! Wait what!? Sure in class there appeared to be a strong dislike for Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way), but if we were all honest with ourselves, we would admit that we all liked Soulja Boy, and we were all trying to crank that when the song came on. I for one like Soulja Boy, so my question is what’s the problem? Clearly he doesn’t have any because Soulja Boy has been crankin’ that paper ever since “Crank That Soulja Boy” got picked up off YouTube.

In class, we established that a great number of rappers endured an early life of poverty, and hip-hop/rap was one of their only outlets of expression. We also established that today most raps seemed to be only concerned with bitches, hoes, and “gettn’ to the money”. These two establishments led to the questions of why do rappers always have to rap about “the struggle” and can they find other rhymes other than those that concern bitches, hoes, and “gettn’ to the money”. Then Soulja Boy comes along to answer the affirmative of those questions. Yes rappers don’t have to come from the struggle and can rap about things that are not degrading, but yet everyone turned their snooty little noses up at Soulja Boy.

Some artists went further than just turning up their noses. Rapper Ice T posted a video on YouTube telling Soulja Boy to eat a dick and accuses Soulja Boy of single handedly killing hip-hop. He later responded with an apology, but really Ice T, really? Ice T is not only a grown man, by a hip-hop great. Instead of telling Soulja Boy to eat a gential part, if he really cared about the state of hip-hop, he would have reached out to Soulja Boy in a much kinder way and tried to mentor him.

First of all, let’s realize that at the time of this fued between Ice T and Soulja Boy, Soulja Boy was only 17. Yes that’s right ladies and gentlemen, Soulja Boy was only born in 1990, so in his defense, hip-hip music was degrading long before he got to it. And if anything, Soulja Boy was only taking note from those that came before him. Let’s take a look at the top rap songs that were popular before this 2005 YouTube beef.

2003

1. 1.     50 Cent- “In da Club”
2. 2.     Joe Budden- “Pump it Up”
3. 3.     Outkast- “Hey Ya”
4. 4.     Bone Crusher ft. Killer Mike & T.I. “Never Scared”
5. 5.     Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz “Get Low”

2004

1. 1.     Terror Squad (ft. Fat Joe & Remy Ma)- “Lean Back”
2. 2.     Snoop Dogg- “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
3. 3.     Juvenile- “Slow Motion”
4. 4.     Trick Daddy- “Let’s Go”
5. 5.     Twista- “Slow Jamz”

Interestingly enough, most of these songs are dance hits, the same type of “ringtone” music Soulja Boy was criticized for. Soulja boy might not have known exactly what it was like to be a gangsta in the club because he was only 17, but he did know what his young peers liked to do: DANCE!

Would I say that Soulja Boy single handedly killed hip-hop? No, because I say hip-hop is not dead. On the contrary, Soulja Boy greatly influenced hip-hop. After he burst onto the scene with hit after hit, hip-hop began to see a wave of artists producing dance records. Taking a brief trip down memory lane, we had the two-step by Unk and Ciara, the Dougie, the Stanky Leg and the many other plethora line dances.

So quit picking on Soulja Boy! I rather him rap about his speakers going hammer than how he killed another black man or savagely treated another black woman.

Rap Music: The Problem Child of Hip Hop

See Dec 28th readings: Google Book and Michael Ralph Hip Hop Article

Disagree with Michael Ralph agrument that Hip-Hop generated after rap. I agree with the general timeline of when rap began. Rap music is merely tha problem child of Hip Hop. It started off as a good things, but all good things go astray sometimes.

Crys' Hall of Fame

Dumb it Down

Artist of the Intersession: Talib Kweli

History of Hip Hop

When people think of hip-hop, they tend to think of struggle behind it. But what is the root of this struggle? According to Jeff Chang in his book Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, the root of the struggle can be traced back all the way to the building of the Cross-Bronx Expressway in 1959. Robert Moses was responsible for disrupting the lives of over 60,000 residents who’s lives dwelled in the pathway of the expressway. The construction of this road is responsible for the exodus of middle class families and businesses leaving behind the poor black and Hispanic families. Because these families were legally discriminated against, they became trapped in the ghetto of south Bronx. These families were left with crime, addiction, unemployment and a voice no one wanted to hear.

Despite the deaf ears, people in South Bronx began to find their voice through music. In 1973 Clive Campbell, DJ Kool Herc deejays the first block party in the Bronx at his sister’s birthday. DJ Kool Herc became the first to experiment with breakbeats and is also credited with being the father of hip hop. Following his lead, others such as Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and Grandmaster Caz also began DJ’ing at house parties. Not only does this year give rise to breakbeats, but graffiti tagging as well.

In 1974 Afrika Bambaataa creates the Universial Zulu Nation, which consists of DJs, graffiti artists and dancers. It was in this year, the term hip-hop was coined.

In 1975, the art of DJ’ing continued to develop with more experimentation and even mere accidents. Grandmaster Flash established mixing. This was different from what DJ Kool Herc did because instead of extending breakbeats from the same song, Grandmaster Flash connected different songs during breaks. DJ Grand Wizard Theodore accidently invented “scratching”. Scratching consists of nudging a record while it’s playing. He discovered this sound when he held a record while trying to listen to his mom yell at him.

The late 1970s and 1980s proved to be explosive. What began as an underground art form slowly started making its way above ground and started gaining a larger audience. In 1978 hip-hop started breaking into mainstream media when the music industry coined the term “rap music”.  The very next year Sugar Hill Gang releases “Rapper’s Delight”, the first commercial rap recording and Kurtis Blow became the first rapper to be signed to a major record deal and 1980, he became the first rapper to appear on national TV when performed on Soul Train. In 1981, Funky 4 Plus One More becomes the first hip-hop group to perform on national television when they performed “That’s the Joint” on Saturday Night Live. The Beastie Boys was also created in this year.

Today we know that hip-hop doesn’t just have holds in America, but has a firm grip world-wide. This firm world-wide grip can be credited to the first international hip-hop concert in 1982. Artists apart of this tour included Afrika Bambaata, Fab 5 Freddy and the Double Dutch Girls

1984 saw the creation of Dej Jam records, established by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. From it’s inception, hip-hop grew out of an outlet of experimentation. As hip-hop matured it became more focused on social issues. This is evident with the creation of the politically charged hip-hop group Public Enemy is created in 1987. In 1988, YO! MTV Raps airs on MTV and N.W.A releases Straight Out of Compton. In 1989 friends promoting afrocentricity formed a Tribe Called Quest. Also in this year, rap music its own Grammy category. The presentations of this award were not aired on television.

The year of 1990 was important because it addressed the free speech of hip-hop. 2 Live Crew was arrested for lewdness at a Miami concert and their album As Nasty as They Wanna Be was banned for sale in Florida. According to members of 2 Live Crew, the album had approximately 270 cuss words. The crew would later be found not guilty.

In 1994 Common releases Resurrection. This album included the controversial song “I Used to Love Her”. This song is controversial because it is credited with the rift that was created between the East coast and the West Coast.

In 1974 Afrika Bambaata defines the elements of hip-hop as DJing, breakdancing, graffiti art and MCing. These four elements still exist and are still the voice of the artists for the same reason they were during hip-hops birth: outlet of expression.

It’s important to understand the timeline to understand the history of hip-hop. To fully appreciate and critique the present form of hip-hop, one must understand the history.

President of Hip Hop

Yesterday in class, we were asked to give our opinion on the outlook of hip-hop. I said that I felt that hip-hop was in a dire state and need some fixing. A student then turned to me and asked, how would I like to see the culture of hip-hop ran. Last night, I went to bed just a plain student in Professor Flippin-Wynn’s Evolution of Hip-Hop Medium class and woke up the president of Hip-Hop.

President- Crys Giles (Me)

Vice President- Erykah Badu

Speaker of the House- Lauyn Hill

Secretary of State- Lupe Fiasco

Secretary of the Treasury- Wu Tang Clan “C.R.E.A.M”

Secretary of Defense- T.I. (he obviously has the weapons to fulfill the job)

Attorney General- Jay Z

Secretary of Rhymes- Lil Wayne

Secretary of Graffiti- Have yet to be appointed

Secretary of Break Dancing- Have yet to be appointed

In my world of hip-hop things would be a little different than what you see today. In my world of hip-hop you would see the conscious rappers being considered mainstream, and the mainstream rappers would be considered underground rappers.

Conscious rappers are lyrical rappers whose rhymes are concerned with the political, economical, and social uplift of the people. Mainstream refers to the commodity of the airplay of rappers and their songs. Mainstream rappers refer to rappers who receive a lot of popularity, but their songs are lyrically empty. Rappers who insist that they rap about sexist, misogynistic, and violent topics would receive limited airplay. I would encourage rappers to rap about other things, but I would never tell rappers that they couldn’t rap about certain topics. This is because in my world of hip-hop, freedom of speech would be highly valued.

Also in my world of hip-hop, there would be HIP-HOP World Art Institutes. These institutes would give guidance to young people and artists and serve as think tanks to further develop the art of hip-hop. Just like you see skate boarding parks, there would be parks devoted to break-dancing, graffit, spoken word, battles, etc.

Most importantly in my world of hip-hop, there would be more female emcees, and they would be RESPECTED!