Hip-Hop (In Cultural Evolution)

I was reflecting on my musical influences and just life in general as usual. I've been working on this "ode to Hip-Hop." In also reflecting on my past notes, I decided to break this into two pieces because it was getting kinda long. Please comment and tell me what you think...here goes:

Part I (Reminiscence)

Hip Hop Lives(I Come Back) by KRS-ONE

Hip means to know
It's a form of intelligence
To be hip is to be up-date and relevant
Hop is a form of movement
You can't just observe a hop
You got to hop up and do it
Hip and Hop is more than music
Hip is the knowledge
Hop is the movement
Hip and Hop is intelligent movement
All relevant movement
We selling the music
So write this down on your black books and journals
Hip Hop culture is eternal
Run and tell all your friends
An ancient civilization has bee born again
It's a fact

I come back
Every year I'm the Strongest
Krs-one, Marley Marl
Yup we last the longest
Let's go
I come back
Cause I'm not in the physical
I create myself man I live in the spiritual
I come back through the cycles of life
If you been here once you gone be here twice
So I tell you
I come back
Cause you must learn too
Hip Hop culture is eternal

Hip Hop (Shan!)

Her Infinite Power
Helping Oppressed People
We are unique and unequaled

I was reading an article on yahoo.com the other day about how hip hop has gone soft. The examples he listed were interesting. As someone who stays on the periphery of new music, I hadn’t heard most of these songs. However, after some reflection, I had to concur with his assessment there is definitely a “for the ladies’” feel to most of the music out today. As a late 80’s babies, I have only the vaguest of memories of the nascence of hip hop but what I do remember is that the early 90’s was a time in which the airwaves were taken over by “gangsta rap.” The most potent evidence of the exploding commercial value of “gangsta rap” is that of MC Hammer’s Star Warsian ("Luke, Come to the Dark Side") conversion from genie pants and a kid friendly attitude to the ultra-adult, baggy jeans and jersey approach he used while trying to relate to the “urban” audience by objectifying women with his ill-fated track, “Pumps and a Bump,” and his signing to the infamous and notorious Death Row Records. So even the most goodie of goodie two-shoes, MC Hammer who went from his own family-friendly cartoon show to this pseudo-“gangstaism,” was susceptible to the trap of fast money and trends. The fact that he was constantly in debt might also have spurred this change of heart as well.

As hip-hop pushed towards the new millennium(roughly '94-'98), we found ourselves in what I like to call the “Shiny Suit Era.” This period was all about immediate flash and ostentation. My favorite example of this is the Bad Boy label. My favorite being "Feels So Good" by Mase ft. Puff Daddy. If Diddy and Mase would’ve put on one more of those ridiculous outfits, I don’t know what I would’ve done. The bigger, the brighter, the more glitzy or glamorous, the better. But that what was the style of the time, it was pervasive throughout public fashion as well, an obsession with bright, loud and obnoxious colors in the largest sizes possible. That’s also the way that the music videos were shot as well. I remember the video for Missy Elliot’s debut song, “The Rain(Supa Dupa Fly).” The raw color of that video was enough to blind you. It was all bright and fast moving. Maybe this was also indicative of the perceived economic future of the time. (Ohh, the Clinton years.) And further on that color note, does anyone else remember the intro to the show, Smart Guy, shiny, right? Lol

The latter half of the Shiny Suit Era gave way to “Bling Bling” created by the Cash Money Millionaires(roughly '98-'03). The Bling Bling Era, in my opinion was really the point at which Hip Hop over-commercialized itself and distanced itself a great deal from its socio-politically revolutionary roots. Every song on the radio was talking about “blinging” or “shining” or some other non-creative, generic rap about egotistical materialism. I grew up lower-middle class, so that bling was truly beyond my reach. I just remember in junior high how everyone was obsessed with having some sort of shine and chains were the thing. Suddenly, it became not acceptable but necessary for a man to accessorize his outfit with jewelry. This only intensified the general teasing and immaturity of adolescence and served as a visual demarcation between the haves and have nots; however, this materialism drove a lot of haves to become hads and the have nots to become the have even lesses. The free money party of the Clinton era was drying up. I remember a distinct uptick in the number of evictions and the number of people once again living beyond their means. (But for some I suppose one eviction isn’t enough, see housing crisis 08). Anyway, I hit a tangent. “Bling” became so pervasive throughout the global culture Merriam-Webster added it to the dictionary; it grew beyond racial boundaries and found itself falling out of the mouths of Caucasian Americans throughout the land, even that of former presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney. So, as is the typical quality of African-Americans, whenever something that starts homegrown becomes transplanted into the national consciousness, it’s time to switch the style up. Andre 3000 says in the song, Hollywood Divorce, “Hollywood divorce. All the fresh styles always start off as a good little hood thing, look at blues, rock, jazz, rap. Not even talkin about music, everything else too. By the time it reach Hollywood it's over; but it's cool. We just keep it goin and make new shit.”

Right now though, it feels like hip hop is going through a phase I like to term the “Light (Low and Tight) Era.(roughly '05-current)” I think that’s best exhibited by today’s fashion. Yeah, the jeans still sag; but, now they’re skinny now. The shirts are still long but they are tucked tight and made in a size only known as “smedium.” For a man of my size, being “trendy” and “fashionable” nowadays is a scary proposition. So I wear what’s comfortable, as I would suggest for anyone; but, I don’t see the comfort in skinny jeans for men. Maybe I’m crazy. Moving back to the article I cited earlier from yahoo, in a blog by Billy Johnson, Jr. posted on Dec 23, 2008, he discussed how “basically, every rap artist who has released a song this year has borrowed LL Cool J's "I Need Love" hip-hop ballad formula to find their way on the charts,” and how even though,” The hip-hop ballad has been the hip-hop artist's no-brainer way to secure radio play for several years... things have recently intensified.” Some of the songs he cites from ’08 are “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West, “Sensual Seduction” by Snoop Dogg, “Whatever You Like” by T.I., “Put It On Ya” by Plies ft. Chris J, “Kiss Me Through the Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell’em ft. Sammie, “Camera Phone” by The Game ft. Ne-Yo, and “One and Only” by Nelly.

In listening to these songs and examining the top Billboard songs throughout the year, stuff like “Miss Independent”, “Green Light” and “Single Ladies”, lead me to believe that 2008 in the Hip-Hop/R&B community was really the year of the ladies, especially the rise of Jazmine Sullivan. Hip-Hop has definitely let its R&B side show in early 2009 continuing the 2008 push. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. I hope it’s a trend that leads to an upgrading of the citizenship status of women in Hip Hop culture. It seems like a complete 180, an about face from the early 90’s with groups like the Two Live Crew and pretty much all of hip-hop dogging women. It seems like hip-hop is constantly in this flux between its R&B side and its Rap side. Maybe this is an acknowledgement of the growing social influence of women or just an occasional spike on the meter.

One of the questions I am most frequently asked is, “What kind of music do you listen to?” My ear is extremely eclectic and diverse, we can move from Jazz to Opera to Gospel to Hip-Hop to Classic Soul to Classical to Blues to Rock to Reggae to Alternative to Pop to Funk to Go-Go to World to Bluegrass to Country and then back again. Right now, I’m listening to Reggaeton as I’m writing this. I think this is the first Reggaeton song I’ve listened to that hasn’t sucked to me. Maybe that’ll be the next thing I incorporate in my regular rotation.

But of all those differing styles, the one I love the most is definitely Hip-Hop because to me it is the most intriguing. Despite how derivative it can be at times, Hip-Hop has to be the most diverse, innovative, and linguistically challenging form of music out there. The art of sampling allows it to take the best of other forms and transform it to something uniquely Hip-Hop. Beyond that, linguistically, the phrasing, diction, and lexicon of Hip-Hop is constantly growing and evolving. Hip-Hop is also a self-edifying and updating work of art mainly because it depends on several different literary devices to get its point across, most notably:

• hyperbole- obvious, intentional exaggeration (e.g."Some say that I'm nasty. Plus, hookaz are mad because they can't outlast me. Girl, you ain't too small, cause I turn your crystal to one size fits all "- Kool G.Rap "Talk Like Sex"



• metaphor- A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison (e.g. "I am the American dream, the rape of Africa, the undying machine, the overpriced medicine, the murderous regime, the tough guy's front,
  and the one behind the scenes"- Lupe Fiasco "Put You On Game")

• allusion- an indirect or casual reference to something not explicitly stated (e.g. "Me and the boy AI got more in common than just ballin and rhymin get it, more in Carmen . I came in your belly backseat, skeeted in your jeep. Left condoms on your baby seat"- Jay-Z "Superugly" [in which he alludes to the fact that both he and basketball player Allen Iverson had affairs with rapper Nas' first wife, Carmen Bryan. This is also a pun.])



• simile- a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, featuring the use of the words "like" or "as" (e.g."I'm standing on the roof of my building. I'm feeling the whirlwind of beef. I inhale it, just like an acrobat ready to hurl myself through the hoops of fire, sippin 80 proof, bulletproof under my attire." - Nas "Black Republicans" )

Also, one of the most unique things about Hip-Hop is the art of the sample. Sampling, for those who aren't familiar, is the usage of other previously recorded works as the beat or background music for new work. The art of the sample is what helps to keep the history of Hip-Hop and its predecessors alive. One of the most sampled musicians in Hip-Hop is definitely Isaac Hayes. Hayes' remake of the Burt Bacharach's classic, "The Look of Love," has been sampled by Ashanti (Rain on Me), Snoop Dogg (G'z Up,Ho's Down), and Jay-Z (Can I Live). Also, his remake of Walk On By has been sampled most notably by 2Pac (Me Against the World), the Wu Tang Clan (I Can't Go to Sleep), and Biggie Smalls(Warning). Hip-Hop transmits this music that was recorded decades prior to its reconstituted Hip-Hop forms to a new generation. I think that anyone who has a passion for Hip-Hop has to have a profound appreciation for other genres because of the interplay. When Kanye West sampled Daft Punk in Stronger, most people scratched their heads because they had/have no clue who Daft Punk is. Hip-Hop leaves a lot of lessons unlearned because it seems like this generation, in general, just consumes the product without a hunger to learn more about it. Anyone can tell you that a song features a sample but the question is do they know or even want to know anything about the original.

Hip-Hop is literally a catalog for pop culture references and historical documentation. For example, I’m a huge Biggie Smalls/Notorious B.I.G. fan. I noticed how in a good deal of his songs he often referred to himself as the Black Frank White. In my head I always wondered, “Who is this Frank White that Biggie is continually referencing?” I did a little research and found out that Frank White was a fictional drug lord, portrayed by Christopher Walken, in the movie, King of New York, released in 1990. Also, the name Biggie Smalls itself is taken from the role of actor Calvin Lockhart in the 1975 movie Let’s Do It Again, which featured a bevy of prominent Black actors and actresses of the time. Hip-Hop is built from esoteric references (e.g. Fabolous line- "Even with chicks beggin me for dick regularly. A nigga known for gettin rid of weight like Dick Gregory"; Jay-Z- "So tall and lanky, my suit it should thank me. I make it look good to be this hood Meyer Lansky. Mixed with Lucky Lefty, gangsta effortlessly. Papa was a rollin' stone it's in my ancestry.")

Also noteworthy is the proliferation of music made about and/or featuring the name Barack Obama in the Hip-Hop community. In an article in the Washington Post awhile back, there was a featured story I believe in the Style section that detailed the growing usage of Obama in lyricism. In my mind I go back to Young Jeezy’s intro to the “Love Your Girl” Remix with The Dream. The very first words out of his mouth are, “Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama.” The obvious question is “Why?” I still don’t know the answer but he felt it important enough to “big him up” in a song that was completely unrelated to anything political.

In a recent interview, rapper Common stated that "I really do believe we, as hip-hop artists, pick up what's going on in the world. I think hip-hop artists will have no choice but to talk about different things and more positive things. Try to bring a brighter side to that because, even before Barack, I think people had been tired of hearing the same thing." Hip-Hop is its own form of social commentary and political punditry. He collects data and analyzes events. I like to use the example of Biggie’s Juicy lyrics “Now I'm in the limelight 'cause I rhyme tight. Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade.” This small nugget evokes memories of the collective conscious from the first World Trade Center bombing in New York and simultaneously points out the commercialization of hip-hop and its transformative ability to take situations of abject poverty and flip them into commercial capital.

Hip-Hop lyrically is Urban America's journal. It is our public discourse with the world which exhibits our particular brand of ingenue and intelligence. Hip-Hop has transformed the similes of Shakespeare, "Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus (from Julius Caesar)" expressing sentiments of dismay at the growing power of Caesar to "tell you dudes what I do to protect this, shoot at you actors like movie directors(PSA)" by Jay-Z which offers the inverse, almost the Caesarean point of view if he were truly the tyrant that Brutus saw him becoming. Personally, I just wonder what it takes to get the world to recognize the artistry of Hip-Hop for the intrinsic greatness. Hip-Hop is America; Hip-Hop is the world.

I'm not saying all of this to over-intellectualize Hip-Hop. However, there is definitely an intellectual element that is often overlooked, even by the rappers themselves. You may ask yourself in reading this as I did in writing it, "Do these dudes even do this stuff on purpose or is it just par for the course?" My answer is this: I believe that all the puns, allusions, metaphors, similes, hyperbola are definitely intentional. While the technical jargon of English used to describe these phenomena may escape the cognitive awareness of these men and women, they are no less adept in using it, which in many ways makes it all the more interesting. Hip-Hop is worth the intellectual investigation, if only out of sheer curiosity. Too many of us just accept the lyrics that we hear because "the beat is tight" without really analyzing the lyrics.

Most of Hip-Hop is birthed out of this Shakespearean sentiment from his play, As You Like It

Duke Senior:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.