No I.D. Speaks On Hip Hop from zachwolfe.com/live on Vimeo.
Watching "Notorious" got me thinking about how much I miss Hip-Hop in the 80's and 90's. Who remembers the ancient, Hip-Hop art of battling? Notably, Biggie battled a lot of people throughout his neighborhood growing up and eventually became one of the best lyrical threats of all time. And Biggie wasn't the only MC known for rapping in his local neighborhood either. Rappers such as Eminem, Jay-Z, 2Pac, Nas, Hip-Hop legend KRS-One, Cannibus, LL Cool J, and many others, embraced the very culture that garnered them fame and notoriety.
Battle rap or freestyling is an important element of Hip-Hop that I feel has been lost somewhat. It originated back in the '80's on the East Coast. A rap battle basically involves two people showcasing their lyrical skills back and forth. In my opinion, a true rap battle involves freestyling. If one contestant in a rap battle wrote down their lyrics before the battle took place, it would take away from the general idea of it. To me, a true rap battle involves spitting lyrics from the top of your dome; no thinking involved.
Nowadays, it seems more prominent that battle raps appear mostly in the form of a diss record. Basically, rappers are creating beefs or dissing each other through music in an attempt to generate attention or media hype. Over the past years, there have been many battle records, in which MC's diss each other over someone else's beat. We all know the whole "beef" scenario reached a high point when Biggie and 2Pac were killed.
I recall watching a lot of battle competitions in the past and they are so exciting to watch actually. Watching MC's come up with original content at the spare of the moment is just fun and entertaining. BET has a battle rap competition on 106 and Park, but it's not as raw, original, or real as some of the competitions that I've seen. In real battle competitions MC's can say what they want to say, so I do understand why BET has to censor their competition.
Anyway, I just wanted to shed light on an important element in Hip-Hop. Battling truly involves creative, raw talent. It takes a talented individual to freestyle creative words, phrases, metaphors, etc. And I hope that that lyricists today pay more attention to lyrical content; not just rhyming to sell records, but take the time to really incorporate the essence of Hip-Hop into their music. It would be cool to see some of these rappers have a battle competition face to face; in it's original form.
Here is No Id's original blog: click here
and here is my theory.. is hip-hop dead?
In my opinion, no music ever dies. I just think that every form of music has different artistic peaks. If we look at all the major forms of music in American culture that have been in the pop realm from Blues, to Jazz, to Rock N Roll, to Hip-hop etc. Each form of music experienced a time period when it peaked.. this is not to say that it is dead or won't be revived at some point but I think music definitely goes through artistic bursts as does culture.. The reality of the situation is hip-hop has potentially seen a peak in the pop realm as did Jazz in the 30's and 40's.. Rock n Roll in the 50's and 60's, Funk in the 70's, and hip hop in the 80s and 90s.. Elements of hip-hop will never die in music: dance, dj, graffiti etc. I feel like artistic movements are pure in their early stages where people are involved in something because it is the art that attracts them not just the money or the lifestyle. I definitely believe that there are people still like that but what happens is that the music gets over saturated with trendiness and people get involved for the fame and money before they get involved with passion. I was 10 years old when Common Resurrection came out.. too young to know about it at the time so I am definitely not an old school bitter hip-hop head.. I just recognize classic music and that is a classic album.. As we are nearing another decade I can say that most of the best (not my personal favorite) but the most historically impactful and significant hip-hop albums are from the 80's and 90's.. Not to discount Outkast, Jay, Kanye, Beenie, Dr Dre or anyone that has dropped a bona fide classic hip-hop album in the 2000's but almost all the hip-hop artists (minus the few that we know- kanye etc.) were a continuation of the previous generation.. Hip-Hop isn't dead but it is safe to say we've heard it's better days in the pop realm. My favorite hip-hop artists still doing it - Andre 3000, Kanye, Jay Z..
For all of my people's out there that love "ol' skool" music, ya'll remember The Fat Boys? Well, they are ready for a comeback. After 15 years apart, they are ready to put out an album together, even though one of the members of the group, Buffy, passed away back in '95. Among other things, they have a reality show in the works. When I think of The Fat Boys, all I can think about is Krush Groove. They were in that movie with LL Cool, Run and DMC, Kurtis Blow, Blair Underwood, Etc. I wonder if the new album will be worth listening to?
OMG!!!! I can't believe my eyes.!! Why are children dancing like this?!! Do you think she learned how to dance like this watching videos or from her parents? That must be the mother in the background. She is obviously watching her child dance like this and has no problem. In my opinion, the parents are to blame for these children dancing like this. Unfortunately, this child could have dreams of being a video girl. I bet you this girl has been watching some music videos too, but I am not going to blame this on Hip-Hop. I blame the parents because we are reponsible for the way our children behave and obviously their parents do not care. That is a terrible shame! Let me know what you all think about this subject.
