“I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man; let me handle my business, damn” - Jay-Z

Since it began, the sub-culture of Hip-Hop and the corporate world of America have had an interesting relationship. On one hand there is the underground Hip-Hop scene, which prides itself with its independent record labels and distributors as well as its overall independence from any corporate interests. On the other hand, Hip-Hop has created a whole new generation of entrepreneurs who pride themselves in their business-savvy approach to the music industry. In either case, the important aspect to realize is that these are both reactions to a capitalistic system that is known for exploiting artists for the gain of the record company. This was first expressed in 1991 in the classic line from the semi-independent group A Tribe Called Quest that went, “Industry rule number four-thousand & eighty/ record company people are shady.” The lesson is even being taught by mainstream moguls like 50 Cent in his multi-platinum selling album “Get Rich or Die Tryin.” After being shot nine times and put into critical condition, 50 Cent was dropped by Columbia Records. He responded with the line: “If I got shot today my phone would stop ringing again/ these industry niggaz ain’t friends/ they know to pretend.”

                Rappers have since used their experience with the music industry to teach up-and-coming artists how to make it through on their own without being swindled. Dr. Dre, the multi-platinum selling producer and rapper left Ruthless Records in the early nineties with complaints that he was being underpaid for his work. He went on to start Death Row Records with co-owner Suge Knight where he signed such artist as Snoop Doggy-Dogg, and Tupac “2Pac” Shakur. After learning more about the business of starting record labels, both Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg left Death Row and have started their own record companies. While Snoop Dogg started Dogghouse Records and Snoop-Dogg Clothing, Dr. Dre created Aftermath Records, who has since recruited rap music heavyweights like Eminem and 50 Cent. Today Eminem is responsible for Shady Records, the Shady Unlimited Clothing Line, and the movie 8-Mile. 50 Cent is owner and operator of G-Unit Records, G-Unit Clothing, a line of Reebok shoes, a sports drink called “Formula 50,” and the movie Get Rich or Die Tryin’. These are only a few examples of the various new industries entered into by Hip-Hop artists. The rapper Jay-Z has his own label, Roc-a-fella Records (which signed Grammy award winner Kanye West), and the clothing line, Roc-a-Wear. Sean “Puff Daddy” “P.Diddy” Combs, who started Bad Boy Entertainment, has since launched Sean John Clothing. In addition to advertising for their own products, rappers also sell a wide array of other products including alcohol, deodorant, condoms, cars, cell-phones, and soft drinks. Although Hip-Hop is being embraced by American business in order to move merchandise, it has also been betrayed by those businesses due to political pressures.

                In 2002, recording artist Ludacris signed a deal with the Pepsi Corporation to appear in a series of commercials. In August of that year Fox News reporter and republican icon Bill O’ Reilly attacked Ludacris as being “a man who is demeaning to just about everybody, and is peddling antisocial behavior” and stated that Pepsi was “immoral” for using a rapper to sell its product. Shortly after Pepsi decided it would not run the ads it had produced featuring Ludacris. The next year a series of Pepsi ads featuring the Ozzy Osborne family began to play on national television. The ads play on the fact that the Osbornes are a foul-mouthed group by bleeping out every other word they speak in the commercial. Russell Simmons, who’s Def Jam Records has housed talent like Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J, started an organization called the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network in order to cultivate a political respect and understanding of Hip-Hop culture. In 2003 Russell and the H.S.A.N. threatened a boycott of Pepsi for its hypocritical actions of firing a foul-mouthed rapper and replacing him with a foul-mouthed rocker. After a few days of negotiations, Pepsi agreed to make-up for its mistake by donating millions of dollars to the H.S.A.N. and the Ludacris Foundation in a joint effort to start after-school programs for American youth.

Although some see this type of influence as a win for the Hip-Hop community, some artists see the culture as falling in with the corporate world too much, forgetting Hip-Hops other goals of equality and liberty for people of color, the poor, and the oppressed of the world. On their album Let’s Get Free, artists Dead Prez express this view in the line: “Corporations hiring blacks/ ignoring the fact they exploiting us all over the map.” Multi-platinum selling rapper Nas echoes this sentiment in the song “What Goes Around” with the line: “It’s funny how these black-killin’ companies is makin’ money off us/ fast food, cola-sodas is skull and bone crosses.” This critical opinion that Hip-Hop has for itself has also spread towards it attitude when it come to politics. Again there are two views within the Hip-Hop community: ‘Hip-Hop can be an influential force within the American political system,’ or ‘the American political system is what we are fighting against.’

“You MCs is on that ol’ slavery path, the Bushes will look at your ass and laugh” - Nas

Hip-Hop has entered into mainstream politics in many instances to make their voice heard. Conrad Benette Tillard’s C.H.H.A.N.G.E., in 1999, led by Tillard kicked off a “Hip-Hop Vote 2000,” a voter registration drive registering 15,000 new young voters in New York City. It has also successfully encouraged and supported young and political candidates starting out in the political process. As mentioned before, Russell Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit Action Network has also been an influential force, registering an estimated 2 million voters for the 2004 election and even more in 2008. Sean “P. Diddy” Combs also helped register thousands of new voters with his “Vote or Die” campaign as part of the Citizen Change Movement. In June of 2004 various community leaders and Hip-Hop activists helped put together the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in Newark, New Jersey to discuss the political possibilities of Hip-Hop culture. Other conventions have happened in Chicago in 2006 and Las Vegas in 2008. The city of Detroit boosts that it has the first “Hip-Hop Mayor” with Kwame Kilpatrick, a self-proclaimed Hip-Hop fan and activist.

                As with Hip-Hop in the American corporate world, Hip-Hop in the American political world two conflicting views. While the before mentioned activist choose to engage in political debate by raising voting awareness, others claim that although Hip-Hop cares about the government, the government still doesn’t care about Hip-Hop. This side of the argument has made it into the mainstream media at least once. After the delayed reaction by the federal government in properly responding to the Hurricaine Katrina disaster, rapper and producer Kanye West appeared live on national television and stated that “George Bush does not care about black people.” In the song “American Way,” rap artist Nas challenges members of the Hip-Hop community who rallied support for participation in the 2004 presidential election: 

“Rap guys get bank and think they messiahs/ but they liars/ vote for who now, you red, white, and blue?/ I’m American too/ but I ain’t with the president’s crew/ trying to lead my sheep to the slaughterhouse/ talking ‘bout ‘Rap the Vote,’ you ain’t thought about/ the black vote mean nathan/ who you gonna elect, satan or satan?/ in the hood nothing is changin’/ we need a truce with the gangs and some food for the hungry/ you on Kerry’s nuts, he looks at you like a monkey/ it’s our turn and it’s ‘bout time we win/ I need somebody from the hood as my councilmen.”

                In the future Hip-Hop will continue to struggle, learn and grow with, and within the United States government. Political action organizations will continue to spring up in the name of Hip-Hop, hopefully bringing the focus of debate closer to the issues that fuel Hip-Hop’s fire. This fire will continue to grow as long as the injustices of the American legal system and political system are there to feed it. Recently rapper Snoop Dogg and actor/ hip-hop fan Jamie Foxx are protesting the execution of Stan “Tookie” Williams, the co-founder of the “Crips” street gang who has committed the last two decades of his life to ending gang violence and educating children with a series of books that have earned him a Nobel Peace Prize. Another example of how Hip-Hop is still needed to fight these injustices now more than ever…The End… By L. Writ Moe

Q-Tip, DJ Gravy, and Va$htie @ Santos Party House on Fridays

OPEN Hosted By Va$htie Featuring Resident DJ Q-Tip and Special Guests

Q-Tip of the legendary group A Tribe Called Quest, not only a talented MC, but also a DJ and producer. Join Q-Tip and Special Guests Every Friday @ Santos Party House.

Ongoing Every Friday @ 10 p.m.

Tickets – Advanced – Unavailable / Day of Show – $15

General Admission / 21 & Over

VIP Table Reservations – tables@santospartyhouse.com

Featuring Special Guests –

DJ Scratch and Iron Lyon on November 13, 2009

Legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash on November 20, 2009

Hip Hop legend Grandmaster Flash, the first artist to use the turntable as a musical instrument, played a pivotal role in the birth of hip hop during the 1970’s. Grandmaster Flash was also the DJ for the classic group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, one of the first hip hop groups in history.

Questlove of The Roots on November 27, 2009

Questlove of The Roots – also known as ?uestlove and Questo – this pioneering artist from Philadelphia continues to prove his longevity as drummer for critically acclaimed group, The Roots, whose live performances are among the best in hip hop.

D-Nice on December 4, 2009

Santos Party House
96 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10013
1.212.584.5492
Santos Party House

@SantosPartyHaus Twitter

Santos MySpace

Rakim Live Performance @ Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT on November 17, 2009 at 9 p.m.

Rakim - The Seventh Season Tour - 2009

Rakim

Rhymefest
They Walk On Water
Phenomeno

All Ages / General Admission

Tickets – Advance: $25 / Day of Show: $25
Buy Tickets

Doors To Open @ 8 p.m.
Show To Start @ 9 p.m.

Toad’s Place
300 York St. – #1
New Haven, CT 06511
+1.203.624.8623
http://www.toadsplace.com

Click Here For More Information on the Rakim Show at Toad’s Place – November 17, 2009

Produced in Association with Scion.com/Sessions

Cam tot ce trebuie stiut despre Hip-Hop.

If you frequent the streets of most metro areas you know “the scene”. One to Five young black men hustling their mix-tape screaming “five dollas” at the top of their lungs, and putting on short freestyle performances for easily impressed tourists, and suburban Caucasians devoid of culture beyond board game night, and tuna casserole. Despite this however if you ask them the simple question of where their art form came from, the best they could do is spew names of well known MCs of the not so distant past ending with 2 Pac and Notorious B.I.G. Hip-Hop however as a rich history that goes back over 30 years and so I’m dedicating a post every so often to elaborate on that history.

More after the bump.

The Notorious Vinyl

The Winstons

Today we have a 90s educational film-ish vid that goes into the history of a very important part of hip-hop culture, the “Amen Break”. Amen Break comes from a single called Amen Brother which was produced by a 1960s funk group named The Winstons. Though the song in itself didn’t become a major hit a single 6 second beat placed in the middle of the track is responsible for the creation of several entire genres of music that gave rise to elaborate subcultures of society, most notably hip-hop and jungle/trance/electro.

Below is a list of artists who have utilized the Amen Break.

2 Live Crew – “Feel Alright Yall”
3rd Bass – “Wordz of Wisdom”
4 Hero – “Escape That”
Amon Tobin – “Nightlife”
Aphex Twin – “Boy/Girl Song”
Atari Teenage Riot – “Burn Berlin Burn”
Brand Nubian – “The Godz Must Be Crazy”
Deee-Lite – “Come on In, the Dreams are Fine”
Dillinja – “The Angels Fell”
Eric B and Rakim – “Casualties of War”
Funky Technicians – “Airtight”
Goldie – “Chico: Death of a Rock Star”
Heavy D – “Flexin’”
Heavy D – “Let it Flow”
Heavy D – “MC Heavy D!”
Heavyweight – “Oh Gosh”
J. Majik – “Arabian Nights”
J. Majik – “Your Sound”
Lemon D – “This is Los Angeles”
Level Vibes – “Beauty & the Beast”
Lifer’s Group – “Jack U. Back (So You Wanna Be a Gangsta)”
Ltj Bukem – “Music”
Maestro Fresh Wes – “Bring it On”
Mantronix – “King of the Beats”
Movement Ex – “KK Punani”
Nice & Smooth – “Dope Not Hype”
NWA – “Straight Outta Compton”
Oasis – “Do Y’Know What I Mean”
Roni Size – “Brown Paper Bag”
Salt-N-Pepa – “Desire”
Scarface – “Born Killer”
Schoolly D – “How a Black Man Feels”

Source — the-breaks.com

“They told Rosa black in the back- the C.I.A. told Ricky Ross to put crack in a sack” - Boots Riley of “The Coup”

It is important to know the story behind the introduction of crack-cocaine into the inner-cities of the United States in order to understand the prevalence of the subject in many Hip-Hop songs during the 80s, 90s, and even today. Some people claim that the roots of the epidemic are in fact political, involving politicians, the C.I.A., and the U.S. military. In his series of articles and later his book entitled The Dark Alliance, investigative journalist Gary Webb outlines an intricate web of players who contributed to the distribution of large quantities of crack-cocaine to gang members in South Central Los Angeles. According to Webb “a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to an arm of the contra guerrillas of Nicaragua run by the Central Intelligence Agency.” It is now believed by many in the Hip-Hop community that these series of circumstances led to the current crack epidemic that is still a problem today.

This sentiment can be heard in numerous Hip-Hop songs from as far back as KRS-One’s “Illegal Business” which was released in 1988 and contains in its chorus the line “Cocaine business controls America, Illegal business controls America.” In the song “Sellin’ D.O.P.E.” Dead Prez describes the life of a low-level crack dealer who had trouble obtaining any other type of income:

“Some years back I held crack/ We was trouble got the fiends spot bubbling hot/ We wouldn’t never make a lot/ I mean not like ‘Scarface’ or ‘Nino Brown’ or George Bush/ no matter what you push/ It was politics and camera tricks/For the most part we don’t own no boats and planes/ We just cop it from ‘Papi’ and bag it in the cellophane/ Statistics show its sick how we livin’/ The one thing bigger than dope games is prisons/ One million niggas inside/ Over three million is tied and plus the president lied/ Because the white house is the rock house, Uncle Sam the pusher-man.”

For most artist and activists in the Hip-Hop community, selling drugs is looked upon as a plague on the people that in negatively effects while still maintaining that it is also one of the only ways to make enough money to get out of the ghetto. In the song “Things Done Changed” by the late Notorious B.I.G. he raps “If I wasn’t in the rap-game, I’d probably have a ‘key’ (a kilo of cocaine) knee-deep in the crack game, cause the streets is a short stop, either you sell crack-rock or you got a wicked jump-shot.” Michael Eric Dyson, professor of African-American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania describes the rap lyric as “a profound sociological analysis of prevailing forms of oppression” (Letter to the President).

Most of the more popular rappers including multi-platinum artists like Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, and Baby have claimed to have sold crack to get by before trying an alternative career in music. Some even admit that they would not have been able to finance their investments such as studio time and advertising if it wasn’t for the money they made selling drugs. Today these rappers are some of the most influential and entrepreneurial figures in, not only Hip-Hop culture, but youth and pop culture as well. The late Eric “Eazy-E” Wright took the money he earned from selling drugs to start “Ruthless Records” one of the first rap labels on the West Coast that distributed N.W.A. and Dr. Dre. Rapper Jay-Z started the label Rocafella Records which signed the Grammy Award-winning artist Kanye West.

These rappers and others have since used their fame and money to raise awareness on various political and social issues. A youth-led political and arts organization called the Third Eye Movement initiated a campaign against police brutality with aspects of direct action, policy reform, and hip-hop concerts that serve as fundraisers, voter education forums and mass demonstrations in the Bay Area. The two-day festival against police brutality, “Artists Network of Refuse & Resist!” was put on by a number of rappers in California. In Atlanta, a group called Youth Task Force works with rap artists Goodie-Mobb to teach youg students about environmental justice and political prisoners. Russell Simmons’ Hip-Hop Summit Action Network has been a powerful force in New York City by fighting the Rockefeller Laws, which instates a mandatory minimum sentence for drug offenders. The H.S.A.N. also assisted the United Federation of Teachers and the Alliance for Quality Education in bringing between 50,000 and 100,000 people to protest a $358 million cut in education by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Conrad Benette Tillard, who founded C.H.H.A.N.G.E. (Conscious Hip-Hop Activism Necessary for Global Empowerment) in New York City, gathered the hip-hop generation in a major youth march at City Hall to raise their voice against police brutality after West African Amadou Diallo was shot 44 times by the New York City Police Department. Also following the incident was the album “Hip-Hop for Respect” released by a group of artists to raise awareness of the increasing amount of minorities being shot and beaten by the N.Y.P.D. Other such projects include the song “Self-Destruction” as part of the Stop the Violence Movement which was set up by rappers in response to a stabbing at a Hip-Hop show. The C.D. “No More Prisons” was released to address the issue of the prison industrial complex and the C.D. “America Is Dying Slowly (A.I.D.S.)” was full of songs about education and the danger of catching the virus.

After the disaster of Hurricane Katrina rappers like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, and Russell Simmons all gave $1 million dollars each in donations. Rapper David Banner even started his own charity organization called the Heal the Hood Foundation which first gives money to those who were already living in poverty. These rappers have also spoken out publicly about U.S. politics relating to the Hurricane disaster. Banner in an interview stated that “America doesn’t give a damn about people in the hood, period” (daveyd.com). Around the same time Kanye West, live on national television, declared that “Bush doesn’t care about black people.” A statement that almost cost West a million dollar endorsement from Pepsi, which is just one example of the interaction between Hip-Hop, politics, and corporate America.        To be continued…   Sources: Gary Webb The Dark Alliance, Letter to the President Film, daveyd.com

Hip Hop History: Pete Rock at Marley Marl’s “In Control Rap Show”
WBLS, NY (8/12/1989)

Side A
http://www.dhpmixes.com/mixes/peterockmarleymarl081289a.mp3

Side B
http://www.dhpmixes.com/mixes/peterockmarleymarl081289b.mp3

By L. Writ Moe

“Rap is the C.N.N. of the black community” - Chuck-D of “Public Enemy”

One of the first examples of using Hip-Hop music to purvey a politically charged message was in the song simply titled “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in 1982.

Grandmaster Flash

With descriptive lyrics “The Message” was able to paint a picture of the poor conditions existing in the inner cities. The first verse of the song goes:            

 “Broken glass everywhere/ People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care/ I can’t take the smell, I can’t take the noise/ Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice/ Rats in the front room, roaches in the back/ Junkie’s in the alley with a baseball bat/ I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far/ Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car/ Don’t push me, cause I’m close to the edge/ I’m trying not to lose my head/ It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder/ How I keep from going under.”

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five went on to make such popular songs such as “White Lines” the anti-cocaine anthem and “Jesse” which rallied support for then presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. Although these songs are nowhere near as political as those that would come later, it did sent the standard for Hip-Hop artists to adopt a more politically and socially conscious style of rhyming and song creating (Potter). From this point on Hip-Hop has been looked to for a type of newscast for young teenagers of color in the inner-cities.

                The time was just right for a new type of rebellious music and there was plenty of inspiration for up and coming artists. According to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the richest 1% in the U.S. saw their after-tax income grow by 87% from 1980 to 1990 while the after-tax income of the poorest citizens went down by 5%. The program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (A.F.D.C.) was also cut during the Reagan-Bush era, leaving struggling families with $300-$500 less aid a month (Zinn 578-582). According to Lou Cannon’s Ronald Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime the elimination of programs such as the school lunch program and subsidized housing meant that “households with incomes of less than $10,000 a year declined nearly 8% during the Reagan first term while federal aid for households with more than $40,000 income was almost unchanged”.

                Micheal Eric Dyson, in his book Between God and Gangsta Rap, states that “public spaces for black recreation were gutted by Reaganomics or violently transformed by lethal drugs” (177). In a 1992 interview with bell hooks, rapper Ice Cube describes life at this time as being “hard to be black in America…you got to fight to love yourself” (hooks, 127). As we can see, throughout the late 1980s and early 90s the black communities in the United States were still dealing with the problems of racism and oppression like police brutality and discrimination in the work place when they began to see crack-cocaine flood into their neighborhoods and gang violence rise as a result, an exploding A.I.D.S. epidemic, and the continuous cut of social programs. These are some of the main issues that Hip-Hop music would focus on during both the Reagan and Bush administrations.

“Young nigga got it bad ‘cause I’m brown, and not the other color so police think they have the authority to kill a minority” – Ice-Cube of N.W.A.

One of first musical stances against the boys in blue occurred in the song “Fuck the Police” by the Compton-based group Niggaz With Attitudes (N.W.A.). The song painted, in detail, a portrait of everyday life for a young black male living in the inner-city and having to deal with constant harassment from police officers (Perkins, 18). Los Angeles had always had a history of police brutality and corruption. According to the book “It’s Not About a Salary…Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles” by Brian Cross, “sixty African-Americans were killed by patrolmen between 1963 and 1965” in Watts alone and “the Los Angeles Times recorded 32 fatal shooting at the hands of the L.A.P.D. and the Sheriff’s Department in1986.” Instead of authorities taking these issues seriously they would usually denounce the music as advocating violence when violence against them is the problem they were addressing. It wasn’t until the Rodney King verdict and the L.A. riots/ rebellion when the majority of the country was made aware of these issues even though the conditions and outcomes are almost predicted in many Hip-Hop songs of that time. Although songs like these helped spread the word about these police brutality the harassment and assault did not stop; in fact it gave police a new reason to do so.

                In 1991 Hip-Hop artist Tupac “2Pac” Shakur (son of imprisoned Black Panther members Afeni and Mutulu Shakur) released the song “Trapped” on his controversial album 2Pacalypse Now, which was said to have “no place in our society” by Vice President Dan Quayle. The song gave another description of harassment by law enforcement and how it was a daily occurrence to most young black males. One Verse of the song stated:

 “They got me trapped, Can barely walk the city streets/ Without a cop harassing me, searching me, then asking my identity/ Hands up, throw me up against the wall/ Didn’t do a thing at all/ I’m tellin’ you one day these suckers gotta fall/ Cuffed up throw me on the concrete/ Coppers try to kill me, but they didn’t know this was the wrong street/ Bang Bang, down another casualty/ But it’s a cop who’s shot, there’s brutality/ Who do you blame?”

                Later that same year 2Pac was stopped by the Oakland Police department for jaywalking and asked to show his I.D., when 2Pac refused he was thrown to the ground, beaten, and arrested. As a result 2Pac sued the Oakland Police Department and settled out of court for $42,000. In a similar instance, rappers from the politically charged Hip-Hop group Dead Prez who have released songs like “Police State” and “Behind Enemy Lines” were harassed by the New York Police Department, asked to show I.D., and when they refused were arrested. They have since filed their own lawsuit that is still awaiting it court date.

                Stemming from the problem of police brutality is the subject of false arrest, false imprisonment, unequal imprisonment, and unequal jail sentences. This issue makes up most of Hip-Hop’s political message seeing how African-Americans make up about 65% of the prison population and Latinos make up another 25% nationwide (prisonpolicy.org). According to the documentary Letter to the President, a movie about the various political messages that Hip-Hop has tried to convey to the United States, blacks are put into prison at 13.4 times the rate of whites for the same drug crimes. In 1998 for example, it is estimated that 49% of crack users were white, but they only made up 6% of the arrests. At the same time only 34% of crack users were black, but made up 85% of the arrests. Then once a person was arrested he or she could be sent to jail for five years for five grams of crack while a person with raw cocaine (more likely to be white) would usually get five years for 500 grams of the powder.    

Sources: Russell A. Potter Spectacular Vernaculars, Howard ZInn A People’s History of the United States, Michael Eric Dyson Between God and Gangsta Rap, bell hooks Outlaw Culture, William Eric Perkins Droppin’ Science, Brian Cross It’s Not About a Salary        

Hip Hop History: Public Enemy, Kool DJ Red Alert & Cut Creator
Recorded live at Mazzo, Amsterdam – March 9 1988

Listen Here
http://www.archive.org/download/LiveAtMazzo/LiveAtMazzo_64kb.m3u

See more from the mad genius here

Hip Hop History: Jeff Mills (The Wizard)

In the 1980s, Mills was an influential radio DJ on WJLB under the pseudonym “The Wizard.” Mills’ sets were a highlight of the nightly show from “The Electrifying Mojo,” Charles Johnson. Complementing Mojo’s eclectric playlists, Mills would do advanced DJ Tricks like beat juggling and scratching while mixing obscure Detroit Techno, Miami Bass, Chicago House, Hiphop, and classic New Wave tracks both live and using a multi track when pre recorded.

Roxanne Wars
http://www.dhpmixes.com/mixes/Thewizard85-86b.mp3 

The Wizard- Detroit
http://www.dhpmixes.com/mixes/Thewizard85-86a.mp3

“Reporters showed us pictures at home of the Vietnam War [and] because we saw the horror, that’s what made us stop the war when we did. That’s what I’m going to do as a rapper. I’m going to show the most graphic details of what I see in my community and hopefully they’ll stop it, quick.”     - 2Pac

Like other forms of protest music that came before it, Hip-Hop has its roots in some of the poorest communities in New York City. It was then amplified by the gangster lifestyle of California and is now a universal presence in almost every country in the world. Although since its humble beginnings the corporate powers of the United States have used it for their own financial gain, Hip-Hop still remains the voice of the underprivileged and underrepresented of the country and even the world. I hope to show how the Culture of Hip-Hop has grown and developed out of the injustices of the American legal and political system. I also want to show that Hip-Hop has since been struggling within that system, like any other political party or organization, to raise awareness for the issues important to it and try to create a positive change in those areas that they see needing improvement. I will show that although the United States rarely addresses the topics that Hip-Hop addresses, the artists and the activists in the movement have not stopped using this unique sub-culture to raise awareness for their issues.     

“How we stop the Black Panthers? Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer.”  – Kanye West

Black Panthers on Sacramento's Capitol Steps

If you want to understand the circumstances surrounding the beginning of Hip-Hop then you first have to understand the circumstances surrounding the ending of the Civil Rights movement and the beginning of post-Civil Rights movements (Boyd, 7-8). During the late 1960s and early 1970s there were various tactics used to marginalize organizations like the Black Panthers on the federal, state, and local levels. In 1968 the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover issued a memo that encouraged agents to “exploit all avenues of creating…dissension within the ranks of the B.P.P.” and to “submit imaginative and hard-hitting counterintelligence measures aimed at crippling the B.P.P.” (Churchill, 63).

In the California city of Oakland, where the Black Panthers originated, then Governor Ronald Reagan had his own way of neutralizing the organization. Reagan had already expressed his opinion of the B.P.P leadership when he stated that “if Eldridge Cleaver is allowed to teach our children, they may come home one night and slit our throats” when Cleaver was invited to speak at U.C. Berkeley. In 1967 Reagan supported passing into law, the Mulford Bill, which repealed a previous law that allowed citizens to be in possession of loaded weapons in public places as long as they were displayed in plain view. The purpose of the law was to put an end to the Black Panther Police Patrols, and was even called “the Panther Bill” by the media (PBS.com). As Black leadership became increasingly scarce alternative types of organization sprung up.

Most of these groups concentrated on community organization and protection such as the “Baby Avenues” that began in the years following the decline of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party. The “Baby Avenues” was started by Raymond Washington who was 15 at the time of the Panthers’ disintegration and “absorbed much of the Panther rhetoric of community control of neighborhoods and fashioned his quasi-political organization after the Panthers’ militant style, sporting the popular black leather jackets of the time” (nagia.org). As the “Baby Avenues” grew in popularity and membership they became more of a money making organization by selling narcotics and other forms of illegal business. They later changed their name to the “Avenue Cribs” then to the “Cribs” and after a misprint in a newspaper were finally called the “Crips.” Today the “Crips” are one of the largest and most organized street gangs in the United States.   

Afrika Bambaattaa

Although the “street-gang” form of organization has been steadily rising since the late 60s and early 70s, some have chosen to use it for a more positive outcome. One example of this can be seen in the creation of the Zulu Nation by Afrika Bambaataa in 1974. As a high ranking member of the notorious “Black Spades” street-gang in the New York borough of the Bronx, Bambaataa used his stature in the community to create an organization dedicated to the ideals of knowledge, wisdom, peace, and understanding according to the official “Beliefs of the Universal Zulu Nation”  (zulunation.com). With his love for music to motivate him, Bambaataa purchased some turntables and began “DJing” at functions in the Bronx.

At about the same time that Bambaataa was using music to gather his Zulu Nation members a Jamaican D.J. by the name of Kool Herc was throwing house parties and putting on shows in the Bronx. Using a new style of DJing he learned from Kingston, Kool Herc would loop the instrumental section, or the “break-beat,” of funk songs by using two copies of the same record. Since there were no vocals it gave Herc the chance to yell out his D.J. name and promote himself to the crowd. Overtime the act of promoting the D.J. became the job of the “M.C.” Usually a friend of the D.J., the M.C. had the job of hyping up the crowd and telling them how good the D.J. was. As the role of the M.C. evolved certain individuals came up with sayings and mottos that would go along with the beat and sometimes even rhyme. MCing or “rapping” eventually became very popular and grew more complex. MCing, DJing, along with graffiti art and break-dancing make up the four elements of Hip-Hop culture. Bambaataa was one of the first D.J.s to pick up on Herc’s new style and through his popularity helped it spread throughout New York City. Eventually the Zulu Nation became a fully-functioning Hip-Hip community complete with many prestigious D.J.s, M.C.s, break-dancers, and graffiti artists.

Due to the simple fact that this new form of music, art, and culture was born and raised in some of the poorest inner-city communities, it was inevitable that Hip-Hop became an integral part of addressing and expressing the issues and surrounding of that environment…to be continued…

By L. Writ Moe                  

Sources: Todd Boyd, The New H.N.I.C. & Ward Churchill, Agents of Repression

Ever wondered what the difference was? Check out Chuck D break it down.

Surprising book “EveryDay Life” was announced as winning Second in the Humor category of 2008 by Reader Views Annual Literary Awards – Reviewers Choice. EveryDay Life by MG Hardie is a journey from hopelessness to hope. It is a raw, intensely humorous, personal and inspiring look at the journey of a young African-American man who against the odds and his environment decides to change his life for the better. The Reader Views annual awards were established to honor writers who self-published or had their books published by a small press, university press, or independent book publisher and is one of the largest annual awards for small press books. The complete list of winners http://readerviews.com/Awards2008Winners.html

“Our Annual Literary Awards recognize the very best of these up-and-coming authors, all talented writers who we know have very promising writing careers ahead of them,” Reader Views Managing Editor Irene Watson says “All of the books that have made the list deserve a good look from the big publishing houses.”

The Reader Views Annual Literary Awards are granted in fiction and nonfiction categories. The entries are first read and judged by Reader Views reviewers, all avid readers with a wide range of experiences, considered experts in their respective fields. A second line of judges make the final decision. “The book is winning awards and at the forefront of the legalization of marijuana debate,” said Hardie. “And to be second out of over 2,000 books is quite an accomplishment.” Earlier this year EveryDay Life was named The Best Kept Literary Secret of 2008. Aside from great reviews MG Hardie’s work has been compared to that of Tyler Perry’s and Lorraine Hansberry’s.

About “EveryDay Life”

In a neighborhood dominated by gangs, drugs, alcohol, guns and self-created obstacles there are no guarantees, especially when it comes to making it out alive. EveryDay Life relays powerful messages about life, death and all things in-between in America’s urban ghettos and forces people to look at issues that are all too easy to ignore from urban sprawl, race relations to sex and politics. It is a terribly smart work of literature that that holds no punches while delivering an extremely humorous story all within an Hip Hop backdrop. EveryDay Life is far from just a story about a selected African American community in Los Angeles, it’s about all of us and what we choose as our life.

In a joint exercise of saving myself some legwork and in giving credit where credit’s due, I’m gonna post a direct link to the blog post on which I found this release – over at “leave your nine at home“.  Props to the blogger 9@home for posting this, as I wasn’t even aware of its existence – but then I’m a lazy so-and-so.   Basically, it was designed as an accompaniment for the classic hip-hop history book Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.

So check it.

EveryDay Life tells the story of L a hardworking young father trapped between the world he lives and the life he wants. Shootings, police searches, and gang violence provide L with all the motivation he needs to change his for the better himself and his daughter. EveryDay Life already has been named The Best Kept Literary Secret of 2008. EveryDay Life is humorous, original and imaginative but few have read it and many haven’t heard about it. And while reviewers, radio hosts, and college professors have called the book “Ground-Breaking”, “A Masterpiece”, and “Brilliance” the book is finally earning respect from the literary world. It has not only been nominated in the Reader Views Annual Literary Awards in the Humor category, EveryDay Life has just been named a finalist. http://readerviews.com/Awards2008SemiFinalists.html

The vivid portrayal in this work has been compared to that of George C. Wolfe, Arthur Miller, and Tyler Perry only broader and edgier. EveryDay Life is Fiction fraught with Non-Fiction elements and has been compared to movies like Waiting to Exhale, The Wood, Pineapple Express and The Best Man. EveryDay Life encourages readers to laugh and engage in provocative conversations and discussions. “There aren’t many African American books that made the list and no Hip Hop books at all, so it’s a lot of pressure. I am really honored to even be on this list all of the books on the list are great books as well.” said the author half joking. EveryDay Life is about more than the decisions L makes, it is about all of us and the choices we make. Hardie serves up an unexpected mixture of moralism, drama, psychology with freshly tossed perspective. Hardie’s creative use of words create mental pictures of real settings, scenes and characters. These characters in true dramatic fashion deal with many significant present day. EveryDay Life’s message centers on race relations, philosophy, social issues, politics, and a father’s responsibility. Hardie does not waste time lingering on the right or wrong of issues, but what he does do is something quite profound in this day-and-age; he allows the characters and readers to discuss them.

Here is an article in the District Magazine about The World Famous VIP Records in Long Beach California. You know the record store in Snoop Dogg’s video “Who Am I” from the Doggystyle album…yeah that one. Well anyway if you near The Beach you need to visit this piece of Hip Hop History and I am not just saying that because they carry my book, or that all the homies were in the video wide shot in the VIP parking lot either.

The owner Kelvin Anderson has helped so many youth not to mention that he one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, VIP Records has has been around 30 years I mean Snoop, Radio, Daz, DJ Quik, Nate Dogg, Warren G and many other west coast rappers honed their skillz in VIP’s records studio.Without VIP many of our favorite hip hop artist would have been in the streets doing you know what instead of making us bounce. The VIP influence was at the forefront of West Coast rap’s introduction to the world. You remember those days, don’t you?  The internet is really affecting their record sales Snoop and some others are thinking about doing a benefit for VIP, if they do count me in, but they really need to be able to count you in, ya dig. Read the article it’s really good.
At the crossroads

The Video:

How much would you pay for enlightenment? That is a good question people from the Average-Joe to the Super Star spend millions of dollars to be enlightened. What if I told you that enlightenment could be attained for under $12. What is this Buddhism, Zen, skinny jeans, a skin cream? How can one achieve Nirvana for under $12?  Well you can. For less than $12 you could purchase a copy of EveryDay Life by MG Hardie and be enlightened.

Before you laugh yourself out of your chair or spill your drink ask yourself how does buying this book bring enlightenment to someone? EveryDay Life is not like any other before it. Sure it has extraordinary and rave reviews and has been named the Best Kept Literary Secret of 2008, but what this book really offers its reader is Enlightenment. The question on your mind is “Is this legit?” Answer: Of course it is. You could spend a small fortune getting lost on an exotic island, hiring a therapist or possibly a guru or you could just pick up a copy of EveryDay Life and maybe just maybe it will affect you like it has everyone else who has read it.

The Enlightened:

Life Remixed Radio- “You touch on real stuff. Real issues that people deal with everyday”

AAMBC- “I strongly encourage you to get Evert Day Life, take in the message and embrace it”

Sai Browne- “It takes courage to write a book like this.”

Conversations Book Club- “it takes just two or so pages to prove to yourself that what Hardie has managed to do is not only unorthodox, unexpected but borderline brilliance”

Crunk Magazine Book Club President- “I have never read a book like this, never”

APOOO Book Club- “delving into unchartered territories”

HYPE Magazine Radio- “We need more books like this”

Dr. Utley Professor of Hip Hop Discourse-“Uncanny”

Tamika Newhouse- “It touches on so many issues about life”

Apex Reviews- “The social, political, and familial issues that are discussed between the characters are on point”

Cyrus Webb- “Hardie has literally set the stage for community groups and others to use it as their manual”

CJ Morgan- “Whoa, it’s some real talk”

Ghost Writer Literary Reviews-

“It was an era when hip-hop was the best thing since Martin Luther King-and marijuana was the best way to cope with problems, the hype of the music industry, and the pitfalls of possibilities”

California State University Professor- “Hilarious”

Tina Allen- “it hit on so many things our youth are experiencing today”

Coffee Time Romance- “I have to admit, even though this is not the type of book I normally read, there is something in the composition that kept me interested”

Conversations LIVE!- “It’s not like anything I’ve ever read. I can honestly say that”

Taj Longino- “I saw myself in one of your characters”

Reader Views –“it taught me more than I could ever imagine”

“I think that most people will find that Enlightenment comes in many forms sometimes the answer you seek you already have” says a straight face Hardie, “O.K. being compared to Tyler Perry is really great and I’d like to work with him” he continues. You too can tell the world what you think by adding your name to the growing list of those that have been enlightened. There will be no donations from any sale proceeds… hey it’s a recession what do you expect. If you have issues, and we know that you do, they are covered in EveryDay Life, really. MG Hardie bringing literature back one reader at a time.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1605940364/ejelta5-20

Interview with Treach of legendary Naughty by Nature. He talks about his friendship with Tupac, the original of the song O.P.P., and their place in hip-hop history.