What is Hip Hop? (Videos)
In the great Friday Fire Jason Whitlock conversation there was a myriad of questions answered, but also some unresolved. One question in particular caught my attention:
What is Hip Hop?
This is Hip Hop.
Son of NUN
Immortal Technique
Head-Roc
The Mighty Mos Def
Black Star’s Respiration (Pete Rock remix) One of my favs…..jazzysmoothsoulfire
Dead Prez
The Coup
Jeru the Damaja
Talib Kweli
The Blast (remix featuring Badu)
Speaking of Erykah this is Hip Hop too..well…
But she’s Jazzy 😉
Time to wrap this up. This post would be infinite considering all the music flowing jazzyhardcoresmooth through my head.
I’ll end this with something for my Pop. Fell asleep many a night to this back in the day.
Thanks Pop.
The Starting Five 
December 9, 2007 at 4:57 am
Hip Hop is Brand Nubian’s, “One For All”. Three MCs at the top of their game trying to outdo one another, within the group concept.
December 9, 2007 at 5:13 am
Say what???
Where are the spreadsheets and organization charts for distribution networks??? That’s hip hop. This is performance.
Like I said yesterday, if Hill and Whitlock shift their discourse about Black folk from BEHAVIOR (waaa! waa!! waa!!!) to economics and ownership of all phases of Black cultural production by Blacks, they’ll get fired…
So, what is hip-hop? Is it an appropriated high-jacked genre which provides jobs, revenue and market access for non-Blacks? Hell yes it is. With that said, I appreciate them vid-e-oh’s, but we mastered that aspect of this art form 100 years ago – remember what Claude from Black Fives said?? 1910 and now we’re looking at 2010…
Spreadsheets and org charts with names? Can you hook a brother up????
December 9, 2007 at 5:45 am
To me hip hop is a lot of different things. When I think of it, activism and creativity are the first words that come to mind. I just pray that it doesnt go the way of Jazz, which is now populated by more white artists than those who created it.
PS. Let me get on a soap box for a second. I was in the movies and saw a preview of “Step it up 2 — The Streets”. For those that don’t know, this is a movie about “hip hop dancing” and “battling” in the streets. Just one thing, there is not a minority face among the stars. NONE. All the main characters are rich white children, who are supposedly dancing on “the streets”. Now I know NUMEROUS African American dancers/actors who could easily play these parts. I was sickened beyond belief.
(Wait…the only minority character was a stuck up light skinned African American woman, who obiviously is the main antagonist)
Ok I’m off…sorry about that…
December 9, 2007 at 6:14 am
Thank you!! I was just chatting with some buddies last night at a Christmas party about there being a lack of real hip hop artists anymore. I now have a couple more artists to add to my iPod playlist and some new CD’s to add to my Christmas/birthday wish list.
December 9, 2007 at 6:16 am
I think I saw the same thing – I had the volume off. That’s the way it works. In every generation, moralizers like Whitlock and others deride, denigrate and devalue the ART FORM and the PRACTITIONERS…and so, that older generation of Black folk with capital and experience CHOOSE to divest themselves of the latest cultural phenomenon. That’s the Black Bourgeoisie…
Most of them earn their living from whites and have sufficient capital to build an infrastructure for Blacks, but refuse to do so because it conflicts with their movin’ on up ethos — and these same folks have the nerve to act like the like Redd Foxx, Dinah Washington and Miles Davis. Really? Shiiit…they don’t like the Redd Foxx’s, Dinah’s and Miles’ of this generation. It’s easy to love a bawdy legend after their period of virility has passed – or after they’re dead.
The opportunity for Black folks to do right by hip hop was in 1977 – yeah, 30 years ago…it’s too late now. It’s time for the next thing – whatever that is – and it’s time for people with money, access and means to get behind it – and hold on to it as if it were really valuable. Then in 2037, we can have a party and talk about how Black folks finally woke up and broke the cycle of pissing away their cultural production after losing billions in royalties from the blues, jazz, rock n’ roll, R&B and hip hop. We should all live so long.
December 9, 2007 at 6:16 am
Piggybacking on T3, I’ll just add a link to an essay (part 2 of a series of 3) done by Michael Fisher, titled, “Hip Hop Ain’t A Black Thing, Never Was, Never Will Be’.
Something to really reflect on:
http://assaultonblacksanity.blogspot.com/2007/02/hip-hop-aint-black-thing-never-was.html
December 9, 2007 at 7:10 am
When I think of hip-hop I think of a culture, an art form that we have allowed to be polluted. Hip-Hop has gone to hell in a hand basket. I don’t listen to much of what comes out today – don’t even ask me when was the last time I listened to a radio station. Back in the day artists were respected and for the most part respectable to others (women). This shit out here now is garbage – it glorifies everything that I don’t want my son to become. I remember when I could pick up a KRS ONE tape and know that I was going to get something out of it. P.E., Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, Ultramagnetic, Gang Starr, Kool G Rap, Slick Rick, The Jungle Bros.,KRS ONE – These were the artists that were the classroom without walls for me. Later on it was the Wu-Tang Clan, Scarface and the Geto Boyz. But if you want to know the truth IMO hip-hop died when A Tribe Called Quest broke up. You’ve got some good soldiers tryin to hold it down (Talib Kweil, Pharoa Monche, Common and a few others) but the game needs a savior.
December 9, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Sweet…that’s Sweeeeet.
December 9, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Mizzo,
Love the musical medley but can we get some Arrested Development?
I have trouble finding their old stuff.
December 9, 2007 at 8:13 pm
What???? I thought all hip hop was about shaking booties, pimping H@es and slanging dope. You mean there are people out there like Jeru, Sun of Nun, Immortal Technique, Dead Pre, Coup and etc.
How can this be???
Because Viacom (MTV, BET and VH1) tells me that the only hip hop that exists is the stuff they play.
Clear Channel tells me the only hip hop that exists is the stuff they play.
So how do I find Hip Hop like this???? Do I look on the internet and Find it the same way I found this site???
I mean is it actually possible???
Wow amazing so Mizzo you are telling me that I have to actually look for something?? This is america we don’t look for stuff……
We just except what ever the media and corporations force feed us.
December 9, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Well said brotha temple.
thebrotherreport do you realize that artist like P.E., KRS-one, Guru, CL Smooth, Dela soul, Lord Jamar, Koo G rap, Jeru the damaja, scareface, kool keith of ultramagnetice mcs, chubb rock and wutang still make albums.
Brotha just because you don’t see their CDs on TV and on the radio doesn’t mean that they don’t make music any more.
Brotha keep your third eye open and support these kats.
Kool keith new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=KTRO18CD
P.E. new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SJR1015CD
Guru of gangstar new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SVG25CD
Lord Jamar of Brandnubian (2006)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=BBG09CD
Brandnubian new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=TEG2442CD
Jeru da Damja new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=ASHN04CD
Scareface new CD (2007)
KRS-one new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=KOC4105CD
KRS-one also has a newd CD coming out in 2008.
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=ECH4073CD
December 9, 2007 at 9:19 pm
thebrotherreport I want you to know that a lot of the artist you mentioned are still making CDs.
Please don’t believe that since you don’t see these artist CDs on TV or hear it on the radio that they don’t make make music anymore.
Brotha keep your 3rd eye open and please support these kats.
PEs new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SJR1015CD
KRS-one new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=KOC4105CD
KRS-one also has a CD for 2008.
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=ECH4073CD
Scarface new CD (2007)
Lord Jamar of brand Nubian new CD (2006)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=BBG09CD
Guru from gangstar new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SVG25CD
CL smooth new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=STN1334CD
Kool keith (from ultramagnetic MCs new Cd (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=KTRO18CD
Wutang new Cd (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SRC01CD
De LA Soul new CD (2006)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=AOI001CD
December 9, 2007 at 10:36 pm
brotherreport,
HipHop hasn’t gone to hell in a handbasket…..we have to stop letting the media and these corporations convince us of what is and is not hiphop. Some of what we’re being told is hiphop ……..is just rap.
I don’t begrudge the mindless rap….how can I? I would be the biggest hypocrite if I pretended like my matriculation at Florida A&M University in the early 90s didn’t include shaking my behind to Uncle Luke, Poison Clan and 95 South…..but we knew that wasn’t hiphop by any stretch of the imagination. That was for Friday and Saturday nights when the weight of the world ceased and a Rattler just wanted to have fun. Hiphop is what we listened to the rest of the week while studying, while THINKING…that’s when PE, KRS-One, and the Queen (all hail Latifah) took over. The problem today is that big box music has decided we don’t need to think anymore and critics are too lazy to challenge the real problem. So instead, they have decided what is being promoted is a representation of hiphop when its not even close.
December 9, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Where are De Franchise Boys, D4L, Outkast, UGK, Uncle Luke, Ludacris, T.I., 50 Cent, Emenim, and like videos. Or is this thread here to promote artists who have a small fanbase.
December 9, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Sorry I have to break this post up it seems as though the site isn’t taking it.
So here goes.
thebrotherreport I want you to know that a lot of the artist you mentioned are still making CDs.
Please don’t believe that since you don’t see these artist CDs on TV or hear it on the radio that they don’t make make music anymore.
Brotha keep your 3rd eye open and please support these kats.
PEs new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SJR1015CD
December 9, 2007 at 10:55 pm
KRS-one new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=KOC4105CD
KRS-one also has a CD for 2008.
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=ECH4073CD
December 9, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Scarface new CD (2007)
Lord Jamar of brand Nubian new CD (2006)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=BBG09CD
Guru from gangstar new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SVG25CD
December 9, 2007 at 10:56 pm
CL smooth new CD (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=STN1334CD
Kool keith (from ultramagnetic MCs new Cd (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=KTRO18CD
Wutang new Cd (2007)
http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/detail.asp?UPC=SRC01CD
December 9, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Also great post sista Miranda.
Davidmac we are talking about folks who don’t get radio and TV play.
Like Strange fruit project and little brother.
December 9, 2007 at 11:05 pm
I know that they’re still making music – I was speaking in terms of my teenage years when speaking of their impact on my life. I have always supported them and always will.
My Third Eye is always open – Even when I roll it in disgust.
December 10, 2007 at 7:37 pm
So much stuff to pick up, I’d been meaning to check into Dead Prez, I have a few songs of theirs from mixtapes. I can’t lie either, I’m all over the Wu. I don’t care if they’ve fallen off a bit from 36 chambers, I’m all over that bad boy tomorrow.
Does davidmac miss the point on purpose? or was he showing a flair for sarcasm, which to this point he has not shown a knack for?
December 10, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I don’t miss the point, I just think its funny how “whats hip-hop” to northerners and non-south supporters is always some old school NY crap or conscious rap, that nobody likes. I also love how to lovers of conscious rap love to put down whatever tracks are popular, to make themselves feel better about themselves.
December 10, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Conscious music has more soul and emotion behind it, generally. I listen to a lot of different genres, and most of it is ‘conscious’ and that is the stuff that resonates and makes fans. Any music with feeling behind is better, you can argue that if you like, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to lose. What feeling does the stuff on the radio have?
Sorry man, but that is it in a nutshell.
December 10, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Depends on what song is on the radio gmp. Want to get specific or do you just want to stay general with the convo?
December 10, 2007 at 8:04 pm
I only listen to the hip hop radio when my wife is driving. All I hear is a bunch of R&B songs with a rap verse or two. When I lived in SoCal, you’d hear the same song on two stations at the same time, that was fun.
Mostly I listen to rock radio in the car, and all they play is 90’s grunge, which I was never a huge fan of, but beats the same recycled R&B mess, as I can’t stand R&B (I do have a soft spot for Mary J though).
But I’m all ears man, give me something on the radio. I think the last song I enjoyed was Ludacris’ Move Bitch song, because that’s how I feel when I’m driving, so it fit.
December 10, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I only listen to R&B and Rap radio and classic rock. For the most part I like what I hear on the radio, its light music, that picks me up coming home from work.
December 10, 2007 at 8:22 pm
‘its light music’
And instantly forgettable. That is the point. I’ve had issue with radio music since I was a kid, they never played what I liked. Classic rock stations were the only ones that had anything good, but how many times can you listen to old Beatles and the Who songs?
December 10, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I remember the names of the songs, not forgettable in my mind at all.
September 3, 2008 at 7:52 pm
[…] posted Son of Nun’s Speak On It before on the old site. Appeared on Chuck’s show with him last […]
December 7, 2014 at 2:41 pm
[…] a month ago, The Starting Five posted some great revolutionary hip-hop videos. I’ve been on a new music tear of late, buying CDs and listening to new tunes like I’m […]