<nettime> hip hop eulogy digest [myers, eduardo]

[nettime_preacha <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

Wayne Myers <waz@easynet.co.uk>
     Re: <nettime> FUCK HIP HOP: A Eulogy to Hip Hop
eduardo@navasse.net
     RE: <nettime> Re: A Eulogy to Hip Hop 

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Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 15:06:43 +0000
From: Wayne Myers <waz@easynet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: <nettime> FUCK HIP HOP: A Eulogy to Hip Hop

On Sun, 05 Jan 2003 00:57:35 -0500
"McKenzie Wark" <mckenziewark@hotmail.com> wrote:

[snip]
> The complete *lack* of social awareness in rap... 
[snip]

Here's nine texts from the Original Hip Hop Lyric Archive at
http://www.ohhla.com/

http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/t_isaam/southern/nnajob.ism.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/t_isaam/southern/color.ism.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/lptroop/moderndy/reclaim.trp.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/tupac/2pclypse/brenda.2pc.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/boogiedp/cri_mind/wordfrom.bdp.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/boogiedp/by_all/my_philo.bdp.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/mos_def/black_on/fear_not.mos.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/delasoul/is_dead/millie.dls.txt
http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/sprhead/home/crime.hed.txt

They cover, among other things, the destructive effect on communities of
racist employment practice, problems around drug abuse and gun control,
complex issues around the extent to which a democracy should balance
effective policing with the goodwill of its citizenry, a positively
Dickensian portrait of the death - through lack of adequate social
support structures - of a twelve-year old mother, ironic sideswipes at
consumerism, the balance between church and state on moral issues,
issues of child abuse, and the social unacceptability of poverty in
American culture...

Which complete *lack* of social awareness in rap *were* you referring
to?


-- 
Wayne Myers
http://www.waz.easynet.co.uk/

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Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 15:15:07 -0800
From: eduardo@navasse.net
Subject: RE: <nettime> Re: A Eulogy to Hip Hop 

Hip Hop is not something that can be controlled.  One thing that bothers
me about the current thread is its error in not admitting to Hip Hop's global
role.  Hip Hop is not just in the U.S., yet, this is how it seems to be
talked about in the first posting.  It is also part of more marginalized
coutries around the world.  Other cultures have appropriated hip hop to
make it their own.  Hip Hop is much like postmodern discourse -- hard to
define because it is extremely slippery, and used by people of many ethnic
backgrounds.  To write an eulogy about such medium I consider a great error,
because it is far from dead.  It has simply become marketable as a formula.
 But this is no different than the history of Rock and Roll and its roots
back to the Blues.

In the end, this is not about Hip Hop culture or Rock & Roll culture, or
whatever other music movement people want to bring up.  it is about the
spoken word and its many forms.

Can we imagine what die-hard poets feel like when they hear arguments like
this one?  Hip Hop is just another manifestation of culture through which
poetry was revitalized.   In the end it is about the poetry and how it can
be used through new forms to create pockets of release for the upcoming
generations. The absorption by the market, as it is well known, is simply
inevitable.

Those interested in pushing the art-form should do so, or if unhappy with
it, move on to something else.  After all, was it not by moving on that
Hip Hop was born?  Because kids on the streets did not have a way to work
with much except their house stereos, and bodies on the floor?  The next
generation is too busy doing their thing to worry about the state of Hip
Hop.  They are at a state of action; while we, unfortunately, have entered
that good old metalanguage state called Myth.  The good ol'days, everybody
is talking about the good ol'days...


Peace,

Eduardo Navas
http://www.navasse.net

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