Female Rappers

When you think of female rap in 2013 you think of: Queen Latifa, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys, Lil Kim, Missy Elliot. But if you think back there were 8 other ladies who took over the scene:
EVE

CHARLI BALTIMORE

VITA

REMY MA

QUEEN PEN<

AMIL

SOLE

SHAWNNA

One thing all these women in these photos have in common is sexual femininity that was not always existant. Some of the female rappers though, such as Missy Elliot and Queen Latifa back in the days take masculine outfits as a counter hegemonic move.
Yet still the male rapper brags about cars, jewelerry and “bicthes”. The female rapper brags about their purses, their bodies and their clothing/brands.

White rap failures

It has been said that white people, in comparison to blacks, are the opposite of the black’s in the way that they are more often privileged and empowered in comparison to other races and minorities. But is this the case in rap and hip hop? Science has shown that for every Eminem, there are approximately 598,467 white people that try to rap but can’t. This is devoted to bringing you the best of the worst of them. Enjoy my top 3: L.O

1st white rapper..was….

The first white rapper was NOT Eminem! Little do most know that Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice was the first famous white rapper with his first single ‘Ice Ice Baby’ being the biggest selling record ever, selling over 17 million copies. Although the fame was short lived, the Ice man influenced many white rappers today, Ice was the first white man to have the balls to do what was mainly considered black only music.

Here he is rapping in 1991 to one of his most famous and in my opinion catchy songs: ICE ICE BABY…
L.O

Jail and HipHop

Today I want to discuss Gangsta Rap and about how rappers who have committed crimes and have been in jail are shunned by society but are welcomed and embraced in the hip hop community. What I find interesting is that the rising sales of gangster rap albums is usually driven by the allowances of suburban white kids: not exactly the demographic that sinister plots steer into the prison system. The University of Iowa’s Michael Hill explains that white suburban kids flocked to gangster rap out of a sense of rebellion, similar to the way they flocked to heavy metal in the ’80s. The relations are unclear but the reality is such.

Below is a youtube clip of famous rappers mugshots, this is only part one but the parts seem to continue and continue… check it out.. L.O

Rap vs HipHop

For years the question has been asked…What is the difference between Rap and Hip-Hop. So here you have it, there are three main differences between rap and hip-hop: musical features, culture and community message. These features are critical to separating these two very similar types of music from other popular music. The impact of rap and hip hop on modern culture has exceeded all expectations and continues to influence everything from commercials to politics.

The musical features of rap and hip hop are quite different. Rap is a combination of rhyming and poetry to a musical beat. Hip hop music includes rhythm and blues and beat boxing.

The culture of rap music is focused on poetry and quality of lyrics. Rap music has a strong background in improvisational poetry. The artists in this area of music are more predominately men, while hip hop music is a larger mixture of men and woman. Rap groups are also fairly rare, with most rappers being solo artists.

The difference between rap and hip hop from a community message angle is the role of the music in the popular media. Rap is a tool used to express current events and to tell the stories of people within the local community. Hip hop music is used to express hope for the future and to remember the successes of the past.

Here is a video that attempts to explain ths confusing question.. Enjoy L.O

Art of Rap

Today I watched the movie The Art of Rap where Ice-T takes us on an intimate journey into the heart and soul of hip-hop with the legends of rap music. This performance documentary goes beyond the stardom and the bling to explore what goes on inside the minds, and erupts from the lips, of the grandmasters of rap. Recognized as the godfather of Gangsta rap, Ice-T is granted unparalleled access to the personal lives of the masters of this artform that he credits for saving his life.

My favorite rapper in this movie is Eminem so here I will entice you with a trailer featuring the one and only Eminem: Enjoy L.O

Hip Hop genres

Rap music reaches back into the archives of slave spirituals, gospel music, rhythm and blues, jazz, Jamaican toasts and the many variations of these music genres that were sung on the streets of New York City. Rap music evolved from a tradition of storytelling through song that expresses the flavor of Latino and African American street culture. Rap crossed cultural lines and even revolutionized music.

At the turn of the century, rap began to cross cultural lines, as the messages delivered softened and became more mainstream. As mentioned in my post last week there are still some rap singers who deliver messages full of anger, yet many more rap singers tell humorous or mild street stories in their music, focusing more on sex and thrills than on hate messages. Rappers of all ethnic backgrounds can now be found, and even the religious community has capitalized on rap music, using it as a vehicle to deliver their messages to the urban music lovers.
Here is a great example of a non-famous spiritual rapper.. L.O

Today I want to focus on the many different characteristics of rap music – such as Rhyme, Flow, Metaphors, Subliminal Messages, Slang, Bragging, Exaggeration, Slang Story-telling, Rhyming battle, Collage, Recycling , Indirection. I will focus on two major characteristics: Vulgarity and Humor

Vulgarity in rap music: Rappers use vulgarity many times in a humanistic way. It is a way of opposing society. Hip-hop/rap music originally started in the under privileged ghetto’s, so the music expresses the sentiment of that culture (which is often violence and vulgarity). Although rap music is a word play genre kind of music, most of the mainstream artists lack vocabulary and we know that cursing is often by people who have little or no vocabulary. But there are some hip-hop artist that very rarely curse (Common, Outkast, & Jay-Z)

Humor in rap music: Relieves tension. When in a bad situation, the only thing that remains to do is to laugh. Laughing liberates yourself from powers that oppress you because you can laugh about them, “laugh it off”. Comedy rap is a sub-genre of hip hop music that is comedic in nature, often incorporating satirical lyrics. While many examples of comedy hip hop could be considered a parody of the hip hop genre, in the case of artists who merely incorporate humor into their more serious, purist hip hop styles.
Early in the short history of rap music, the Fat Boys made a splash with their self-deprecating humor, large size, and infectious rhythms and rhymes. With a combined weight totaling over 750 pounds, the Fat Boys fell onto the rap scene, performing a blend of comedy and music. Above is a picture of the band and below is a great song to broadcast this theme. Enjoy L.O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74MTIBbn4uI

Bronx in the 1970’s

 Today I want to talk about the Cross Bronx Expressway construction which has been said to have played a big part in creating Manhattan as the financial hub that it is today. Most of the Bronx was destroyed because of the construction and most of the Jewish people from middle to working classes moved to better neighborhoods. This destruction made the Bronx a metaphor for war zone and decay as we know it to be today. The highway had severe traffic problems, and its construction has been blamed for devastating a number of low-income neighborhoods in the South Bronx. On a positive note, this movement is what has been said to have created a form of dance that is cherished until today, Break Dance. Breaking, which is also known as breakdancing and B-boying, is a dance movement that began in the early 1970’s in the streets of Bronx after this detruction. Black Americans of this era are largely credited for establishing this dance movement.
Below is a video of the Bronx vs Brooklyn dance battle in the subway which clearly demonstrates this form of dance until today in New York at it’s finest…

L.O

Rappers of Grandmaster Flash

Today is about how Hip Hop started in the margins and how it became mainstream. I want to discuss one group in particular, Grandmaster Flash. Grandmaster Flash essentially re-designed funk to a new era.
These rappers complained about the environment they lived in. Overall, the group was active for five years and released two studio albums. In 2007, it became the first hip hop group ever to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The group rose to fame in the early 1980s with their first successful single “Freedom” and later on with their magnum opus “The Message”, which is often cited as among the most influential hip hop songs. Here is it and below are the lyrics incase they are not clear enough in the song.
http://http://youtu.be/F6e9G-ump3Y

Grandmaster Flash The Message Lyrics

It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

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
Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far
Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car

Chorus:
Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head, ah huh-huh-huh
[2nd and 5th: ah huh-huh-huh]
[4th: say what?]
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Standing on the front stoop, hangin’ out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady livin’ in a bag
Eating out of garbage pails, used to be a fag-hag
Said she danced the tango, skipped the light fandango
The Zircon Princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got social security
She had to get a pimp, she couldn’t make it on her own

[2nd Chorus]

My brother’s doing bad on my mother’s TV
She says: “You watch it too much, it’s just not healthy!”
“All My Children” in the daytime, “Dallas” at night
Can’t even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
I can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standin’ on my back
Can’t stop to turn around, broke my sacrophiliac
A mid-ranged migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I’m going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane

My son said: “Daddy I don’t wonna go to school
Cause the teacher’s a jerk!”, he must think I’m a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it’d be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I’ll dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can’t walk through the park, cause it’s crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun, cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jar
Hear them say: “You want some more livin’ on a seesaw?”

[4th Chorus]

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he’s frowning too
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You’ll grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you’re playin’, where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You’ll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them, huh,
Smugglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers even panhandlers
You say: “I’m cool, I’m no fool!”
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you’re unemployed, all non-void
Walking ’round like you’re Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you’ve done did
Got sent up for a eight year bid
Now your manhood is took and you’re a may tag
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag
Being used and abused to serve like hell
Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

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
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under

Yo Mell, you see that girl there?
Yo, that sounded like Cowboy man
Cool
Yo, what’s up Money?
Yo, where’s Cooly an Raheim?
They is downstairs coooling out
So what’s up for tonight y’all?
We could go down to Phoenix
We could go check out “Junebug” man
Hey yo, you know that girl Betty?
Yeah man
Come on, come all man
Not like it
That’s what I heard man
What’s this happening, what’s this?
What’s goin’ on?
Freeze
Don’t nobody move or nothin’
Y’all know what this is (What’s happend?)
Get ’em up, get ’em up (What?)
Oh man, we’re (Right in there) Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
What is that, a gang?
No
Shut up
I don’t wanna hear your mouth
Shut up
Officer, officer, what is the problem?
You the problem
Hey, you ain’t gotta push me man
Get in the car, get in the car
Get in the god…
I said, “Get in the car”
Why is he?

L.O