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letra de "hip-hop is dead" - screv

hip-hop is dead

that is a statement i have vehemently denied and argued against with cl-ssmates and parents and friends and ignoramuses alike for quite a few years now. telling me that there are no good rappers when they only listen to the radio. attacking hip-hop’s content when they’ve only heard lil wayne. for quite a while, i have fought back – questioning their knowledge of the genre (and their reb-ttal generally consists of listing names – who they probably have barely, if at all, actually listened to – like eminem, 2pac, maybe even biggie! bravo.); maybe trying to expand their horizons by suggesting some artists that better represent the genre, sometimes even pointing them to specific songs. but, sadly, it is hopeless. people are stubborn. and people like to blame society’s shortcomings on anything they can; rap nowadays just seems to be a convenient scapegoat. to those people, hip-hop is dead because there “isn’t good music coming from the genre these days,” and they refuse to reconsider

but if you’re reading this right now, chances are, you know better than that. you know how much talent, both new and old, there is producing top notch art in the rap genre. you know rap music can be enticing, uplifting, riveting, beautiful, and an altogether amazing experience to this day. you know that. but what you might not know is one simple truth, whether you (or i) like it or not:

hip-hop is dead

let’s take you back to one of many house parties at 1520 sedgwick avenue, early 70’s. a man by the name of dj kool herc is hosting this party in his his high rise apartment located in the south bronx. he’s from jamaica, which isn’t completely unusual, but his style of partying is very unusual – he likes to take breaks from funk songs and just play them on repeat throughout the night, at random times toasting and boasting and basically just talking in tune with the music, encouraging people to get excited and energetic and dance wildly in accordance with the atmosphere

as it turns out, people liked this new type of party, and it spread quickly throughout new york city, around the same time the graffiti scene was becoming popular. these two movements converged and created a subculture known as “hip-hop.” this subculture consisted of everything dj kool herc’s parties did – the looped breaks from funk songs was added on to and expanded, and become djing; the boastful toasts were refined and expressed both in time with the breakbeats and acapella, becoming emceeing; the energetic, excited dancing become breakdancing; and the graffiti visual artform became the fourth part of the subculture

this subculture began to grow, and truly hit it’s stride in the late 80’s. artists such as big daddy kane brought b-boys (break-dancers) with them on tour to dance while they performed house party music with a dj scratching their records live on stage. the artists, naturally, incorporated every feature possible of their subculture into their shows, falling just short of vandalizing the venue with spray paint. the emergence of the music video allowed artists to add even the graffiti aspect of hip-hop into their performances

emcees, employing dj’s to provide their beats, expanded in leaps and bounds throughout the 90’s, with the east coast – west coast rivalry and many cl-ssic and groundbreaking albums. the music video scene continued to allow breakdancing to thrive. however, as the new york city government began cracking down on graffiti artists as criminals via stances such as the new york clean train movement, graffiti began to decline

and as the twentieth century p-ssed and the early twenty-first century began to move along, break-dancing slowly declined and segued out of our culture as well. music videos saw a shift toward “video vixens” instead of b-boys, and women dancing promiscuously instead of artists breaking

djing, in the context of the original hip-hop subculture, is also very #rare in modern “hip-hop.” how often do you hear a song with a breakbeat on a new release? maybe in that new nas record, or if you’re listening to pro era; but modern rap is dominated by synths and h-rns and hooks – not breakbeats and snares and samples. i mean, come on, when people who just yell over records that would be better off without their voice claim to be dj’s, you know something’s up

so we are left with emceeing; rapping, which is certainly still alive and well

but sentiments like that of lil wayne and others claiming hip-hop isn’t dead, are sadly misled. nas, despite being criticized for it, was probably correct in declaring hip-hop dead

so next time you hear someone obnoxiously saying hip-hop is dead, just smile and nod. because, although their reasoning may be flawed, their conclusion is correct, and you should agree with them. although the rap genre of music is still a beautiful, living form of expression; considering that it is truly made up of not only emceeing, but also breaking, djing, and graffiti…. hip-hop is dead

– rapg*nius moderator screv6

- screv

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