Deejaying Week 8

Flavor Flav. I find this character in the hip-hop culture particularly interesting. To me, he seems to be a pivotal part of the lyrical development for hip-hop. As he says, he takes it from his own life and switches it into a vernacular that makes people listen. Flavor Flav knows how to say the words that make it intense and powerful while still slicking it up so people are willing to listen. As Mark Dery says, he is the mad hatter type of hip hop. With his signature clock and top hat, his fashion seems kind of absurd, but it is still huge in the culture. He spins the words and dances the dance, just like the Mad Hatter, but deep down, (as in the new Alice in Wonderland movie), he is one of the most dangerous players. Flavor Flav is the beginning of creating a message that, as he so eloquently puts, "fights the power". Flavor Flav is the words of the street, not the academic, not picking up and carrying on old battles. He keeps the past in mind, but continues to move forward.

Public Enemy, the group Flavor Flav was invloved in, is the rough, gritty form of rap. Rap, in the basest form, is a pure political outlet. Public Enemy has been criticized for many things, including race hate, religious intolerance, homophobia, and misogyny. Even so, they struck a chord in audiences that refused to quit resonating. My question is how does their confrontation to the masses work so well?
What did they do different that so many other rappers failed to do?

Public Enemy is all about the lyrics. They don't focus so much on the graffiti or b-boying. Its all about the message and the lyrics. I would compare their music to how Imani Perry places four bases for lyrics and song. Public Enemy has the correct vernacular, or Ebonics as Perry puts it, to appeal to the audiences. They had a "political location" as they created their own identity in the community, a fight for rights and acknowledgment. Black oral tradition plays in as well. Public Enemy spins the rhymes that grab the audience; it is a mix of the oral tradition with the politics that keeps the audience entranced. Finally, the black musical tradtion keeps the masses satisfied. There is still a beat, syncopated and strong. All of this tied together, to me, is reason for their lasting success.

No Sleep Til Brooklyn

Out of all our recent readings, "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" is one of the first that has addressed graffiti as a strong part of the culture we call hip-hop. Graffiti, which started as a fight against the establishment, was discovered by the establishment. This is when things started to "go wrong" in lot of people's eyes. Graffiti artists started to switch their work to canvas instead of buildings and sold it. To many, this destroyed the authenticity of that part of the culture. Canvas art is tamed; there isn't as much of a point and it isn't for all to see. It's not splattered across the city, making people acknowledge it whether they want to or not. There was a lot of resentment when people started to place monetary values on the art of graffiti.

I was also fascinated by the the dressing down of the "bling" idea. Jewelry, or the mass amounts thereof, didn't really hit hip-hop immediately. While the early Emcees and rappers did accessorize, it was definitley not like what happens not. Run DMC was identified by a black fedora and sunglasses. This warped into rappers being idealized with gold chains and silver and "bling". The jewelry found today is really just a symbol of success among artists; the more "bling" someone has, the better they are doing. To me, this is a perfect example of the change that took over hip hop. It started as a way to break out and be heard, to fight political battles, or to rise up. Then it started to be more commercialized and broadcasted; the songs and art changed from being done for the sake of the art to being done for the sake of the money. Money slowly corrupted the basic ideals of hip hop and everything, at least in my eyes, went downhill from there. Bling is the perfect example of this. Does someone need to be wearing gold and diamonds to rap or emcee? No. But nowadays, if it isn't there, then the artists isn't really viewed as successful or meaningful to the general public. It has really just become a giant roundabout. Someone starts out with a message, they are discovered by establishment, establishment simultaneously hold their message back and places the artist of a pedestal, and then the message slowly dies while the artist becomes rich and famous. Of course, this is not always the case, but it happening and it does seem to be tarnishing the name of hip hop.