so I just checked out the CNN vid that Sketch posted and it always leaves me shaking my head to see the way that the mainstream media looks down it's nose at Hip Hop. It's frustating to see the way that corporate conglomerates like Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting can dominate the airwaves and dictate what urban music is forced down our throats.
It's funny 'cause hip hop radio didn't go top 40 format (in other words, playing the same 30-40 joints in heavy rotation) until the mid-90s. Honestly, there wasn't really much mainstream hip hop radio exposure until that point. If you wanted to hear hip hop, you had to search for it. You knew which DJs at which stations played it and when they played it (usually late at night). Other than that you could listen to urban radio and wait hours to hear a hip hop song...
However, it bumped in the streets HARD!!! Maybe, it's just too easy these days, so we listen to what we're told to listen to and don't think too much of it. Is hip hop poison? HELL NO!
For me, hip hop is salvation. And there's a lot of great hip hop right beneath the surface of the mainstream. I mean, damn, Ghostface dropped TWO classics last year- but hardly anybody noticed.
So that gets me to this. If you read the Snare post, you know that AFA rocked a whole day of workshops and performances at Westhill High School. On the real, attendance was kinda disappointing, but the kids that were there- they are CHANGED!!! They had never heard hip hop like that, at least in a current context and it rocked their worlds. Right now, they are telling their peoples, they are putting together a petition to the Principal to bring the show back for an encore and to provide easier access to the show for more of the students. They are putting in the EFFORT. They see VALUE in the experience that they had.
So as corporate hip hop is busy cannibalizing itself, closing the doors on itself and refusing to take chances because declining record sales are leaving A&Rs too shook to try something new, I'm smiling, because there's a small army of dedicated kids who see that maybe there's more to hip hop than what Power 105 tells them or what CNN is holding up to public ridicule and they are willing to stand up and rep for that.
It's funny 'cause hip hop radio didn't go top 40 format (in other words, playing the same 30-40 joints in heavy rotation) until the mid-90s. Honestly, there wasn't really much mainstream hip hop radio exposure until that point. If you wanted to hear hip hop, you had to search for it. You knew which DJs at which stations played it and when they played it (usually late at night). Other than that you could listen to urban radio and wait hours to hear a hip hop song...
However, it bumped in the streets HARD!!! Maybe, it's just too easy these days, so we listen to what we're told to listen to and don't think too much of it. Is hip hop poison? HELL NO!
For me, hip hop is salvation. And there's a lot of great hip hop right beneath the surface of the mainstream. I mean, damn, Ghostface dropped TWO classics last year- but hardly anybody noticed.
So that gets me to this. If you read the Snare post, you know that AFA rocked a whole day of workshops and performances at Westhill High School. On the real, attendance was kinda disappointing, but the kids that were there- they are CHANGED!!! They had never heard hip hop like that, at least in a current context and it rocked their worlds. Right now, they are telling their peoples, they are putting together a petition to the Principal to bring the show back for an encore and to provide easier access to the show for more of the students. They are putting in the EFFORT. They see VALUE in the experience that they had.
So as corporate hip hop is busy cannibalizing itself, closing the doors on itself and refusing to take chances because declining record sales are leaving A&Rs too shook to try something new, I'm smiling, because there's a small army of dedicated kids who see that maybe there's more to hip hop than what Power 105 tells them or what CNN is holding up to public ridicule and they are willing to stand up and rep for that.
2 comments:
Im feeling you 100% on this one big dog. no need for input from me as i echo your thoughts.
Always able to say what I'm feeling. Great stuff Othello!
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