#a bit ​predictable maybe but the three pillars of my music taste are

[vedajuno]

got tagged by @sludgenaut to post albums that compose the shambling monolith of me so make sure you vote for my favorite :)

[zoeandersonresearch]

3. Audio Documentary: The Influence of Nelson George.

During my time in New York, there was a sense that everyday was a research day. I wanted to get to know the city better, as I felt that by understanding it's character, I could better understand the subjects (and sound world) of my documentary. In some of the free time that I had, I found myself wandering around the south part of Brooklyn, and subsequently stumbled onto the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Featuring talks, stalls and workshops, the festival covers a huge array of literature, The Brooklyn Book Festival takes up a large part of the south part of the famous New York Borough. In researching my documentary, I was interested in looking at the histories of hip hop, and the kind of environment that they were born out of in the south Bronx, so I had my eyes peeled for anything that would immerse me in the history of the area and it’s music.

Many of the stalls included titles on this subject, but two of the most interesting writers I came across at the festival were writers Nelson George and Jeff Chang (see page).

Nelson George is both a popular fiction writer and a television producer. I had actually encountered his work before in the form of 'Hip hop America' (1998). See section on ‘First Steps and Initial Research’ for links to some of the other works that I had encountered before starting the documentary.

Nelson George- 'Hip hop America' (1998).

George's comprehensive history of old school hip hop laid an interesting foundation for the genre, and is often cited as a founding text.

During the course of the book, Nelson charts the move from the streets and house parties to the now multi media, multi-national reach of hip hop. His idea of 'heroes and antiheroes' in the genre would inform one of the chapters of my dissertation.

How this will effect my work: This book gave me an excellent alternative history of hip hop. Even though the book meanders around quite a bit, it allowed me to get a better grasp of the genre, and laid the foundations for the geographical placement of the genre in New York City. but also that the genre has a tense relationship with it’s sense of place:

“In hip-hop terms this insecurity flows from the irrifutable fact that the music orignated here (New York City), and New Yorkers, with that swagger the world detests and envies, have never let anyone forget it” Nelson George on the West Coast- East Coast divide in Hip-hop p.129-130.

-’The Plot Against Hip-hop’ (2011)

His fictional works, such as the 'The Plot Against Hip Hop' and 'To Funk and Die in LA' are more light-hearted jaunts through the industry

These were the fictional works that George seemed to be best known for, and he related during his talk that he utilised a large amount of his journalistic experience to write these novels.

On speaking to George, he forwarded me to author Terrie William's and her work in mental health in the black community.

William's work would later inform my chapter on race and commodity relationships in my dissertation.

'The Get Down' (2016)

Perhaps the most famous piece of work that George has been involved in is the Netflix series 'The Get Down' of which he produced and wrote alongside director Baz Lurhman.

Baz Lurhman’s Netflix series ‘The Get Down’ paints a colourful and nostalgic picture of the South Bronx in the 1970s. New York is the home of hip-hop, and the fictional series follows the journey of a young, fictional group of teenagers coming up in the genre at it’s inception. 

Though the series is heavily romanticised, it actually serves as a very good introduction to the very foundations of the movement that was hip hop.

What the show presents so well, is how much the four pillars of hip hop (mcing, graffiti, break dancing and djing) meant to the parcipants of the scene at the time, The South Bronx was, at the time going through huge changes and the founders of the genre used the tools and the environment that they inhabited to create a new kind of art.

Christina Knight wrote a particularly interesting article about the South Bronx and it’s revolutionary style of music:

“No neighborhood in New York City, or for that matter in the entire nation, has been more important in the rise of hip hop than the Morrisania section of the Bronx. The Bronx’s largest predominantly African American community from the 1940’s through the late 80’s, stretching from Webster Avenue to the West, Crotona Park to the North, Westchester Avenue to the South, and Southern Boulevard to the East, Morrisania’s schoolyards and abandoned buildings provided the setting for Grandmaster Flash’s first neighborhood parties,while it’s after hours clubs offered a venue from groups ranging from the Cold Crush Brothers to the Fantastic Four”

How this will effect my work: Although my documentary will not focus on the visual, I feel that ‘The Get Down’ has further caputred the public imagination of a time which fuelled the fires of hip hop. I was keen to meet some residence of the South Bronx, to see what they thought the changes had been both in the genre, and on their local scene. Also, the series placed a huge amount of wait on the idea of the collective, and the collective experience in music. I was keen to look further into this aspect and actually ended up using this theme as the main line of questioning in my documentary.

‘Brooklyn Boheme’ (2011)

Although New York is perhaps principally known for the Harlem Renissance of the 1920s, there was a collection of American American/ Latino artists in the Flatbush Avenue area of Brooklyn that created some of the 1980s/1990s most influential work.

Spike Lee-‘Do The Ring Thing’ (1989)

What the documentary showed keenly, was how the community had formed, and how easy it was for the artists on the scene to collaborate, share ideas and generally be together creatively. 

I wondered how the different boroughs had changed in relation specifically to music, and how exactly these communities were formed now.

How this will effect my work: ‘Brooklyn Boheme’ is incredibly focused on community and how gentrification has changed the landscape of the once thriving arts and culture neighbourhood. This documentary framed a great deal of questions in the documentary and allowed me to have a bit more of a knowledge of the history of the area.

‘The Death of Rhythm and Blues’ (1988)

George’s 1988 work ‘The Death of Rhythm and Blues’ is an interesting look into the formation of the pre-hip hop (1960-1970s) era. It serves as an interesting comparative piece to ‘The Get Down’ which picks up where this book leaves off. 

One particular section in the book makes an interesting assertion about the inevitability of rap music:

“In retrospect, rap or something like it should have been predicted. Each decade since World War II has seen the emergence of some new approach to black dance music. The 1940s brought forth rhythm and blues, the 1950s rock and roll, the 1970s funk and disco. Something was due in the 1980s though the contemporary taste-makers of R&B conspired to hold off the inevitable.”- p.188

This quote is interesting, because it talks about the evolution of genre. I felt that the trap genre had maybe been handed the baton from hip-hop as the next ‘black dance music’.

How this will effect my work: I felt that George’s assertion about the inevitable revolution of music was an obvious, but an important point. My line of enquiry in my interviews also included questions about trap, and how the genre had changed.

The Three Key Research Concepts’ that I have taken from this artist are:

1.The idea of music and geography. Nelson George grew up with a number of the artists and musicians in the area at the time. His knowledge and interpretation of the collective spirit of hip-hop was incredibly interesting and I sought to delve into this idea further through my line of questioning.

2. Foundations of hip-hop vs hip-hop today. Much of George’s work contrasts today with yesterday. In Brooklyn Boheme, the gentrification of the South Brooklyn area is lamented as the romanticised old days are celebrated. I used this idea in my line of questioning, so that the interviewees could talk about their history in their own terms.

3. The importance of community. George’s work (especially ‘The Get Down’ and ‘Brooklyn Boheme’) place massive amounts of importance on community and collective spirit. Again, I used this in my line of questioning when gathering audio. See section on ‘Gathering Footage’ for more information.

CLICK HERE TO MOVE ONTO THE NEXT SECTION.