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astoundingbeyondbelief · 8 years ago

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The History of Reptilicus

When Mystery Science Theater 3000 debuted on national television in 1989, the first victim of Joel and the ‘Bots was The Crawling Eye, a British monster movie. The show’s revival on Netflix begins with another creature feature filmed in Europe, Reptilicus. I had the pleasure of watching this episode at the Season 11 premiere in New York and thought it was incredible, with a blizzard of quality jokes and a monster rap for the ages. Certainly Reptilicus was an excellent target: the monster is laughable and the comedy is horrifying. But there’s an incredible story behind the making of that 1961 movie, and a trio of strange adaptations that followed it. MST3k, by its nature, can’t tell that story, so I’d like to give it a try myself.

Sidney Pink produced almost 25 movies over the course of his career. To his dismay, Reptilicus became the most famous of them. At the time, he went all in on the dragon from Denmark: aside from producer duties, he directed it and came up with the story. Though the novel concept of a giant monster movie set in Copenhagen was the idea of AIP co-founder Jim Nicholson, Pink’s pre-existing relationship with Saga Studios made it possible. That connection also led to Reptilicus’s occasional moments of high production value. Fleming John Olsen, who owned Saga, used his influence as a member of the majority-ruling Social Democratic Party to secure the cooperation of the Danish army and navy. Unlike many of its contemporaries, all the footage of the military in Reptilicus was shot for the movie, even the Albatros-class corvette firing depth charges.

Reptilicus was the first science-fiction movie made in Denmark in almost fifty years. The hype generated for it by the press gave Pink tremendous freedom in filming scenes of panic in Copenhagen. One thousand extras participated in the drawbridge scene, with members of a bicycle club agreeing to plunge into Copenhagen Harbor.

The premiere, of course, was a disaster. Mystery Science Theater was this movie’s destiny from the beginning, as audience laughter gave way to outright heckling. The formal reviews were no kinder. In Jack Stevenson’s book Land of a Thousand Balconies, he states that, “To this day, Reptilicus is responsible for some of the most colorful and excited prose in the entire history of Danish film criticism.”

Though Reptilicus features lines like "You'll have to fire point-blank, at very close range," its special effects provide the richest target for mockery. One look at the film's miniatures make the problem obvious: they were built at too small a scale to be convincing. Set photos from the film are rare, but the few available show monster props about seven and four feet long. Shots using the former turned out decent enough, but the latter never looks like anything but a floppy marionette.

The version of Reptilicus that became a national embarrassment to Denmark was quite different from the product unleashed on American theaters and the Satellite of Love – and in my opinion, a little bit better. The dialogue scenes in Reptilicus were filmed simultaneously in English and Danish, with Poul Bang directing the latter. Every character in Reptilicus was played by the same actor in both versions, with the exception of Connie Miller (Marlies Behrens in the American version, Bodil Miller in the Danish version). You can see the problem with that approach: the largely Danish cast delivered their English lines with heavy Danish accents. AIP’s other founder, Samuel Z. Arkoff, was mortified at their performances, and demanded that American voice actors re-record all the dialogue. Pink, who was used to the accent by then, sued AIP when it refused to distribute the movie. After his lawyer looked at the Danish performances for himself, he convinced Pink to drop the case. Reptilicus was dubbed by Titra, a New York company which handled countless Japanese monster movies throughout the Sixties and early Seventies, and released in the United States in 1963, almost two years after its Copenhagen premiere. Ib Melchior, the screenwriter, claims to have dubbed six different characters himself. The original English audio is unlikely to ever surface.

Danish version on the left, American version on the right.

The Danish Reptilicus, shot from the same script as its American counterpart, has basically the same plot, with two major exceptions. Dirch Passer, a legendary comedian in Denmark, received his own musical number about the monster, which he performs with a mysterious gaggle of children who are never seen again. Reptilicus also flies in the Danish version. For some reason, AIP felt that those shots were unacceptable, though its own version added some special effects which were even worse. The neon green slime Reptilicus spits from his mouth is the most famous, but the American version also shows him devouring a farmer in a shot so hysterical that the roar of the audience at the MST3k premiere made Crow's joke impossible to hear.

Reptilicus received a novelization from Monarch Books and a comic book from Charlton Comics. The novelization was written under a pseudonym by Dudley Dean McGaughy, who primarily worked in the western and crime genres. He... took some liberties with the source material. As Bill Warren explains in Keep Watching the Skies, "Along with Monarch novelizations of Konga, Stranglers in Bombay, Brides of Dracula, and Gorgo, it was the closest thing to over-the-counter pornography as you could find in the early 1960's." Sid Pink, who received credit for the original story, sued AIP and Monarch again for using his name in the book without permission.

Charlton's take on Reptilicus was more conventional. The first issue was simply an adaptation of the movie, while the second took a freshly-regenerated Reptilicus on an adventure in Africa. Then the character mutated.

Pink never sued Charlton – in fact, he never knew about the Reptilicus comic until years later. However, comic book veteran Stephen R. Bissette postulates that his action against Monarch caused Charlton to change the characters' name preemptively. In his third issue, Reptilicus became Reptisaurus the Terrible. Reptisaurus wasn't all that different from Reptilicus, just red, less toothy, and with a new prehistoric origin completely divorced from the movie. He became a monstrous anti-hero patterned after Gorgo and Ogra, who had their own Charlton comic. Like them, he fought Communists, repelled alien invaders, and ate atom bombs for breakfast. In a crossover less exciting than it sounds, he actually appeared in an issue of Gorgo, swooping in to smash some flying saucers. For some unfathomable reason, however, the story concluded without a face-to-face meeting between Europe's premiere giant monsters. In his seventh issue, Reptisaurus received another makeover, growing a nasal horn and more powerful limbs. This version was much better-drawn, but only lasted another two issues.

Scary Monsters magazine published all the Reptisaurus the Terrible issues in a book called Scarysaurus the Scary in 2012, with every mention of the monster's name clumsily replaced. Why the change? Well, they might have been trying to avoid any legal entanglements with the makers of the movie that had come out in 2009. Reptisaurus was the first movie directed by Christopher Ray, who has gone on to have a prolific career with The Asylum. As far as I can tell, it's only available on DVD in Japan and Thailand, making it exceptionally hard to find. But if the trailer’s any indication, you're not missing much. The monster himself is a Wyvern 2.0 model currently sold by DAZ 3D for $14.95.

Since Reptilicus was released in the days when the only people who cared about box office returns worked in the film industry, I can only say that it turned a profit for AIP. Its reputation as a bad movie of legendary proportions would develop over time. Mystery Science Theater 3000 is sure to raise its profile, but the American version has been readily available on home video for a while now, with each new format helping a new generation discover its unique charms. The Danish cut came out on DVD in 2002, though you'll need to do a bit of Googling to find an English translation. And if you find yourself curious about what such a film's screenplay was like, Reptilicus superfan Kip Doto published it in 1999, along with a detailed commentary, after befriending Sid Pink. Doto also helped facilitate the production of a Reptilicus toy by M1 and Club Daikaiju the following year.

Before he passed away in 2002, Pink unsuccessfully attempted to find financers for either a remake or a sequel to the movie. An attempt by a small Danish company to create a video game in 2015 also seems to have fallen through. Still, history shows again and again that no giant monster can be counted out entirely. If Moguera, Yongary, and Guilala can roar back decades after their original appearances, the not-too-distant future could very well see a wobbly lizard darken the skies over Copenhagen once more.

Sources and Additional Reading:

“It Came from Beyond Belief - The Incredible Movies of Sidney Pink in Denmark” by Jack Stevenson (republished in Land of a Thousand Balconies)

“You Say Reptilicus, I Say Reptisaurus — The Charlton Monster Comic Saga, Concluded!“ by Stephen R. Bissette

Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties by Bill Warren

Flying Through Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants by Samuel Z. Arkoff with Richard Trubo

Both issues of Reptilicus on Comic Book Plus

Every issue of Reptisaurus the Terrible on Comic Book Plus

Glenn Erickson’s review of the 2001 MGM Reptilicus DVD

Mention of the Reptilicus remake on the site of CG animator Gary Dohanish

Undead Backbrain AMA with Reptisaurus director Christopher Ray

#mst3k #reptilicus #reptisaurus #writing

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toldnews-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/entertainment/an-appraisal-john-singleton-did-justice-to-a-poetic-vision-of-african-american-life/

An Appraisal: John Singleton Did Justice to a Poetic Vision of African-American Life

“Boyz N the Hood” rests in American movie history like a boulder in a riverbed, altering the direction of the stream. After its release in the summer of 1991, everything looked different, including its precursors. “Mean Streets,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” the Blaxploitation spectacles of the 1970s, the socially conscious crime dramas of the 1930s, classic westerns and samurai epics — somehow John Singleton, a very recent graduate of the University of Southern California film school, synthesized all of those models even as he came up with something bracingly, thrillingly and frighteningly new.

“Boyz” made him the youngest person — and the first African-American — nominated for a best directing Academy Award. In the annals of cinema, there aren’t many first features to match it for ambition and impact (“Citizen Kane”? “Breathless”?), and its influence on what came after is hard to overstate. Singleton, who died Monday at 51, filled his characters’ lives with warmth and humor even as they were constantly menaced, and often destroyed, by violence. He infused familiar coming-of-age and gangster-movie tropes with a rare authenticity. This wasn’t just a matter of his intimate knowledge of the setting known then as South-Central Los Angeles, but also of his brave, even brazen confidence in himself and his audience.

[Read the John Singleton obituary and a recent interview with him. | See where to stream his best films.]

A blazing debut can be a hard act to follow, and Singleton’s second film, “Poetic Justice” (1993), didn’t enjoy the same success, at least with critics, as its predecessor. But when I heard the news of Singleton’s passing, “Poetic Justice” was the movie I found myself thinking about. Partly because its earnest sentiments — its open-heartedness about creativity, love and loss — seemed most apt for mourning an artist who left too soon. Grief, after all, has been part of the film’s legacy since its male star, Tupac Shakur, was murdered in 1996. And there may be no purer dose of early-’90s nostalgia than watching Shakur and Janet Jackson travel the romantic-comedy arc, their progress from conflict to harmony punctuated by the poems of Maya Angelou and breathtaking vistas of the California countryside.

“Poetic Justice” is, in its way, as influential as “Boyz N the Hood” and as political as “Higher Learning” and “Rosewood,” Singleton’s subsequent confrontations with past and present-day manifestations of American racism. “Poetic Justice” begins with a sly and pointed critique of Hollywood representation. A note tells us we’re in South-Central, but the images are of high-rise, well-heeled Manhattan, where a white couple, played by Billy Zane and Lori Petty, are drinking wine in a penthouse.

The joke is that this is a movie-within-the-movie showing at a Los Angeles drive-in. (The marquee tells us that it’s called “Deadly Diva” and has an NC-17 rating.) The patrons, including Jackson’s Justice and her boyfriend (Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest), don’t look like the people onscreen, but they’ve bought tickets anyway, as generations of black and Latinx moviegoers have before them. With a few exceptions, it’s always been that way.

“Poetic Justice” sets out to change that situation, by every means available. The stylized, consequence-free gunplay of “Deadly Diva” is soon drowned out by a shooting that pulls what seemed like an ’80s-vintage teen comedy into the brutal world of “Boyz N the Hood.” Within a few minutes, before the opening titles have even scrolled, we’ve swerved from satire to sex farce to tragedy, and Singleton is only getting started.

Eventually, Justice and Lucky (Shakur’s character) will set off for Oakland in a Postal Service truck with their friends Iesha (Regina King) and Chicago (Joe Torry), and “Poetic Justice” will turn into a road movie. Before their departure, Singleton lingers over the funny and painful details of their lives at home and at work, sketching a portrait of working-class black life that looks back to the radical neo-realism of the L.A. Rebellion and forward to the businesslike striving of the “Barbershop” franchise. The casting of two stars of popular music as a hairdresser (Jackson) and a mailman (Shakur) doesn’t so much glamorize the characters as affirm the realness that the performers had already established as the cornerstone of their appeal.

Between Los Angeles and the Bay Area, the four travelers journey through a kind of utopian space. Not that everything is harmonious among them. Iesha and Chicago have some issues, and Lucky and Justice are barely on speaking terms. Harsh words are exchanged, followed by a few slaps and punches. But the movie’s close attention to this interpersonal friction might cause you to notice what isn’t in the picture. There are no police on the highway and almost no white people (except for a belligerent truck driver at a gas station). Justice and company crash a family reunion, where Maya Angelou herself dispenses wisdom and passes judgment on her temporary nieces and nephews. They stop at a cultural festival where revolutionary poets and drummers hold the stage.

This dream evaporates in Oakland, where a shooting has claimed the life of Lucky’s cousin and rap partner. The point of the film’s long, languorous middle was never to imagine an escape from violence and racism, but to show some of the richness and variety of life in their shadows, to free the characters from the obligation to behave like symbols or avatars of social problems.

Watching “Poetic Justice” now, I was put in mind of Barry Jenkins’s recent “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and not only because Regina King is (splendidly) in both films. Their visual and storytelling styles are very different, but Jenkins and Singleton are directors whose primary motivation is their unstinting love for the people they conjure into being.

They push aside the noise of plot to capture the quiet intensity of ordinary moments and the poetry of everyday experience. They notice beauty everywhere. “Beale Street” and “Poetic Justice” are stories of black artists falling in love in a world that tends to devalue both their creativity and their feelings, and each movie simultaneously illuminates those struggles and shares in them, in a spirit that is sorrowful but never grim or despairing.

My point isn’t to establish a lineage, but to identify a common spirit, and to measure the shape and size of the doorway that Singleton made, an opening wide enough for so many others to walk through.

#entertainment news aggregator #entertainment news luke perry #entertainment news page six #entertainment news please #entertainment news yen.com #Entertainmentbazz

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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Can Hip Hop Help Solve Wine’s Millennial Problem?

Joey Bada$$ travels with a bottle of Sancerre in his rider. Although he claims to have only started drinking upon reaching legal age, now at a ripe 25 years old, the Brooklyn-born rapper has an affinity for a chilled glass of French Sauvignon Blanc. Every day A$AP Rocky spends his time drinkin’ wine, feelin’ fine, while the Migos trio — Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff — like their pours over meals at Michelin-star restaurants. And rarely do you catch Drake on his Instagram Stories or in an interview without a wine glass in hand. They don’t call him Champagne Papi for nothing, after all.

These are just a small fraction of rappers known to boast about their developed palates in song lyrics and on their social media pages. As their careers and fan bases have grown over time, so have their tastes and pleasures, and that’s never been more prevalent in the music as it is now. “Hip hop has always shown wine love. It’s always been a way of painting a more luxurious picture,” says Jermaine Stone, the wine auctioneer and CEO of Cru Luv Wines, a wine branding and marketing company dedicated to blending the worlds of wine and hip hop.

Stone, host of the podcast “Wine & Hip Hop,” adds, “Hip hop has a way of just grabbing luxury things and ingraining them into our day to day lives.”

In 2017, hip hop became the most popular music genre in the U.S. with eight of the top 10 most popular artists being rappers, according to a Nielsen Music/MRC data report. Drake and Kendrick Lamar, who once rapped about sipping Carlos Rossi’s notable jug wine, held the first and second spots, respectively. The genre continued to dominate the music industry in 2018 and 2019, and Nielsen speculates that hip hop is on track to maintain its lofty position at the top in 2020.

The significance of hip hop’s reach and influence over tens of millions of Americans, at this point, is undeniable. And the flair and cadence of rappers’ personal delights is trickling over into the wine industry more than ever. No longer are they the ones merely mentioning wine in songs, they’re selling it and it’s capturing the attention of millennial drinkers.

This development comes at a crucial time for the wine industry. Wine’s share of the drinks market dropped in 2019 for the first time in 25 years, according to research firm IWSR. The downward trend has largely been ascribed to millennial drinkers, who are increasingly drinking across category lines, often opting for hard seltzer and cocktails over wine. So can hip hop’s increasing interest help solve wine’s millennial problem?

Credit: Maison No. 9 / Instagram.com

Hip Hop’s Wine Presence

Since his 1996 debut, music mogul Jay-Z continues to floss about the finer things in life, including vintage wine like Château Pétrus. He essentially introduced his fans to the luxury bubbles of Champagne Cristal before wooing the masses with his gold-bottled Armand de Brignac Champagne — otherwise known as Ace of Spades, which he now owns. His success within the wine industry has sparked the interests of more artists looking for a way to capitalize their brand and expound on their love of wine. Now partnerships between winemakers and artists are increasing with music industry vets like E-40, Nicki Minaj and John Legend developing their own labels.

Just this year alone, hip hop rocker Post Malone traded in his beerbongs for his own rosé label, Maison No. 9. Before its official launch in June, the Grammy winner sold a whopping 50,000 bottles of the French pink wine in a two-day pre-sale and even caused the online wine retailer Vivino to crash, according to a TMZ report. Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg recently released his new wine, Snoop Cali Red — a red blend of Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Merlot — in partnership with the Australian wine brand 19 Crimes.

Credit: 19 Crimes / Instagram.com

Engaging Millennials with Music and Wine

At Fantinel Winery in Friuli Venezia Giulia, CEO Marco Fantinel, calls the pairing of hip hop and wine industries a “magic formula” for generating a “modern approach in the world of wine culture, which is based on traditional and often outdated communication styles.”

Mary J. Blige, largely regarded as a queen of hip hop and R&B, partnered with Fantinel Winery to produce her Sun Goddess Wines — a bottle collection composed of a Pinot Grigio Ramato and a Sauvignon Blanc — that launched in June. “We strongly believe in the coupling of music and entertainment-wine,” says Fantinel, noting that while winemakers are great at producing the product, they are often limited in marketing and communication efforts.

With a global powerhouse like Blige backing the label, a winery’s potential to attract thirsty customers can increase significantly. “The bond with a top-level artist can certainly speed up a brand’s notoriety process. If the product is excellent as well, the result is a success,” he says.

Although wine volume sales in the U.S. have declined as millennials’ interests in other categories increases, this demographic still represents the industry’s biggest opportunity for growth. In a 2019 video broadcast, Rob McMillan, the founder and executive vice president of Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division, advised wine industry leaders to increase direct-to-consumer sales and provide more social-media-friendly wine experiences for young drinkers as a way to revive the category’s popularity among millennials.

But bridging the cultures between wine and hip hop — millennials’ most preferred music genre — could prove to be among the most beneficial means of turning attention back to wine. “The more commingling the better,” Stone says. “I’ve now seen so many hip hop and wine events and people branding themselves through hip hop and wine. And every time we do that, what it really highlights is how much each one of these things can impact people from all different walks of life — and bring people from all different walks of life together.”

The article Can Hip Hop Help Solve Wine’s Millennial Problem? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/hip-hop-wine-millennials/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

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Can Hip Hop Help Solve Wines Millennial Problem?

Stone, host of the podcast “Wine & Hip Hop,” adds, “Hip hop has a way of just grabbing luxury things and ingraining them into our day to day lives.”

Credit: Maison No. 9 / Instagram.com

Hip Hop’s Wine Presence

Credit: 19 Crimes / Instagram.com

Engaging Millennials with Music and Wine

The article Can Hip Hop Help Solve Wine’s Millennial Problem? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/hip-hop-wine-millennials/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/can-hip-hop-help-solve-wines-millennial-problem

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isaiahrippinus · 4 years ago

Text

Can Hip Hop Help Solve Wine’s Millennial Problem?

Stone, host of the podcast “Wine & Hip Hop,” adds, “Hip hop has a way of just grabbing luxury things and ingraining them into our day to day lives.”

Credit: Maison No. 9 / Instagram.com

Hip Hop’s Wine Presence

Credit: 19 Crimes / Instagram.com

Engaging Millennials with Music and Wine

The article Can Hip Hop Help Solve Wine’s Millennial Problem? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/hip-hop-wine-millennials/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/625168188991307776

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mastcomm · 4 years ago

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Slain George Floyd was a rapper often known as ‘Massive Floyd’ in Houston

George Floyd: he was a rapper again in Houston Texas

George Floyd, the person whose demise is shaking American and the world was a rapper again in Houston Texas as revealed on this article revealed by RollingStone :

Cal Wayne’s phrases come quick, toppling over each other. “I ain’t gon’ lie it’s devastating,” the Houston rapper says. “I idolized him.”

Then Cal describes the morning he obtained a textual content from a pal that modified his life, about an occasion that will result in tens of millions of People taking to the streets in protest. “That’s your brother,” the message learn. It included a video. Earlier than Cal might watch your complete clip, his girlfriend got here dwelling, delivering information he couldn’t imagine. She implored him to complete watching what he initially believed was solely an arrest. “I regarded, and watched it,” Cal says. “I didn’t understand they only killed my nigga.”

Houston rappers Paul Wall, Bun B, Trae tha Reality, Cal Wayne talk about legacy of Massive Floyd

Cal knew George Floyd his complete life; George was the person who at all times believed in his rap profession. “That’s my next-door neighbour,” he says. “I truly lived with him for 3 years. Once I was younger, my mother went to jail. His mom simply got here and obtained us, and we simply stayed together with her.”

On Might 25th, George Floyd was arrested by 4 Minneapolis law enforcement officials exterior of a Cup Meals comfort retailer after an worker claimed he tried to make use of a counterfeit $20 invoice to purchase cigarettes. For greater than eight minutes, Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck to the bottom along with his knee, whereas three officers — Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Kueng — watched. “I can’t breathe, man,” Floyd pleaded, crying out for his mom earlier than falling unconscious. “Please.” Floyd died; in accordance with an impartial examiner employed by his household, the trigger was “asphyxiation from sustained stress.” He was 46.

“[George] had no aggression to him,” Cal says. “He wouldn’t damage no person.”

On the night earlier than protesters march to Houston Metropolis’s Corridor, two of the occasion’s organizers, Bun B and Trae tha Reality, sound uncooked. Though Floyd was killed in Minneapolis — he’d moved there looking out to raised his life in 2014 — he was raised in Houston’s Third Ward. And as Texas rappers and fathers, each Bun and Trae witnessed the non-public toll that Floyd’s passing had on the individuals round them.

“This Friday was the primary day that my very own son needed to come to the realisation that, as a father of black kids, one thing might occur to his kids on this world simply because they’re black,” Bun B says. “It truly introduced me to tears for him, having that realisation.”

Trae discovered about Floyd’s demise mendacity subsequent to his daughter of their front room. When one among his pals referred to as asking concerning the identification of the person within the soon-to-be viral video, Trae needed to search for himself. “I used to be simply misplaced for the time being. Watching it, simply took me for a loop,” Trae provides. “Then I referred to as Cal Wayne. He was at all times with George earlier than he truly moved to Minnesota. Once I referred to as him, he was crying. It was lots happening.”

For a decade, as Trae organised group occasions along with his companion Tiffany Cofield, Floyd was there. “George would truly drive [Tiffany],” Trae says.

“They might drive up there collectively for lots of stuff I used to be doing, they’d be there serving to me hands-on. Once I would come assist the tasks I’d give them provides, meals, totally different stuff. He’d at all times be on the market.”

“He believed in individuals to a degree it appeared he believed in individuals greater than he even believed in himself,” Trae provides.

Again within the early 2010s, when Trae’s music was banned from radio stations following a taking pictures at a group occasion he organised, Floyd supported him when many artists and supporters had fled. In a video posted to Trae’s Instagram, a younger Floyd — decked in a backward fitted hat — advocates for his pal and, by extension, his group. “It’s about coming collectively, man,” he implores his metropolis. “As a result of God is sweet.”

“I used to be banned from radio worldwide,” Trae says. “It is going to make 11 years this yr. At a degree, lots of people left. They didn’t wish to discuss to me. They didn’t wish to don’t have any affiliation, as a result of I used to be going by means of a tricky time so far as being blackballed. He randomly on his personal went to protesting himself and doing movies saying all the pieces that Trae do for the group; y’all attempting to cease him and it’s not proper. He at all times spoke up for what’s proper, even when younger dudes within the neighbourhood could also be performing some stuff that ain’t cool. When there was loads of killing happening all through our metropolis, he would at all times converse up, like, ‘This ain’t the way in which.’”

For these rising up in Houston, George, often known as Massive Floyd, was a part of a vital native scene that influenced a lot of recent hip-hop. An affiliate of the Screwed Up Click on, Floyd’s voice appeared on cult-classic mixtapes helmed by the legendary DJ Screw. Because the inventor of “chopped and screwed” — a way of slowing down a report’s sonics till the vocals and manufacturing seemed like they’d been dragged by means of molasses — the late DJ, who died in 2000, created a sonic blueprint impacting the charts to today. “[DJ Screw] was an innovator,’” Russell Washington, the president of Bigtyme Information informed The New York Occasions in 2000. “Who would have thought somebody would come alongside, scale back the music’s pace, and placed on all native artists that nobody had ever heard of, and promote 300,000 information?”

“It mechanically ties him to a legendary legacy,” Bun B says of Massive Floyd’s involvement with the Screwed Up Click on. “By having that stage of proximity to DJ Screw, you’re mechanically afforded a sure standing within the metropolis of Houston, and held in excessive regard.”

Within the late Nineties, Houston rap stood alone, with its personal aesthetic and cultural orbit. The divide between those that rapped as a full-time occupation and hobbyists was typically fluid. DJ Screw’s prolific mixtape output impressed many like Floyd to attempt their hand at rapping between different pursuits. It was an period earlier than CDs, MP3 downloads, and social media, which has made protecting the reminiscence of those foundational skills alive a “vocal custom [that] will get handed on from one particular person to a different,” in accordance with Paul Wall.

“[Big Floyd] would rap on tapes, however you’ll additionally hear different rappers say his title on tapes. Massive Pokey saying one thing about Massive Floyd. Lil’ Keke saying one thing about Massive Floyd. Mike D saying one thing about Massive Floyd,” Wall begins. “For the individuals that will come, it will be individuals from on a regular basis walks of life. His mixtape [Chapter 007:] Ballin’ In Da Mall, that’s one of many ones the place there’s like legend behind the mixtape. He supposedly labored at Foot Locker, him and another individuals. It was one among their birthdays. I feel it was Massive Floyd’s birthday they usually come. And ‘what you wish to do in your birthday?’ ‘I wish to do a Screw tape.’ ‘Aight, on my birthday we’ll go over there.’ That’s what lots of people would do. It’s your birthday, you’d go and make a Screw tape.”

Within the early-to-mid 2000s, Paul Wall, together with the remainder of Swishahouse (Mike Jones, Chamillionaire, Slim Thug), fulfilled the industrial promise that the earlier era’s Screwed Up Click on by no means obtained the prospect to. As a white rapper, Wall just isn’t solely deferential to the reminiscence of the rappers who populated Screw’s mixtapes, but additionally the Houston tradition that accepted him. “It don’t matter the place I grew up. It don’t matter how a lot cash I give to causes locally. It don’t matter what number of rallies or protests I am going to. It don’t matter what number of songs I make spreading positivity or sending a message. It don’t matter how a lot time I spend inside the group. It don’t matter that I’ve a black spouse,” Wall says. “Being a white particular person in America, you signify being a benefactor of slavery of what this nation was constructed on.”

Bun B and Trae tha Reality traveled to Minneapolis to protest for Floyd and each different black American killed by the police; days later, they turned their consideration to his birthplace. Though Bun B didn’t know Floyd personally, he knew somebody who had. Stephen Jackson, the previous NBA participant, is Bun B’s lifelong pal and a person that referred to as Floyd his “twin.” “Think about this, a person rising up in an space the place the percentages are already in opposition to him,” Jackson mentioned at a press convention final week. “You get a possibility to maneuver away from the setting that introduced you down. You get away. You achieve success. You get a job. Your life begins delivering the precise route. You stumble just a little bit once more. That’s not price your life, although.”

Bun B, Trae tha Reality, Floyd’s household, and protesters are calling for laws starting from an impartial group assessment board with subpoena energy that may receive and have a look at proof with out police interference to harsher penalties for police who commit crimes like those that resulted in Floyd’s demise. Whereas new laws gained’t deliver again the numerous black lives murdered by the police, if profitable, it’s going to start to verify the world isn’t robbed of one other Massive Floyd.

Just a few hours faraway from the protest, I ask Cal the way it feels to see your complete world battle for Floyd.

“That’s the perfect a part of it,” Cal says. “He shook the world. Massive Floyd is admittedly Massive Floyd now. He’s a martyr now.”

Associated

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cutsliceddiced · 5 years ago

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New top story from Time: The 10 Best Songs of 2019

2019 was a year of upheaval in the pop music world, with new voices rising to the fore through unexpected pathways. Lizzo’s career was jolted forward by a Netflix trailer; Lil Nas X rode TikTok and Twitter to the top of the charts. Stars emerged out of Brooklyn (Pop Smoke), Spain (Rosalía) and Nigeria (Burna Boy), expertly wielding social media and huge streaming numbers to captivate audiences across the world.

And as new voices claimed the spotlight, some of pop’s biggest names, from Charli XCX to Dua Lipa, continued to put out irresistible, vital earworms, as well. Here are TIME’s best songs of 2019.

10. “Crowded Table,” The Highwomen

The fact that The Highwomen even exists is impressive. The new supergroup brings together four of country music’s most prolific women: Maren Morris, a country-pop star with powerful vocals and mainstream hits like “The Middle”; Brandi Carlile, the Grammy-recognized folk artist whose work is marked by wry brilliance; Amanda Shires, a notable fiddler and country mainstay; and Natalie Hemby, the heavy-hitting songwriter who’s been the secret weapon for artists like Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert and Lady Gaga on A Star Is Born. That all four found the time to make an album together speaks to their commitment to claiming space for women’s voices in a historically patriarchal industry. And that their music—as exemplified by the beautiful ballad “Crowded Table”—weaves in political statements only adds a layer of richness. “I want a house with a crowded table,” they insist, “and a place by the fire for everyone / Let us take on the world while we’re young and able, and bring us back together when the day is done.” The line works as a mission statement for these four distinct artists: make great music and complicate our definitions of womanhood, motherhood and femininity in the process. They make that statement over an unabashedly pretty melody, going in and out of duets and harmonies with seamless, generous sweetness. (Bruner)

9. “Simmer,” Mahalia ft. Burna Boy

Ever since going viral for a Colors Studios performance in 2017, the British singer Mahalia has enjoyed a steady rise, scoring hits including “I Wish I Missed My Ex” and the Ella Mai-assisted “What You Did.” On “Simmer,” she repurposes the burbling bassline of the 1997 dancehall classic “Who Am I” by Beenie Man, using it to anchor a love story in which a relationship verges on boiling over. A sultry and irrepressible appearance from the Nigerian singer Burna Boy, one of the year’s breakout stars, turns the song from a B-side into a global summer anthem. (Chow)

8. “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings,” Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek has long worked on the fringes of the mainstream pop world: she fronted the indie pop band Chairlift for a decade and racked up songwriting credits for Beyoncé, Solange, Charli XCX and Travis Scott. But she takes center stage on this year’s Pang, her major label debut album with Sony. The best of the bunch is “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings,” a cheekily named song propelled by handclaps and strutting muted guitars. But while the song sounds readymade for a night out, it drips with lovesick anxiety: “I cry on the dancefloor, it’s so embarrassing,” Polachek confesses. The music video—in which she skips and spins in cowboy boots across a barren, hellish landscape—perfectly reflects the song’s paradoxically carefree potency. (Chow)

7. “Too Much,” Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen has built a cult following on the power of her brand of pure, heart-on-your-sleeve pop. (Her widely-praised third album was even nakedly called Emotion.) “Too Much” synthesizes everything that makes the Canadian artist, best known for her 2012 earworm “Call Me Maybe,” beloved. It’s got relatable, on-the-nose lyrics; a commitment to catchy, sweet melodies; all sung with Jepsen’s intimately breathy vocals. Most of all, “Too Much” feels intensely honest. “When I feel it, then I feel it too much / I’ll do anything to get the rush,” she sings, then turns it around: “Is this too much?” Her ability to swing from wild joy to insecurity—all over a shimmering dance tune that’s as infectious as anything she’s produced—is a triumph. (Bruner)

6. “Crime Pays,” Freddie Gibbs & Madlib

Bandana, the widely acclaimed album from rapper Freddie Gibbs and producer Madlib, was forged in trying circumstances: Gibbs says he wrote most of the record in an Austrian jail while awaiting his eventual acquittal from sexual assault charges. Given this initial disconnect between the pair, it’s astonishing how perfectly Gibbs’ gravelly rhymes coalesce with Madlib’s sun-bleached soul production. “Crime Pays,” in particular, perfectly toes the line between their aesthetic sensibilities: Madlib unearths a pristine sample from jazz fusion artist Walt Barr that conjures both nostalgia and unlimited possibility, while Gibbs confronts the darker realities of chasing the American dream: “Diamonds in my chain, yeah, I slang but I’m still a slave / Twisted in the system, just a number listed on the page.” (Chow)

5. “Don’t Start Now,” Dua Lipa

On her 2017 debut album, Britain’s Dua Lipa established herself as a honey-voiced rising star of mainstream pop. On “Don’t Start Now,” the debut single off her sophomore project, she proves she has something to add to the conversation. And that something is a propulsive, infectious disco sensibility. Made with juicy synths, bubbly percussion and bouncy vocal twists, it’s a tune that celebrates independence and promises joy in the process. Lipa made her name on the cheeky breakup empowerment hit “New Rules”; “Don’t Start Now” follows in that breezy, forward-thinking tradition. “Though it took some time to survive you,” she sings, “I’m better on the other side.” It’s the sound of a new pop era. (Bruner)

4. “Juice,” Lizzo

Lizzo’s “Juice” is a funk-soul self-love dance anthem built to inspire confidence. That’s no fluke; her long-gestating career as a singer, songwriter and flutist has taken off this year thanks to her commitment to the goal of making listeners find assurance in her feel-good, fun-loving lyrics and danceable beats. She kicks things off by turning a fairy tale trope into an affirmation: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, don’t say it, ’cause I know I’m cute,” and ends the song with a bold giggle. With a retro-sounding melody that resonates across generational tastes, the song has already become a dancefloor mainstay. “Juice” sounds like it was perfected in a test kitchen, equal parts joy, cheeky lyricism and timeless appeal. (Bruner)

3. “Welcome to the Party,” Pop Smoke

While mainstream rap is still dominated by trap—the crawling subgenre from Atlanta—artists have also been looking north and taking elements from drill, Chicago’s much faster and frenetic style. “Welcome to the Party,” which was inescapable in Brooklyn this summer and fall, manically races forward, with the 20-year-old rapper’s syllables spilling out in terrifying, clipped bursts. Pop Smoke growls both his threats and boasts in unruly, unpredictable clusters—but even more jarring is producer 808Melo’s bassline, which seems to bubble out of the deepest recesses of the American psyche. (Chow)

2. “Con Altura,” Rosalía x J Balvin

“Con Altura” is a record-breaking collaboration between two Spanish-speaking artists with distinct backgrounds but powerful influences: Spain��s Rosalía is making a name for herself with flamenco-inflected alt-pop on works like her Grammy-nominated, poetically inspired second album El Mal Querer, while J Balvin reigns as one of Latin America’s reggaeton kings and one of the most popular artists on the planet, thanks to his international chart-toppers like “Mi Gente” and “I Like It.” Together on “Con Altura,” they found a sweet spot that mixes a number of musical traditions, from dembow to hip-hop to reggaeton, while still flexing their individual powers. Over spare, specific percussion, Rosalía’s voice rings out with lilting, sing-song precision; Balvin provides a balancing, stable counterpoint. The combination is potent and haunting, hinting at the diversity of Latin music and the creative future it is inevitably heading toward. (Bruner)

1. “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X

“Old Town Road” contains many opposing truths. It’s both underdog and behemoth; eye-rollingly trivial and slyly progressive; radio-ready hit and oddball meme. This summer, it was both a distraction and the thing you couldn’t escape.

And it was this shapeshifting ability that made “Old Town Road” the ideal cultural artifact for 2019, in its endlessly iterative and argumentative nature. Whether people went online to criticize it, dance to it or remix it, everyone interacted with it some way, continuously pouring fuel as it set record after record.

And as Lil Nas X added to the fire by releasing a stream of remixes, the song became less a single record and more a fluid canvas for transgression. Each new version ruptured a new boundary or norm—whether it was Billy Ray Cyrus singing about his Maserati or BTS member RM delivering bilingual wordplay. Once scorned as outsider—both to Nashville and the music industry at large—Lil Nas himself became the gatekeeper, and then opened the door as wide as possible for everyone else. (Chow)

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

#Time #top stories #IFTTT #news

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artworkandstuff · 6 years ago

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Outrage elaborated fully

Outrage is an album influenced by current affairs, the media and politics. Its existence will be to shine the light on issues typically unaddressed to young audiences. Its inspiration has come from my love of knowledge and my wish to share this information with others. Particular events such as Brexit, Grenfell and the General Election fuelled my curiosity to discover the world of politics and all its dirty ways.

My EP - OUTRAGE

Track 1 - Police Brutality

My first track is called Police Brutality which is straight up about police brutality. Not only is it about Police Brutality, it’s also about Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is much more than just a hashtag on twitter, it’s a worldwide activist movement. Black Lives Matter is a campaign against racial injustice against black people internationally. This subject ties in directly with Police Brutality as majority of victims of Police Brutality are black, especially in America. Now although the argument against that is that more white people are killed by the police in America than black, its the fact that the black community are such a small percentage in America as opposed to white. Bringing it back overseas to the UK we don’t have deaths that frequently because of the police, but we do have stop and searches often. Here shows a graph displaying those who have been stopped and searched in groups of ethnicity.

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-the-law/policing/stop-and-search/latest

You can clearly see how much more the black community is victimised down to simply being black. The whole police system is racially rigged, no argument against it and this clearly shows that.

One poor guy who is no longer with us who suffered the full force of the British Police is Rashan Charles. I made the song in memory of him and reference to his unjustified death. “Let me spend this moment and spit something for Rashan for was wrongly strangled by the blue man, forcely accused of swallowing a package, when the 50 fucked him and turned him into bagage”. I wanted to reference him as evidence to show my frustration at Police brutality but also to show how needed “black live matters” is. On top of that I reference stop and search by saying “Rest in peace brother only so young what does it take for the feds to see what they done, a joke a mess that’s basically their ego, touching up young men like some peado”. I wanted to make a hard point that it’s just a joke, why are people being victimized for the way they look then suffering because of it. Its pathetic.

I do understand that the lack of funding to the police force by the Conservatives austerity has hit the force hard, but it’s not an excuse for imbecilic behaviour. I mention this in my piece by saying “Under funding and stretched supplies, but you still interested in taking lives, but not taking knives, jheeze you hurt inside. Not nice. Not nice.“. I talk about the subject of knives as in Britain we have a knife crime epidemic. Knives are easy to obtain and conceal and can easily cause a death. Due to the lack of police officers on the street and the closure of youth centres down to the Conservative government there simply aren’t the resources available to bring these criminals to justice and the support for young people just doesn’t exist anymore.

The Tory government went as far to blame other reasons for the rise in knife crime and not them cutting police numbers and closing youth centres. Amber Rudd the home secretary blamed numerous matters, such as music and videos posted online on youtube. She said that the use of violent words and actions has had a dramatic affect on young people’s minds. By posting these music videos online apparently “glamourise” the lifestyle of a “thug”. On top of that the illegal creation and importation of crack cocaine has created the perfect environment for gangs to unleash terror on neighbouring gangs due to disputes over unpaid money. The third reason Rudd claimed to have contributed to the rise in knife crime is Alcohol consumption. Once consumed alcohol can greatly affect one’s decision making and can alter your physical ambition. Additionally Rudd claims that crowded pubs can assign people to inappropriate behaviour, even though there is little evidence to support this. People’s “age” and “character” is just as much of a contribution to, according to Rudd. The way people socialise and communicate affects their character which leads to knife crime. Personally I feel that these accusations are rather bland and have little to no evidence to support them. Furthermore Rudd claims there are more contributing factors, which I personally feel I are pathetically hilarious. For instance she had suggested that knife crime has always been an issue and because of better police records they can document more, leading to knife crime appearing to have grown. The last contributing factor is apparently wider problems across society. The statement Rudd made was rather bland as she accuses lack of communication because parents, police and youth workers from fighting knife crime together.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/two-uk-top-cops-warn-12449585

Track 2 - Our Freedom, Our Future

Our freedom, our future is a track I created based upon poverty, Brexit and the austerity of the Conservative government. Since the Tories came into government back in 2010 the country has changed dramatically. David cameron’s choice to introduce Brexit and a national vote on the matter has led to the term “immigrants” being used as a term for race. Since the vote in 2016, hate crime has risen. I wanted to show this in the rap and I start it off by saying “I’m not defending my race or culture, but I’m defending that fallen soldier, to fight was not his wish, but to serve was his life, sad thing is that no one cares cause he’s not white”. I’m not talking directly about a soldier, but I’m just simply talking about strong people dying for no need, such as a result of gang crime and knife crime, but little is truly being done about it because they’re not white. Towards the end of the piece I continue to talk about brexit as well to highlight its controversy and I say “cause opportunity will give us a life, but instead you vote for the rich arsehole party every time, the same party that is happy to walk away without a deal, then in that case just have it repealed”. Food banks have increased with up to 1 million people using them weekly. Dominic Raab, Conservative MP claims that people who use food banks aren’t actually in poverty, but those with a cash flow and management problem. This tory MP then went on to say that he is thankful for them. As great as food banks are, it’s a shame that they exist in the sense that it’d be a dream for poverty not to exist. Yet with Tories in control of the government, they don’t seem bothered by these figures.

Alongside food banks, children’s school dinners seem to be getting the axe, much like children’s milk did back in the 80’s with Margaret Thatcher in charge of government, claiming that there simply isn’t the money. To highlight this matter I said “Free school meals sound like a dream, but you don’t want rich people paying for those in need”. The rich people are the government. Majority of MP’s send their children to private schools as opposed state funded schools. Because they don’t experience poverty and lack of money, they are so unintouch with the country and it’s true needs. So by cutting school dinners you’re leading to children falling hungry.

Police numbers have been cut by more than 20,000 and they wonder why anti social behaviour and violent crime are on the raise. Police claim that violent crime has risen by more than 20% since the tories came into government, however the government have found from their own individual research that it’s only 14%. Regardless, the percentage has risen. The ignorant among us would claim it’s “all the immigrants” being allowed into this country causing the problem, when in reality it’s a lack of care to society by the Conservative government. Such as cutting funds to school clubs, youth centres and even the beloved library. Shamefully up to 15% of mental nurses have been cut since 2010. We have pay caps for the public sector, we have benefits being cut to those who depend on them. One of the lines from my rap is “Cutting benefits to those who need it, but givng rich arseholes more tax cuts, can you believe this”. I’m outing the complete carelessness of the Conservative party. The NHS is crippinling to pieces and we have a man running it who has written a book called “ Direct Democracy: An Agenda For A New Model Party “. The book talks about the “denationalisation” of the NHS, to replace it with an insurance system. It’s a book co written by Tory mp’s, one of which is Health and social care secretary Jeremy Hunt. The cabinet reshuffle in January saw Jeremy Hunt move from “Health care secretary” to “Health and social care secretary”. By doing so Hunt will merge both healthcare and social care together, shared funding. It’s the worst thing. You’ll have people taking up hospital beds who simply need help going to the toilet and taking medication. That simply isn’t right. It’s more than clear that the tories are trying to tear the NHS apart in order to find an excuse to privatise it. This is already being done by selling off property on hospital land for investment by other companies such “Virgin Care”.

Track 3 Conflict catalyst -

Conflict catalyst is a track that talks about the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia under a conservative government. We are second in the world when it comes to arms trading. There is an international law that states if you sell your weapons to one country, they can’t use them on you, so they can’t attack you, even if you’re not really an “ally”. This is perfect, however its rather bad as well. Countries who thrive off of war use them, Saudi Arabia love war and so there for thrive off of them. They are in war with Yemen at the moment and it’s all rather ironic. Not only are we selling arms to Saudi Arabia who have links to ISIS, we are giving foreign aid to Yemen, the country they are bombing. How on earth does this make sense, it’s almost comical.

Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest places in the world, but also one of the number one human rights abusers. Sharia law is in place within the country which is an incredibly ancient Islamic law as its over 1400 years old. How on earth you are able to apply ancient laws to a modern society. You can’t. As a part of the law there are crimes classed as “Hudud” which include Baggery, Adultery and theft as well as many more. These crimes are punishable by public demonstration via lashing, stoning, removal of body parts and beheading and somehow in a modern day world they still exist. Out of anger I created the bar “Happily cut a next man for liking a man, happily stone a girl for having a baby that ain’t planned, intimacy in public is illegal, the heck they doing beating their own people”. I didn’t even need to changed anything it was practically freestyle and I’ve kept it to use in my work because sometimes thinking on the spot fuels your creativity.

We openly sell weapons to this country and with our knowledge of their breach of human rights, our conservative government doesn’t care. Money over morals. The fact that they have more of our own weapons then we do is ironic.

Track 4 Political Correctness:

Political Correctness is something that has taken the world by storm in the past 10 years. The point of it is to ensure people aren’t discriminated against but because of this people who have never fell victim to not being represented feel that it is not needed. Not only that but some people who fall victim to discrimination find themselves just as frustrated as for now they are being wrongly represented. An example is a term called “emoji blackface” which is people using an emoji of another race when they are a different race. I have heard of it before but recently two rather well known people had bought it up. Comedian Darren Harriott bought it up as part of his set and made a mockery of it saying how its political correctness gone mad. I can completely agree, he said why couldn’t emoji’s just of stayed yellow and there’d be no problem. A rapper known as Big narstie also bought it up in a live stream while having his hair cut. He said how it’s all been taken way too seriously and emoji’s as a whole are more of a joke than a second language. Especially with new emoji’s being released often it’s almost a way to dull subject matters down and for the subject to make more sense to a wider audience, such as hyroglifics.

There are far more subject matters that I have put into my work as I feel that everyone is born the way they are and everything should accept that. No one should be put in a box as at the end of the day someone else’s life and routine of life won’t ever affect yours. Within the piece I explain how political correctness does more good than bad as it allows people to no only feel accepted but also to push unwanted language and descriptions to the side.

Within the piece I reference Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell. One of the quotes is “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Animal farm is a book based about war and the movement of politics throughout history. I am using this quote in my work to show that no human is no better than another, no money, ethnicity, job, sex life can change that.

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clubofinfo · 6 years ago

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Expert: Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union, a phrase evolved to describe gullible western intellectuals who came to visit Russia and failed to notice the human and other costs of building a communist utopia. The phrase was “useful idiots” and it applied to a good many people who should have known better. I now propose a new, analogous term more appropriate for the age in which we live: useful hypocrites. That’s you and me, folks, and it’s how the masters of the digital universe see us. And they have pretty good reasons for seeing us that way. They hear us whingeing about privacy, security, surveillance, etc., but notice that despite our complaints and suspicions, we appear to do nothing about it. In other words, we say one thing and do another, which is as good a working definition of hypocrisy as one could hope for. — John Naughton, The Guardian “Who needs direct repression,” asked philosopher Slavoj Zizek, “when one can convince the chicken to walk freely into the slaughterhouse?” In an Orwellian age where war equals peace, surveillance equals safety, and tolerance equals intolerance of uncomfortable truths and politically incorrect ideas, “we the people” have gotten very good at walking freely into the slaughterhouse, all the while convincing ourselves that the prison walls enclosing us within the American police state are there for our protection. Call it doublespeak, call it hypocrisy, call it delusion, call it whatever you like, but the fact remains that while we claim to value freedom, privacy, individuality, equality, diversity, accountability, and government transparency, our actions and those of our government rulers contradict these much-vaunted principles at every turn. For instance, we claim to disdain the jaded mindset of the Washington elite, and yet we continue to re-elect politicians who lie, cheat and steal. We claim to disapprove of the endless wars that drain our resources and spread thin our military, and yet we repeatedly buy into the idea that patriotism equals supporting the military. We claim to chafe at taxpayer-funded pork barrel legislation for roads to nowhere, documentaries on food fights, and studies of mountain lions running on treadmills, and yet we pay our taxes meekly and without raising a fuss of any kind. We claim to object to the militarization of our local police forces and their increasingly battlefield mindset, and yet we do little more than shrug our shoulders over SWAT team raids and police shootings of unarmed citizens. And then there’s our supposed love-hate affair with technology, which sees us bristling at the government’s efforts to monitor our internet activities, listen in on our phone calls, read our emails, track our every movement, and punish us for what we say on social media, and yet we keep using these very same technologies all the while doing nothing about the government’s encroachments on our rights. This contradiction is backed up by a Pew Research Center study, which finds that “Americans say they are deeply concerned about privacy on the web and their cellphones. They say they do not trust Internet companies or the government to protect it. Yet they keep using the services and handing over their personal information.” Let me get this straight: the government continues to betray our trust, invade our privacy, and abuse our rights, and we keep going back for more? Sure we do. After all, the alternative—taking a stand, raising a ruckus, demanding change, refusing to cooperate, engaging in civil disobedience—is not only a lot of work but can be downright dangerous. What we fail to realize, however, is that by tacitly allowing these violations to continue, we not only empower the tyrant but we feed the monster. In this way, what starts off as small, occasional encroachments on our rights, justified in the name of greater safety, becomes routine, wide-ranging abuses so entrenched as to make reform all but impossible. We saw this happen with the police and their build-up of military arsenal, ostensibly to fight the war on drugs. The result: a transformation of America’s law enforcement agencies into extensions of the military, populated with battle-hardened soldiers who view “we the people” as enemy combatants. The same thing happened with the government’s so-called efforts to get tough on crime by passing endless laws outlawing all manner of activities. The result: an explosion of laws criminalizing everything from parenting decisions and fishing to gardening and living off the grid. And then there were the private prisons, marketed as a way to lower the government’s cost of locking up criminals. Only it turns out that private prisons actually cost the taxpayer more money and place profit incentives on jailing more Americans, resulting in the largest prison population in the world. Are you starting to notice a pattern yet? The government lures us in with a scheme to make our lives better, our families safer, and our communities more secure, and then once we buy into it, they slam the trap closed. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about red light cameras, DNA databases, surveillance cameras, or zero tolerance policies: they all result in “we the people” being turned into Enemy Number One. In this way, the government campaign to spy on our phone calls, letters and emails was sold to the American people as a necessary tool in the war on terror. Instead of targeting terrorists, however, the government has turned us into potential terrorists, so that if we dare say the wrong thing in a phone call, letter, email or on the internet, especially social media, we end up investigated, charged and possibly jailed. If you happen to be one of the 1.31 billion individuals who use Facebook or one of the 255 million who tweet their personal and political views on Twitter, you might want to pay close attention. This criminalization of free speech, which is exactly what the government’s prosecution of those who say the “wrong” thing using an electronic medium amounts to, was at the heart of Elonis v. United States, a case that wrestled with where the government can draw the line when it comes to expressive speech that is protected and permissible versus speech that could be interpreted as connoting a criminal intent. The case arose after Anthony Elonis, an aspiring rap artist, used personal material from his life as source material and inspiration for rap lyrics which he then shared on Facebook. For instance, shortly after Elonis’ wife left him and he was fired from his job, his lyrics included references to killing his ex-wife, shooting a classroom of kindergarten children, and blowing up an FBI agent who had opened an investigation into his postings. Despite the fact that Elonis routinely accompanied his Facebook posts with disclaimers that his lyrics were fictitious, and that he was using such writings as an outlet for his frustrations, he was charged with making unlawful threats (although it was never proven that he intended to threaten anyone) and sentenced to 44 months in jail. Elonis is not the only Facebook user to be targeted for prosecution based on the content of his posts. In a similar case that made its way through the courts only to be rebuffed by the Supreme Court, Brandon Raub, a decorated Marine, was arrested by a swarm of FBI, Secret Service agents and local police and forcibly detained in a psychiatric ward because of controversial song lyrics and political views posted on his Facebook page. He was eventually released after a circuit court judge dismissed the charges against him as unfounded. Rapper Jamal Knox and Rashee Beasley were sentenced to jail terms of up to six years for a YouTube video calling on listeners to “kill these cops ‘cause they don’t do us no good.” Although the rapper contended that he had no intention of bringing harm to the police, he was convicted of making terroristic threats and intimidation of witnesses. And then there was Franklin Delano Jeffries II, an Iraq war veteran, who, in the midst of a contentious custody battle for his daughter, shared a music video on YouTube and Facebook in which he sings about the judge in his case, “Take my child and I’ll take your life.” Despite his insistence that the lyrics were just a way for him to vent his frustrations with the legal battle, Jeffries was convicted of communicating threats and sentenced to 18 months in jail. The common thread running through all of these cases is the use of social media to voice frustration, grievances, and anger, sometimes using language that is overtly violent. The question the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to decide in Elonis is whether this activity, in the absence of any overt intention of committing a crime, rises to the level of a “true threat” or whether it is, as I would contend, protected First Amendment activity. (The Supreme Court has defined a “true threat” as “statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.”) In an 8-1 decision that concerned itself more with “criminal-law principles concerning intent rather than the First Amendment’s protection of free speech,” the Court ruled that prosecutors had not proven that Elonis intended to harm anyone beyond the words he used and context. That was three years ago. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in Elonis, Corporate America has now taken the lead in policing expressive activity online, with social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube using their formidable dominance in the field to censor, penalize and regulate speech and behavior online by suspending and/or banning users whose content violated the companies’ so-called community standards for obscenity, violence, hate speech, discrimination, etc. Make no mistake: this is fascism. This is fascism with a smile. As Bertram Gross, former presidential advisor, noted in his chilling book Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America: Anyone looking for black shirts, mass parties, or men on horseback will miss the telltale clues of creeping fascism. . . . In America, it would be super modern and multi-ethnic—as American as Madison Avenue, executive luncheons, credit cards, and apple pie. It would be fascism with a smile. As a warning against its cosmetic façade, subtle manipulation, and velvet gloves, I call it friendly fascism. What scares me most is its subtle appeal. The subtle appeal of this particular brand of fascism is its self-righteous claim to fighting the evils of our day (intolerance, hatred, violence) using the weapons of Corporate America. Be warned, however: it is only a matter of time before these weapons are used more broadly, taking aim at anything that stands in its quest for greater profit, control and power. This is what fascism looks like in a modern context, with corporations flexing their muscles to censor and silence expressive activity under the pretext that it is taking place within a private environment subject to corporate rules as opposed to activity that takes place within a public or government forum that might be subject to the First Amendment’s protection of “controversial” and/or politically incorrect speech. Alex Jones was just the beginning. Jones, the majordomo of conspiracy theorists who spawned an empire built on alternative news, was banned from Facebook for posting content that violates the social media site’s “Community Standards,” which prohibit posts that can be construed as bullying or hateful. According to The Washington Post, Twitter suspended over 70 million accounts over the course of two months to “reduce the flow of misinformation on the platform.” Among those temporarily suspended was Daniel McAdams, Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute. Rightly contending that tech companies are just extensions of the government, former Texas congressman Ron Paul believes that social media networks under the control of Google, Apple, Twitter and Facebook are working with the U.S. government to silence dissent. “You get accused of treasonous activity and treasonous speech because in an empire of lies the truth is treason,” Paul declared. “Challenging the status quo is what they can’t stand and it unnerves them, so they have to silence people.” Curiously enough, you know who has yet to be suspended? President Trump. Twitter’s rationale for not suspending world leaders such as Trump, whom critics claim routinely violate the social media giant’s rules, is because “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.” Frankly, all individuals, whether or not they are world leaders, should be entitled to have their thoughts and ideas aired openly, pitted against those who might disagree with them, and debated widely, especially in a forum like the internet. Why does this matter? The internet and social media have taken the place of the historic public square, which has slowly been crowded out by shopping malls and parking lots. As such, these cyber “public squares” may be the only forum left for citizens to freely speak their minds and exercise their First Amendment rights, especially in the wake of legislation that limits access to our elected representatives. Unfortunately, the internet has become a tool for the government—and its corporate partners—to monitor, control and punish the populace for behavior and speech that may be controversial but are far from criminal. Indeed, the government, a master in the art of violence, intrusion, surveillance and criminalizing harmless activities, has repeatedly attempted to clamp down on First Amendment activity on the web and in social media under the various guises of fighting terrorism, discouraging cyberbullying, and combatting violence. Police and prosecutors have also targeted “anonymous” postings and messages on forums and websites, arguing that such anonymity encourages everything from cyber-bullying to terrorism, and have attempted to prosecute those who use anonymity for commercial or personal purposes. We would do well to tread cautiously in how much authority we give the Corporate Police State to criminalize free speech activities and chill what has become a vital free speech forum. Not only are social media and the Internet critical forums for individuals to freely share information and express their ideas, but they also serve as release valves to those who may be angry, seething, alienated or otherwise discontented. Without an outlet for their pent-up anger and frustration, these thoughts and emotions fester in secret, which is where most violent acts are born. In the same way, free speech in the public square—whether it’s the internet, the plaza in front of the U.S. Supreme Court or a college campus—brings people together to express their grievances and challenge oppressive government regimes. Without it, democracy becomes stagnant and atrophied. Likewise, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, if free speech is not vigilantly protected, democracy is more likely to drift toward fear, repression, and violence. In such a scenario, we will find ourselves threatened with an even more pernicious injury than violence itself: the loss of liberty. More speech, not less, is the remedy. http://clubof.info/

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moreartworkandstuff · 6 years ago

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Outrage elaborated fully

My EP - OUTRAGE

Track 1 - Police Brutality

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-the-law/policing/stop-and-search/latest

You can clearly see how much more the black community is victimised down to simply being black. The whole police system is racially rigged, no argument against it and this clearly shows that.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/two-uk-top-cops-warn-12449585

Track 2 - Our Freedom, Our Future

Our freedom, our future is a track I created based upon poverty, Brexit and the austerity of the Conservative government. Since the Tories came into government back in 2010 the country has changed dramatically. David cameron's choice to introduce Brexit and a national vote on the matter has led to the term “immigrants” being used as a term for race. Since the vote in 2016, hate crime has risen. I wanted to show this in the rap and I start it off by saying “I’m not defending my race or culture, but I’m defending that fallen soldier, to fight was not his wish, but to serve was his life, sad thing is that no one cares cause he’s not white”. I’m not talking directly about a soldier, but I’m just simply talking about strong people dying for no need, such as a result of gang crime and knife crime, but little is truly being done about it because they’re not white. Towards the end of the piece I continue to talk about brexit as well to highlight its controversy and I say “cause opportunity will give us a life, but instead you vote for the rich arsehole party every time, the same party that is happy to walk away without a deal, then in that case just have it repealed”. Food banks have increased with up to 1 million people using them weekly. Dominic Raab, Conservative MP claims that people who use food banks aren’t actually in poverty, but those with a cash flow and management problem. This tory MP then went on to say that he is thankful for them. As great as food banks are, it’s a shame that they exist in the sense that it’d be a dream for poverty not to exist. Yet with Tories in control of the government, they don’t seem bothered by these figures.

Alongside food banks, children's school dinners seem to be getting the axe, much like children’s milk did back in the 80’s with Margaret Thatcher in charge of government, claiming that there simply isn’t the money. To highlight this matter I said “Free school meals sound like a dream, but you don’t want rich people paying for those in need”. The rich people are the government. Majority of MP’s send their children to private schools as opposed state funded schools. Because they don’t experience poverty and lack of money, they are so unintouch with the country and it's true needs. So by cutting school dinners you’re leading to children falling hungry.

Track 3 Conflict catalyst -

Track 4 Political Correctness:

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smwriteportfolio-blog · 6 years ago

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Inquiry-Based Research Essay: Hip-Hop Evolution

Sean McRoberts WRIT1133 Professor Taczak June 5, 2018 Introduction Hip-hop culture began in the 1970’s and has sustained a level of relevance and popularity over decades. Beginning with DJ Kool Herc, the culture has remained a staple of both a staple of the music world and in popular culture, living on today through musicians like Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West. However, the culture as a part of society has not remained stagnant, and has transitioned through several unique phases in terms of music, social relevancy and motivation. The early phase of hip-hop was comprised of DJ’s, emcee’s, graffiti influences, and b-boys. These early characteristics of the culture have changed over time into a new brand of hip-hop, focusing on social commentary, political influences and a re-branded style of rap music. In this essay, the question of “How has rap culture evolved over the past 20 years to become what it is today”? will be answered. To do this, the fluid evolution of hip-hop as a culture and rap music as a popular musical genre will be discussed, and will attempt to dive deeper into the reasons and influences that have caused this drastic evolution. The first and most prevalent aspect of hip-hop culture was that of motivation. In the subject of rap music and hip hop, motivation can be viewed in several different ways. There are the motivations for the pioneers of hip hop to begin creating the culture from the ground up, and also the motivations of artists and rappers throughout hip-hop’s lifespan to create the music that they have produced, and are still producing today. The first source that motivation came up in was in Emmett Price’s Hip Hop Culture, where he said, “Artists were simply motivated to articulate their despair and celebrate their self-determination through the foundational elements of DJing, graffiti tagging, b-boying/girling, MCing, and later beat-boxing and producing” (Price, 45). This statement allows readers of the research to identify some of the main reasons people wanted to produce this new culture, a yearning to express themselves and tell about their struggle. Artists also had similar motivations, the motivation that drives them to create music. Noah Karvelis says in his article that, “this circular path of musical travel is typically designed with the goal of allowing for dancing, singing, intricate rhythms, or the layering of all three” (Karvelis, 13). Artists are motivated to make music so that people can enjoy themselves, dance and sing, and like the original motives, express themselves in ways that they normally cannot without rap music. This idea is contradicted by one of the most prominent rappers in modern hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar, and in a quote from an article by Dorian Lynskey, Lamar says, “There’s actually some real shit going on out there that people can relate to more than any singalong I can bring to the table” (Lynskey, 4). To Lamar, his motives for making music are not solely to make listeners sing along, but to be conscious of real issues in the world that affect the majority of people. This disagreement on motives to create rap music is perfectly related to my research question, as it allows me to view rap from two different spaces in time, and that there are in fact different motivations in these two spaces. Influence, like motivation, has played a crucial role in the development of hip-hop, and give small distinctions as to why the culture has changed so much over the years. First, Becky Blanchard states that, “Violence in rap, and in other forms of self-expression, is the manifestation of a feeling of hopelessness and discontent in America’s working class” (Blanchard, 4) which both identifies the influence of violence of the culture of rap and the subject matter of lyrics, and the discontent in America’s working class. These two issues at the time were big influences on the culture and key concepts in the subject matter of rap for years to come. Another source that picks out a key influence on hip-hop is from an article by Siobhan Brooks and Thomas Conroy, where they identify punk rock as an influencer, saying that “each developed an influence on an ever-increasing set of practitioners and audiences” (Brooks, Conroy, 5). Punk rock had a big influence of the development of hip hop because they both emerged out of New York at about the same time. Violence, punk rock, and the “discontent” of the American working class were all influences over the entire culture of hip hop at its beginnings, but there are also some more recent influences. In Lynskey’s article on Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize, he gives the example of “Geraldo Rivera on Fox News making the absurd claim that ‘hip-hop has done more damage to young African Americans than racism in recent years’” (Lynskey, 3). Lamar has been such a successful artist that he now has the moral responsibility to discuss and oppose these negative influences in his music. Lamar was definitely influenced by what Gerald Rivera said, because he actively used and discussed the quote in one of his songs, DNA. Along with the negative influences that affect hip hop, Blanchard says that, “rap’s potential for political advocacy stems from the function of its predecessors…” (Blanchard, 2), leading the readers to believe that rap has been influenced by both itself, as it takes from aspects of hip-hop in the past, and political issues. Hip-hop has become one of the most identifiable genres of music in today’s rotation and that is because of its extremely unique identity. In the Netflix series The Get Down, hip-hop was characterized primarily by graffiti culture, b-boys and girls, and the Black community in 1970’s New York (Luhrmann, Guirgis). A quote from Emmett Price’s book compliments this very well, where states that the question of “Who is hip-hop?” (Price, 46) was very common at the start of hip-hop. These both touch on the identity (or lack of identity) built up at the conception of hip-hop, which is where the majority of its identity comes from. In Internet banging: New Trends in social media, gang violence, masculinity and hip-hop, the authors use quotes from Bakari Kitwana, who states that “urban Americans born between the years of 1965 and 1985… he terms this generation the Hip-Hop Generation” (Patton, Eschmann, Butler, A57). This only reinforces the idea that the pioneers of hip-hop were the ones who solidified the identity of the culture for years to come. Also in this source, they characterize “hip-hop identity as the rebellious, assertive voice of predominantly urban youth, males in particular… hip hop identity has rejected the values and norms of the mainstream, while embracing and substituting oppositional values…” (Patton, Eschmann, Butler, A57), further defining hip-hop identity as rebellious and rejecting the mainstream culture. As I have discussed before, much of the influence for hip-hop came from punk rock music at the same time, Brooks and Conroy also say that “What punk and hip-hop mostly share is an attitude, one of detachment, and of some degree of opposition to mainstream, polite, co-opted society” (Brooks, Conroy, 5) which only adds to the rebellious identity of hip-hop. This collection of previous research is very helpful to my own research as when I do my primary research, I can now compare the identity of early hip-hop to what people believe it has become lately. Turning to hip-hop today, the major changes have led to new applications of rap music and the culture as a whole. The dominant application of hip-hop music today has been in education, and I have found two different examples of this. Noah Karvelis is a teacher who has begun to use rap music as a learning experience, saying that he was “quick to notice the interest that many students have in hip-hop and the rich educational opportunities that lie in it” (Karvelis, 13). One of the opportunities that lies within the use of rap music in the classroom is that students “…are extremely excited that something very musically and culturally relevant to them is being used in their classroom” (Karvelis, 14). Rap music has evolved into something that is more than just music but can be used as an educational tool also because of the conscious lyrics and social issues that are addressed. Along with teachers, “counselors and counselor educators were initial forerunners in the Hip-hop therapy movement. More than 30 years ago, Lee and Lindsey endorsed the use of rap music during group counseling with Black elementary school students” (Washington, 5). In this quote from Ahmed Washington, it is evident that rap has more applications that it once did, and because of its connection both emotionally and realistically to the Black community, it can be used as a tool in counselling. Not only is rap music now used in education, but in different ways of entertainment as well. Lin Manuel Miranda, a well-known composer and performer, wrote the musical Hamilton, but instead of implementing normal show-tunes, he wrote a rap show. In an article by Rebecca Mead, she says that “it was, he thought, a hip-hop story, an immigrants story” (Mead, 2). Hip-hop has shown the world, through musicals or education practices, that it has evolved into something totally new, while still drawing from its origins like immigration or social motivations. Although hip-hop has become something entirely new, and could be seen as a beneficial turn for the culture, it is still being scrutinized by the public as being violent and a bad influence. The connotation that it has with crime and gang violence seems to be concrete in the make-up of hip-hop, but has grown many different branches that touch many different parts of our society. The rap “boy band” BROCKHAMPTON advocates for gay acceptance, Kendrick Lamar addresses the similarities between gangs and the political system of America, and Logic begins to bring suicide and mental health into the rap discussion. However, before the discussion of what rap has become today can be brought up, the details for why it has become what it has must be addressed. Methods The public has played a very distinct role in the development of hip-hop, it seems appropriate to use them as the subjects to help dissect how hip-hop has evolved. To do this, I used a mixed method approach, meaning I used both qualitative and quantitative methods to receive opinions and answers from the public. These methods included an online survey, an interview, and observations over time. The survey that I constructed was completed by more than 100 respondents from a variety of age groups. The interview (not done yet, I’m in crisis mode) was done with an up-and-coming rapper out of New York, Fresh the Prophet to acquire his thoughts on the culture and music of hip-hop. Finally, I conducted my observations with two different techniques. First, which is the physical side of my observations, I listened to what other students around campus were listening to in terms of music. The second set of observations I did were digital, and I used the YouTube comments section to data-mine for opinions on different phases of rap music. I created my survey on a website called SurveyMonkey, which was an easily accessible platform for respondents to use. The survey was made up of 8 questions, one asking the respondent’s age and another asking their race. After creating it, it was sent through different group messages, sent to friends and family, and posted on Facebook to reach a wider group of people. I reached over 100 responses, ending with the ages of the respondents spanning from 18 to 65, which helped to give opinions from very different generations. One thing that I did not ask in the survey was the respondent’s gender, as I did not think that it would be relevant to research. However, there was a very limiting factor to the responses of my survey, in that 79% of the respondents selected the White or Caucasian race. The interview was the hardest section of the primary research. I started the interview with plan A and plan B. Plan A included going on to Instagram and direct messaging 6 famous rappers: Kendrick Lamar, Logic, Childish Gambino, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi, and BROCKHAMPTON. I did this in hopes that I would get one response for a short phone interview. When I received no responses, I turned to plan B. I messaged a friend of mine who went to the same high school as I did, but moved to New York to pursue rap as a career. For the interview itself, I would conduct it over the phone and record the conversation with the rapper know as Fresh the Prophet. Also, before the interview I would email the interviewee and get him to digitally sign the IRB agreement. As mentioned before, my observations were done in two ways. First, I took 3 weeks and actively listened to what my friends and other students around campus were listening to in terms of music, either at parties or just hanging out in their dorms. Mainly, I was focusing on the rap music that was being played, and if rap was the most popular music being played at parties or in the dorms. Also, I tried to distinguish what types of rap were being played, more traditional, or modern rap. I would take notes on my phone and describe the type of music that was being played, the artists, if the majority of the music was rap, and peoples’ responses to the music. The second type of observation I did was data-mining on YouTube videos. The videos that I mined were popular music videos of rap songs from different phases of hip-hop culture. For example, the most recent video I mined was This is America, by Childish Gambino, and I would compare the comments on that video to comments from a video like The Notorious B.I.G’s, Juicy. This would help to determine public opinion of people during that time, and allow me to compare opinions from different time periods. Results In my observations of the comments sections of popular rap music videos, there were a variety of different findings. First, in the most recent video, This is America, by Childish Gambino, the comments section was split between hate comments from some users and praising comments from others. Also, there were more comments mentioning culture for this video than The Notorious B.I.G.’s Juicy. For the physical observations that I conducted, the majority of music played around campus was in fact rap or hip-hop music, mixed with some other genres as well. In the survey, 82% of the respondents were between the ages of 18 and 22. 79% of the survey participants were White, only 2% Black, and 10% Hispanic. When asked if they liked rap music, 71% responded that they do like rap music, 15% said no, and 14% felt indifferent. Also, 94% of them said that they believe rap has changed over the past 20 years. Finally, the majority, 38.38% of respondents said that they think Kendrick Lamar is the best artist in hip-hop music. In my interview with Fresh the Prophet, he touched on some very interesting points. When asking him how he believes hip-hop and rap music has changed since he started as a rapper, the main point he made was that social media has played a large role. With the introduction of platforms like Instagram and Soundcloud, artists could spread their music more due to social media providing followers who could respond to the music. He also talked about Soundcloud more intensely, saying that it “makes music more accessible” for the people who want to hear it. One of the most striking things that he said was that “the common attributes of a famous rapper 10 years ago are not the same attributes of rappers today”. Finally, he made the point that while there are still artists today who focus on lyrics, lyricism was much more prominent back in the day, and that today, “if the beat slaps rappers can get away with not saying much”. Discussion Over the past 8 weeks I have been aiming to find an answer to the question, “How has rap culture evolved over the past 20 years to become what it is today”? After gathering all of the primary and secondary research, it seems that there are some very definitive findings. First, it is very apparent that there has in fact been a change in the hip-hop culture over the past 20 years. In the survey, when asked the question if they believe hip-hop culture has changed over the past 20 years, 94% of the respondents answered yes. This helps to establish that there has been a definite evolution in the eyes of the public, and that they have actively noticed it. Also, the presence of an explicit evolution helps to lead into answering the question of how it has evolved. The first distinct finding that came up while analyzing the research was that social influences are the main cause of hip-hop evolution over the past 20 years. There has been so much going on in today’s society like controversial politics, mass shootings, climate change and other events, which seems to have caused artists in the hip-hop culture to change what they are writing about. In the survey, when asked why the respondents believed there has been a change, 61% of them answered social influences. Also, when observing the comments on a current music video, Childish Gambino’s This is America, the comments seemed to be split between conservatives and liberals. One commenter named Crooked Hillary, obviously a conservative, wrote that the video and the song were, “…shit smeared on a canvas”. Opposite to this, someone responded that “This is art”, and these two comments were not the only ones that were opposing each other in a politically motivated manner. This was mentioned briefly by Becky Blanchard when she said that hip-hop had strong potential for political advocacy due to its roots in subjugation and slavery (Blanchard, 2). However, Blanchard did not talk about how widespread the effect could be in terms of political advocacy. Along with seeing political motivations in the comments sections of a music video, many songs in today’s rap genre have become centralized around politics in America. Kendrick Lamar has a song called Hood Politics, where he discusses the stark similarities between gangs like the Crips and Bloods and the political system in place in our country. Just from observing the lyrics of the song, like “… new Democrips and Rebloodicans…”, illustrates how drastically that hip-hop has changed since the early 2000’s. Politics are not the only social influences that have made hip-hop culture change over the years, it is a combination of many different influences. One of the main topics within social influence has to be the social media presence. During my interview with Fresh the Prophet, an up-and-coming rapper out of New York, he mentioned that “social media” is the largest influence that has helped hip-hop to change in the last 5 years.. He also said that while many rappers and artists are trying to make it big on Soundcloud and other platforms, he was using Instagram to spread his music around. His reasoning was that he had more followers on Instagram, therefore he would be able to reach more people with his music. This presence of social media in today’s hip-hop scene was mentioned heavily in my previous research, saying that hip-hop used to be the way that people would show their street credibility, but social media has come into replace it as the place where credibility is created and destroyed (Patton, Eschmann, Butler). It has become evident that the introduction of social media has played a large role in how the culture of rap has evolved. Just observing my own Instagram feed, rappers like Lil Yachty, J. Cole, and Logic are advertising their own and other artist’s album releases, posting teasers of their own songs and displaying tour information. However, relating this back to previous research, some critics and scholars believe that the media is the primary catalyst for negative and criminal associations with certain groups (Schneider), like those who are a part of hip-hop culture. The second finding that was very apparent to me from the primary research was that the introduction of Soundcloud and mumble rap into today’s hip-hop culture have had both negative and positive effects. Soundcloud is a music streaming app that allows users to stream any kind of music they would like for free. Also, anyone can upload their own songs onto Soundcloud through their own profile and get streams on their song. When talking to Fresh the Prophet, who uploads almost all of his music onto Soundcloud, he said that the creation of Soundcloud has made hip-hop more accessible for more people, therefore expanding the culture and reach of the music. Also, recently many artists have been popping up on Soundcloud and making it big because of the community on Soundcloud, allowing them to achieve success in a way that was previously not around. Also accompanying this, Fresh the Prophet made the point that with the plethora of artists now available through Soundcloud and the other popular platforms of modern rap, “every couple months there’s some type of pattern or song that’s hot”. Him saying this makes me come to believe that Soundcloud has become one of the leading platforms for new trends in the rap genre, which helps to push the music along and causes evolution. However, Soundcloud and mumble rap have also been viewed as detriments to the culture of hip-hop as a whole. First, in a comment on Biggie’s Juicy, someone said “Today we can’t get rappers like Biggie and Tupac, I am sorry”. This along with many others state that today’s rappers are not as good as they used to be “back in the day”, and that rappers today are “trash”. FreshtheProphet also said that Soundcloud has had a negative impact, when it was the platform that allowed Lil Pump to become famous. He compared Biggie to Lil Pump in the interview, saying that they both rap about similar subjects like girls, drugs and violence, but that Biggie did it in a much more meaningful and emotional way than rappers today do. Still, there are many rappers in today’s culture that have not strayed far from the ideals and motivations of older rappers. In my survey, when asked if people liked the new direction that rap was going in (Soundcloud, Lil Pump, 6ix9ine, etc.) 51% of people said no, with 16% saying yes and the remainder feeling indifferent. What this shows is that the public prefers traditional rap and the more grounded rap of this modern hip-hop culture, and that the majority of people do not appreciate the mumble, trap music made by artists like Lil Pump and 6ix9ine. This grounded modern music leads to my next finding from the primary research. Kendrick Lamar has shown up many times throughout my research and in my own life, as he has quickly become my favorite rapper. He is a perfect example of the changing trends and evolution of rap music. As a younger rapper, Lamar rapped more about drugs and gangs in his hometown of Compton. In a song called A.D.H.D off of one of his early albums, Section.80, he references pills, smoking weed, alcohol, and sex heavily. In the chorus of the song, he raps, “eight doobies to the face, fuck that, twelve bottles in the case, n*gga, fuck that…” which gives a good snapshot of the music at that time and the influences that affected rappers in the early 2010’s. Now, on his most recent album DAMN., most of the songs have deeper meanings in terms of social relevancy. One song called ELEMENT., he says “I don’t do it for the gram I do it for Compton…”. This lyric gets at the larger view of rappers today and why they rap. He is saying that he doesn’t rap for the followers on Instagram or the fame, he raps so that the people of his hometown can live better lives, and so the public can realize the struggles going on in places like Compton, CA. Lamar is probably the most socially influential rapper in today’s rap game, and that is because of his deeper lyrics and attention to social issues. Limitations My research was done in a very short amount of time. Our entire class only had about 8 weeks to complete the research for this project, so everything was very rushed. In my case, this short time frame had some major effects on my final research. First, 79% of my survey respondents identified as white, and only 2% identified as black. This is extremely limiting in terms of my topic, as hip-hop culture has the most effect on the black community since it originated from the black community. Also, some of the survey respondents did not take the survey seriously, making my results even less credible than they should have been. Second, as I have informed about before, I had a plan A and a plan B for my interview. Since I waited on plan A to work out for about 3 or 4 weeks, I was stick with a very small amount of time to use plan B, interviewing FreshtheProphet. As the time to complete the research closed, I still had no date set to do my interview, which set me back in analyzing all of my data together for about a week.

Appendix A

Observation Notes

Appendix B

Interview Questions

Appendix C

Survey Questions

1. How old are you?

2. What is your ethnicity?

a. White or Caucasian

b. Black or African American

c. Hispanic or Latino

d. Asian or Asian American

e. American Indian or Alaska Native

f. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

g. Another race .

3. Do you like rap music?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Feel indifferent

4. Do you believe that hip-hop/rap culture has changed over the past 20 years?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Don’t know

5. Do you like the direction that rap is going in today (Soundcloud, Lil Pump, 6ix9ine)?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Feel indifferent

6. Do you prefer traditional or modern rap?

a. Traditional

b. Modern

c. Both

7. Why do you think rap has changed over the years?

a. Social influences

b. Censorship

c. Public opinion

d. Artist evolution

e. Other

8. Who do you consider to be the best artist in rap music?

a. Kendrick Lamar

b. Tupac Shakur

c. Notorious B.I.G.

d. Chance the Rapper

e. J. Cole

f. Nas

g. Kanye West

h. Jay-Z

i. Other

References Blanchard, B. (1999, July 26). The Social Significance of Rap & Hip-Hop Culture. Retrieved April 23, 2018, from Edge: Ethics of Development in a Global Environment: https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm Brooks, S., & Conroy, T. (2011, January). Hip Hop Culture in a Global Context: Interdisciplinary and Cross-Categorical Investigation. SAGE Journals, 4-8. Guirgis, S. A., Luhrmann, B. (Writers), Bianchi, E., & Williams, M. (Directors). (2016). The Get Down [Television Series]. USA. Karvelis, N. (2016). Reapproaching Hip-Hop. Music Educators Journal. Lynskey, D. (2018, April 22). From Street Kid to Pulitzer: Why Kendrick Lamar Deserves the Prize. (Guardian News) Retrieved April 23, 2018, from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/22/kendrick-lamar-wins-pulitzer-prize-damn-album Mead, R. (2015, February 9). All About the Hamiltons: A New Musical Brings the Founding Fathers Back to Life - with a lot of Hip Hop. (Condé Nast.) Retrieved April 23, 2018, from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/hamiltons Patton, D. U., Eschmann, R. D., & Butler, D. A. (2013, January 18). Internet banging: New trends in social media, gang violence, masculinity, and hip hop. Elsevier. Price, E. G. (2006). Hip Hop Culture (1 ed.). Santa-Barbara, CA, USA: ABC-CLIO. Schneider, C. J. (2011, October). Culture, Rap Music, “Bitch,” and the Development of the Censorship Frame. SAGE Journals, 36-56. Washington, A. R. (2016, October). Integrating Hip-Hop Culture and Rap Music Into Social Justice Counseling With Black Males. Journal of Counseling and Development, 97-105. Appendix A

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ejsponge61 · 7 years ago

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Tupac’s Changes

Tupac Shakur is one of the most well know names, not only in hip hop, but in all of music. In the earlier years of hip hop, he was one of its most high profile members due to his combination of thoughtful lyrics and blunt and aggressive lyrics. For every “California Love” or “How Do U Want It” that got constant rotation in night clubs, he also had songs like “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and “Keep Ya Head Up” that portrayed the brutality of life in poverty, while also encouraging positive messages. Due to his early and untimely death, he is revered as one of the greatest musical acts of all time. But also, due to his constant desire to make music, he died with many unreleased songs and verses in his possession. One of those songs that was left behind was “Changes”, and it released on Greatest Hits, a compilation of his biggest hits and previously unheard tracks, which was released two years after Shakur’s death, October 13, 1998. Despite his lyrics having been recorded nearly twenty-five years ago, his words have had a surprisingly everlasting relevance. Tupac even still seems to be commenting on modern events, even though he is long gone.

The track opens with his first verse, which seems to immediately contradict the chorus of the song. He opens with the phrase “I see no changes”, and then goes on to provide imagery of life in the ghetto. However, the chorus is as follows:

“That's just the way it is

Things'll never be the same

That's just the way it is, aww yeah

That's just the way it is

Things'll never be the same

That's just the way it is, aww yeah”

This reveals the contrast of the entire song. While the uplifting rhetoric of the chorus might suggest that this is a song about positive change, the verses of this song suggest that it is actually about the stagnation of our world, and how things never truly change. Going back to verse one, he describes conditions of ghetto life that still exist today. “I'm tired of bein' poor and, even worse, I'm black. My stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch” describes the poverty of those in impoverished, mainly black areas who often turn to the simplest solution, crime, to solve their issues. This is still the case today, as many of those who grew up listening to Tupac in the 90s, such as Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, have gone on to rap about these same conditions twenty years later. While also one of many uses of internal rhyme, “Cops give a damn about a negro. Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero” refers to the indifference, or outright lack of value, of black lives in the eyes of some police officers. This still exists today, with many examples appearing on news and social media nearly every week. One example in particular makes the second line in that quote almost literal. George Zimmerman, murderer of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012, gained fame from certain, at the time, fringe groups on the internet, and he was even able to sell the weapon used to take Martin’s life for over $100,000. There are more timely references here, such as mention of drug use by children and the death of Black Panther founder, Huey P. Newton. He then goes on to explain how things may be able to change. “I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other” and “Learn to see me as a brother instead of tow distant strangers” are lines that promote unity. However, as he proceeds into the second verse, he has still yet to show actual change in these conditions.

After starting his second verse with intense bleakness with the lines “I see no changes, all I see is racist faces. Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races”, he goes switches to something more positive. Like the changes he suggested the first verse, he returns with calls to “take the evil out the people” in hopes that they’d act properly. He then offers more themes of unity, though by stating something not particularly positive. “both black and white are smokin’ crack tonight” is meant to highlight the fact that members of all races suffer from issues like drug addiction, even though these issues are seen by society as problems only in black communities. Through addressing our similarities, even when those similarities are our flaws, Shakur homes to bring people together. However, the most interesting line of the whole song comes soon after that one.

“And although it seems heaven-sent

We ain't ready to see a black president”

This might seem like it conflicts with the rest of Tupac’s words here. Other conditions mentioned in the song still exist, but America has proven that it actually was ready to see a black president by electing Barack Obama, for two terms no less. However, this is still to be confirmed. While Obama did serve as president, the political landscape has become more polarized as it has been in decades during his time in the White House. Also, the reaction from his presidency has resulted in the election of Donald Trump, someone who seems to be the opposite of Obama in nearly every way. Also, near the end of this verse, he also speaks to the complacency of black youth and adolescents who live in poverty. “But some things will never change. Try to show another way, but you stayin' in the dope game” and “You gotta operate the easy way. ‘I made a G today,’ but you made it in a sleazy way” bring attention to the ease of selling drugs and how many never consider alternative ways of making money. However, with the last lines of this verse, Shakur recognizes that he understands that the need for money causes morality to be thrown out the window. He is disappointed to see crack being sold to children, but, after acknowledging that is the seller’s way of making money, he seems to allow the sale to happen and accept the circumstances.

After a brief interlude calling for us to change how we eat, live and treat each other, he begins his third by once again addressing the lack of change he sees. He then attempts to relate the struggle of ghetto life to other similar conflicts with the line “It's war on the streets and a war in the Middle East.” This also, like verse one, makes a reference to something that still goes on today. While we may not have the same presence of troops in the Middle East as we used to, our involvement in their affairs has continued for years after Shakur’s death, as has the gang and police violence of American ghettos. With the lines “Instead of war on poverty, they go a war on drugs so the police can bother me” he directly addresses the “War on Drugs”, a campaign begun by Richard Nixon in the 1970s. While meant to remove drugs like crack cocaine and heroin from American territories, it largely resulted in the mass incarceration of blacks and other minority groups. While this initiative has largely been considered a failure, many of its policies have been continued to enforce marijuana laws especially. This is yet another parallel to modern day that Tupac delivers here. Also, while Tupac describes these events and conditions, he makes it clear that he far from just an observer. “And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do. But now I'm back with the facts, givin' it back to you” shows that, while he partakes in some of the same actions he is talking about, he is still attempting to share how one can change those actions. However, despite him claiming to “stay strapped” (or have a weapon on him often) in later lines, the final words of this song sound ominous in retrospect.

“And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped

And I never get to lay back

‘Cause I always got to worry 'bout the payback

Some buck that I roughed up way back

Comin' back after all these years

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat," that's the way it is”

Tupac was gunned down in Los Vegas, Nevada in September of 1996. While the events leading up to his murder might not have been directly related to physically “roughing up” someone in the past, it was still brought upon by earlier aggressive acts. Because of this, the quote above seems to have describes something similar to what he faced just four years later. His previous actions came back to him, though despite him thinking he was prepared, no one is really ready for the end of their days on Earth.

Tupac Shakur still lives, however. Through the extensive catalogue of thought provoking and ever relevant music he has left behind, he continues to be a part of the lives of the millions who still listen to him. And songs like “Changes” are a perfect example of why we value his additions to hip hop so highl

#Tupac #2pac #tupac shakur #changes #lyrics #analysis

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blograzorwit · 8 years ago

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Jest A Minute (17/2/2017) from Subroto Mukherjee

Did you watch the Grammys on TV? What was Lady Gaga wearing? Was it a backless top? Heck, looked like she had it on back to front! Have to say those female American artistes are fashion conscious -- but totally unconscious of their boobs peeping out! They are such talented entertainers. Their talent brings out the best in them -- and their bizarre outfits brings out the bust. *** Jamming In Space------------------------------- Our pride, ISRO, just rocketed as many 104 satellites into orbit at one go, setting a world record! I bet this has also caused a record-breaking traffic jam in orbit! Look through a telescope and you might see all the world's satellites now jostling bumper to bumper in orbit! *** From Throne To Thrown------------------------------------------ We see it in films, don't we? The way a judge uses his gavel, his mallet, his hammer to rap out orders in court. Well, of late, our Supreme Court judges have certainly been using their hammers to nail wrongdoers in high places, thereby hammering home the point that even our VIPs cannot escape the long arm of the law. Take, for example, Sasikala and company. She and her cronies, she and her partners in crime have been nicely nailed and jailed. Phew, I tell you, she came this close -- this close -- to getting to the throne as chief minister -- only to be thrown into prison as 'thief minister'! *** From No Patience To No Patients------------------------------------------------------- And our SC judges have also been busy rapping, and ripping off the licences of, over 600 doctors involved in MP's disgraceful Vyapam Scam. All these docs, when they were students, got into medical colleges by flagrantly cheating in the medical entrance exam. They had no patience to study long and hard and prepare for those tests. Well, now they have no licence to practice and no patients either. *** Kick Ass Or Kiss Ass?---------------------------------------- Nixon will go down is history for being booted from office. Clinton will go down in history for turning the White House into Scandal House. Bush Jr will go down in history as the worst President ever. Obama will go down in history for getting the Nobel Peace Prize but dropping the most bombs. And Trump will go down in history as a global joke. The laughing-stock of the world. A democratically-elected dictator. A pathetic fascist. He raves and rants against other countries and their leaders, threatening to kick ass. Only to perform a backward flip and talk sweet to them on the phone. In fact, after all the talk of kicking ass, Trump even invites those leaders over to 'kiss their ass'. So I ask, kick ass or kiss ass? Make up your mind, you pompous jackass! *** Potty Talk----------------------- The moment Mumbai's civic polls were announced, there were opportunists who lost no time. Some left this party and joined that. Some others left that party and joined this. My question is, why? Aren't they essentially all the same? What's the difference in this, that or any potty -- er -- party? *** You know what happens when we have elections? Newton's 4th Law comes into effect. A mouth in motion tends to stay in motion. Until this motor-mouth candidate is interrupted by a rotten egg or tomato. *** I have been listening to the candidates on TV. And you know how best to enjoy the grandiose political rallies and speeches? Listen to them with the SOUND OFF. *** But no, not always. We have great leaders and I love to listen to them on TV. Because I LOVE FICTION. *** Failed Delivery----------------------------- You know the BIG BLUNDER we made in our last general elections? We elected a former tea-stall entrepreneur to serve us. He failed to deliver. In the next general election in 2019, we should elect a pizza-delivery guy to deliver the goods. Who knows, as the PM, he might actually be able to deliver in half an hour! *** Garibi Hatao? Done!---------------------------------- In the past, the great party that led this nation sure gave us a great slogan -- GARIBI HATAO! Remove poverty! And boy, did they succeed! They removed their own poverty and the poverty of all their family members and friends. *** Battle of the Bulge-------------------------------- The heaviest woman in the world has been airlifted from Cairo to Mumbai for her weight-reduction surgery. This operation involved a cost over 80 lakhs, heavy-duty trucks, cranes and even a modified jumbo jet. But it all went off with military precision. For the team of surgeons and medical experts, now begins the real battle -- the real BATTLE of the BULGE! *** By the way, here's my one-line review of the sequel to Jolly LLB. Where there are plenty of laws, there will also be plenty of loopholes. And where there are loopholes, there are sure to be assholes who masquerade themselves as custodians of the law. End of review. Thank you. *** Being Judgmental-------------------------------- Now CCTV cameras are to be introduced in our courts. So, like the honorable judges, we the humble public can also sit in judgement on a trial. In other words, so we can also judge who is the better LIAR -- who is more imaginative and creative -- and who is better at creating fiction -- the prosecution team or the defense team? Ooh, isn't that cool? *** And here's my take on Kung Fu Yoga. Who's the real hero of this film -- Jackie Chan or Sonu Sood? Neither. The real heroes are those in the audience who have to bravely endure this mess. *** Knowing The Price But Not The Real Value-------------------------------------------------------------------- Burglars broke into Kailash Satyarthi's Delhi residence and stole his valuables. But if you ask me, the thieves left behind the most PRICELESS ASSET of our Nobel laureate -- they left behind his exemplary IDEALISM to rescue our poor children from the daily drudgery of hard manual labor! Those robbers might know the price of things but not the real value of things. *** A Kiss Before Dying!---------------------------------- Seen that Hollywood movie A Kiss Before Dying? Or at least have you seen its Bollywood carbon copy version, Baazigar starring Kajol, Shilpa Shetty and SRK? Recently an imbecile youth in Thane tried to enact his own version of a kiss before dying. Planning to upload the pictures on Facebook for instant global fame, this moron kissed a cobra! Yeah, just imagine that! Well, I don't know how much fame he got for his stunt but he certainly got A KISS BEFORE DYING! *** Kiss-mas?------------------- On Valentine's Day, as usual, college couples were sneaking hugs and stealing kisses in public. And it looked like, after Christmas in December, they were celebrating Kiss-mas in February. Valentine's Day is like a learning lesson for youngsters. And this is what they learn. There are things that girls can do. There are things that boys can do. But the best things are those that boys and girls can DO TOGETHER! *** No Happy Hours, Bihar Happy------------------------------------------------- Bihar CM Nitish Kumar claims that one year of prohibition has turned Bihar into a happy state. No happy hours have made his people happy. Except of course two kinds of people. Liquor barons and bar owners. In fact, underworld kingpins who used to run liquor joints have been left fuming and furious. Or you could say, these BAR KINGS are now (woof, woof, bar, bark) BAR-KING mad! *** Recently a Bollywood star threw a party at home, played the music so loud late into the evening, the disturbed neighbors had to call the cops. Hey, that's nothing. You should hear the noises my neighbors make. Take the heavy thumps and loud bumps I hear from the flat above! You'd swear their pet hippos were playing leap-frog over the furniture. Or their pet elephants were kicking around the cooking-gas cylinder, playing football with it! *** Aamir Khan wants to play the first Indian in space, Rakesh Sharma, in a film. Some time back, Aamir's wife expressed a sort of desire to leave the country. Now Aamir has gone one better. He has expressed a desire to play someone who not only leaves this country but also leaves this very planet and goes into space. *** Vote for Vultures----------------------------- In these pre-poll days, party volunteers are turning up on our door steps canvassing for votes. No matter which party they represent, I tell them I have only praise of their party and candidate. They go away happy. But mark my words -- ONLY PRAISE. I have only praise for them but not my vote for them. All inept, incompetent and useless people! All vultures of the same feather out to feather their own nest! *** Sizzling---------------- Last couple of days have been real sizzlers here in Mumbai. Hottest February days on record! And today it's so burning, you could fry an egg on your window sill. No kidding. I put the frying pan with the egg on the window sill and the egg began to pop and sizzle in seconds! *** I stepped outdoors for just a little while and now my forehead is so feverishly red-hot, I could places slices of bread on my forehead and toast them. ***

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burnthebanks · 8 years ago

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Lyrics: We're here because of you We're here because you were there We've arrived from every corner of the planet to this nation to seek the fulfillment of a promise of America We were promised a better life in our home countries, where we were told that privatizing water and electricity will make things run more efficiently Instead the quality remained almost the same and the price was increased until it became an unaffordable luxury Some corporations are more efficient than government, but their motivation is not the health or the well being of the people; it's only about profit, everything else: their image, their human resources, their public relations, only exist to protect the reality behind it Once upon a time, we were told that nationalization would prevent growth by limiting competition; that our countries were nothing without the companies that invested in us and so they privatized everything. Everything in our country was owned by people that had no connection to our culture, by those who never had our interests at heart, they didn't care about our survival or well being, they just wanted to turn a profit by raping our land, by exploiting our people, our industry and our resources They took everything we built and made it theirs. First by creating racism to justify slavery, building the capital for capitalism, and then when they gave us what they call liberty, everything we had was still owned by them. Our governments told us that socialism was the real enemy and that we would have freedom, but the foreign powers and corporations were the ones with real freedom; the freedom to take all the wealth generated by our work and our land and gave us only a small percentage of the scraps from the table Their lust for power and their greed drove them to betray not only us but themselves and the word of their own God (Open your eyes before you die) And while some used missionaries and donations to off set this abuse, other countries and companies were blatant with their crimes, using war, disease, and sanctions that killed millions. They supported corrupt governments that were almost like the old slave masters in their oppression of the people, because their loyalty was to those who enable them, restored them and kept them in power, they became the bastard children of American industry, kleptocracy, governments of thievery. They protected the corporations and went to war against their own people to preserve those profits The puppet rulers were given billions of US tax dollars to fund civil wars, right wing death squads, execute political dissidents, sympathetic clergy and, even overthrow democratically elected governments. And so the age of revolution began again; they painted it as godless terrorist versus the free world and the market But the free market has never been free, because the market does not regulate itself. It is manipulated like a puppet and it survives because of its image. Destroy the image and the enemy will die Such is the same in the rap industry. But the major label super powers treat the underground like the 3rd world. When they need new assets, new artists to prostitute a side-ins and put on a shelf to use their songs When they needed new concepts, music and publishing to steal from the producers, they came to the underground, to the 3rd world, they took our culture, our property and our industry and our resources, even using our own people to help them exploit us But behind the mask of efficiency, they claimed that we need them to succeed. They're no better than us; they're economic advertising was always a lie, a few got rich but most were given an illusion of wealth, almost as if it was designed for failure Opportunity comes at the price of soul and the music, so remember what they are underneath the fancy architecture, glittering rented jewelry, the cars, the IMF loans, the seeds with suicide jeans, 20 year contracts and oil blood money Build your defenses my independent brothers and sisters. They’ll stop at nothing to get what they want. They paint the 3rd world (underground) as savage and backward. But the super powers are no less corrupt; they've just learned to disguise it better, ‘cause they fix elections too, they embezzle tax money, they go to war for resources, they fund terrorism for their own benefit, and when there's enough at stake... history's taught us that they'll even assassinate their own president (WAKE UP!) Ronald Reagan recording: Just as the Columbia represents Man's highest aspirations in the field of science, so to does the struggle of the Afghan people represent Man's highest aspiration for freedom, and I am dedicating on behalf of the American people the March 22nd launch of the Columbia Space Shuttle to the people of Afghanistan

#Immortal Technique #Open Your Eyes

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eurekamagdoteu-blog · 8 years ago

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Appropriating the struggle

By Lily Nentcheva

Photo by Mats Barkow.

Welcome to London, one of the most unequal cities in the developed world, where the richest decile are 273 times richer than the poorest. The city that loves to claim it grew up on the streets but won’t spare its homeless a second thought; where social immobility is so entrenched that private members’ clubs still line Pall Mall and the gap between rich and poor harks back to the days of the slave trade. London’s latest cruelty, after centuries of barricading itself behind these socio-economic barriers and denigrating the lower classes, has been to fetishise the very poverty and idea of hatred for authority to which it is home, by championing the nascent “roadman” trend.

2015-16 saw grime culture take the UK by storm, with traditional media, social networks and the fashion industry alike caught in its wake. In acts of extreme bravery, models can now be spotted posing in front of abandoned playgrounds and tower blocks, like intrepid explorers, traversing London’s concrete jungles with the help of nothing but their Adidas Originals and designer NARS war-paint. Unfortunately, this seemingly innocent popularisation of Skepta songs and snapbacks serves only to exacerbate social divides. Staging expensive photoshoots in London’s inner-city areas suggests that the atrocious living conditions in these areas are picturesque and negates their overwhelming need for social revival and change. Moreover, grime’s newly found fame offers hope neither to these places, nor to those who want to escape them. It has become apparent that sound travels faster than people do. Infinitely more so, in fact, because while the genre has made it out of the council estates where it was born and into the shiny university halls of Zone 1, there are socially deprived children who still fail to do so. And as MCs like Akala and Mic Righteous have shown, it is not because they have nothing to show for themselves, or because they are lazy or they are not creative or because they are stupid - there are grime lyrics which would put English graduates to shame. It is because we perpetuate the very poverty which we appropriate.

The problem is rooted in our fetishisation of poverty when we use it for art. Unfortunately, poverty does not live in the abstract world of art forms; the intangible cosmos of catwalks, museums and Instagram, where things are never to be touched, only admired from afar. Poverty lives in Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham. It lives in Islington, where 50% of children fall under the poverty line, and Dagenham, where one in five of those in work receive less than minimum wage. Poverty means growing up in the comprehensive schools where knife crime is rife and the parks which the rest of us are too scared to walk through, lest we should glimpse how people with nowhere to go spend cold winter evenings.

Our subconscious separation of the roadman trend from the deprived areas where it originated does immeasurable damage to the psyche of those who are still there. It doesn’t take much to realise that the current grime subculture is imbued with much darker shades of brutality and self-loathing, but the problem with fads is that people seldom engage with them long enough to notice. Think only of the colour palette from which brands such as Nike, Fila and Ellesse draw their inspiration in an attempt to imitate the ‘street’ scene: a panoply of greys, blacks, and whites. They do not rejuvenate or excite, but stare back at you from Topshop and Asos outlets with mute indifference.

Consider the etymology of slang words. “Wasteman”. The belief, embedded by centuries of economic oppression, that the rightful place of the working class is in the rubbish bin of humanity or, at best, driving the truck that picks it up. “Ends”. Synonymous with where one lives, with extremities, limitations, boundaries, the periphery – an accurate reflection of the expulsion, often even eviction, of a whole social group into the outskirts of the cities they call home, by exponential cost-of-living increases. Out of sight, out of mind. “Bare”, as in scarcely or insufficiently. An unemployment benefit that barely covers the rent. A parent who is barely ever at home. Bare floors, bare walls, kitchen cupboards with bare shelves. The irony lies in the modern-day usage of a word which has traditionally denoted inadequacy, to emphasise excess.

For the upper echelons of society, that’s all the roadman fad is, just another meal at life’s colourful Culture Café, where yesterday the delicacy included bindis, indie-rock and bum shorts, devoid of actual knowledge of the Indian subcontinent, while today the waitress would recommend Kardashian corn rows as an entrée, with a main of grime, gold chains and the inappropriate use of London jargon while you trip out on MD. What a fun pick and mix of cultures with which one never has to ever actually engage! A buffet, where they serve struggle separately from style, where you can have the £170 creps sugar-coated, rather than try one of the authentic, more bitter toppings. Then, once we have finished consuming this particular flavour of decadence (because let’s face it, it’s never been anything more than a billion dollar business idea), the bill gets paid and we leave. We forget all about it with disturbing ease, until television screens and Spotify playlists tell us that it’s time to care again. That’s the most tragic part of the story – the element of choice. Because we can come out of Electric Brixton and down from our big boy drugs, but we will always have the soft cushions of economic security to land on, twice removed from the realities of what it means to truly be road.

This, however, orphans the music of a certain social group from the struggle and oppression which helped to create it. Engaging with the culture working class is more than just a fling – it is a responsibility which must be attended to, with equal devotion for the good parts and the bad. We must stop treating the underprivileged and the poor like an arbitrary burden on the middle class. They are not grey and insignificant matter. They matter. This matters, as a problem which deserves to be discussed.

Britain’s deprived areas are brimming with talent, with ideas, with potential, ready to be transformed into positive energy and only by channelling this productively will we ease the strain on our already overloaded state apparatus. Shouting for austerity and slashing social benefits is counterproductive. We cannot simply erase the existence of millions of impoverished people by cutting off their only means of sustenance and doing our best to forget that they are there. Nothing is ever created and nothing is ever destroyed – as applicable in social science as it is in thermodynamics.

Yet, nothing is going to change in a system which offers the individual no legitimate means of escape from the bottom and at the same time blames him for perpetuating his own demise. We should stop bastardising the vernacular and values of marginal cultures until the media suddenly deems them worthy of our admiration. This base fetishisation only divorces the effect from its cause and ultimately teaches the disadvantaged in our society that we do not care for them; that they are only of interest to us until they’ve served some finality, after which we can discard them. Human beings like single-serving ready meals. Why would anyone be inspired to change, consciously or subconsciously, if they know this to be true? "Every object in a uniform state of motion remains so unless acted upon by an external stimulus." What stimulus do we, as a society, provide for these disillusioned kids by demonising their leisure time as some sort of hedonistic illegality, except when it produces art of which we approve?

Perhaps it’s time to realise that we are all part of the same space-time continuum and that everything we do is delicately but perpetually entwined. Grime isn’t just a fleeting fashion, it is an artistic expression of hardship and misery, and it perfectly exemplifies our dissociation of the working classes from the very tangible contributions they’ve made to our lives. “All I acquired from the riot was that people are sick and tired of being quiet,” raps a disenchanted Ghetts. How long before we turn down the volume and hear the people behind the genre’s urgent cry for help?

#lily nentcheva #Mats Barkow

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