”My Mic Sounds Nice”

It is the longest relationship I have ever been in. There is no one and no thing that I have ever loved longer than hip-hop. The best memories of my youth have bass and the sound of a DJ scratching in the background. In fact, the sound of a needle on a record is one of the most soothing sounds I have ever heard.

I grew up with crushes on D-Nice and LL Cool J. I sent LL a letter to his fan club and a picture of my cousin, Mychele. She was older and I thought prettier, and I figured if L was going to call anyone, he would call her. He never did.

I wanted to be like Salt ‘n Pepa. Wait, that’s not right. I wanted to BE Salt ‘n Pepa. Leggings, asymetrical haircuts, and all. I had an African medallion and Kwame’s first album the day it came out. I wished I was from New York, names like Brooklyn, Queens and the South Bronx sounded as exotic as Madagascar.

Yes, I was in love.  

I think that I fell in love with hip-hop because it was something new. It was something that people, Black people, who weren’t much older than me were making. They looked like me and my cousins and my friends. They were talking about things that we liked. Fast cars, money, clothes and fun times. And that hasn’t changed.

However, now the cars are a little more expensive and more of the conversation is about drugs and guns.

The music that used to make me happy now scares and depresses me sometimes. And people wonder why Nas said that Hip-Hop is dead. It’s not dead, it is yet alive, it is just hidden. Disguised as this new culture of fast money, fast ass, and fast lives.

One of the more heated debates of the culture is “Is there a difference between Hip-Hop and Rap?” I think so… I believe that Hip-Hop is a culture. The “Hip-Hop” Generation is defined as anyone born between 1965 (the year of the Voting Rights Act) and 1984 (the year of Reagan’s re-election) If you were born during this time you are “Hip-Hop”.

I think that Hip-Hop is a Noun.

It is a Person, Place or Thing.

Rap is a Verb.

It is something that you do. It is not something that a person can be.

Rap is Hip-Hop’s rowdy little brother. The bossy one who was a little cuter, with the big personality. He was the one that everyone liked because he was the life of the party. With his silliness and flirtatious ways. He got all the girls and all the guys wanted to be his friend.

Hip-Hop was older, wiser, he believed in the power of book knowledge. Rap was street smart. Hip-Hop tried to teach and lead. However, that leadership inspired Rap to make his own way. And the two separated from each other. But because they are related they both have elements of the other.

You can have rap without hip-hop. But you can not have hip-hop without rap.

The four elements:

B-Boying (Breakdancing)

Emceeing (Rapping)

Graffitti (Spray Paint Art)

Turntablism (DJ’ing)

There is sometimes a fifth element which many consider crucial: Knowledge

Knowledge of self and of the culture.

As you can see: Hip Hop is something which has components and rap is only one of those components.

CNN recently ran a program called “Hip Hop: Art or Poison?” and their poll found that most people thought it was poison. The images they portrayed were related to the music and what values it seemed to reinforce to Black and Hispanic youth.

This was an example of the words being misused and thus unjustly represented.

I like rap. I AM HIP-HOP.

Peace.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Pop Life, Black Folks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.