PART 1 – IDENTIFICATIONS (25 pts)
Define and explain in 2-4 sentences the importance for hip-hop culture of FIVE of the following identifications:
Hip-hop music has its origins in the 1970s from South Bronx. Over the years, it has grown into rap music and even further to hip hop culture. Hip hop culture all over the world has incorporated various aspects in the society like technology, fashion, racism, art, and urban life among others. Multiple identifications in hip hop play a vital role in its culture. For example, sampling is the use of a song portion in another song either as a sound recording or an instrumental; in this case, it applies to the hip-hop genre. Sampling has been a building block of hip hop culture. It revitalizes different music and gives the music more value. In effect, it makes it better to listen to.
Dubmatique is a hip-hop group of Canadian origin that was formed in 1992. It is an iconic group in French hip-hop since they were the first group ever to make it to Canada. The team is made up of Dj Choice, Omtc, and DiSoul. The group’s style was based on R&B/ acid jazz, and this made them grow and make history in francophone pop charts and the world of hip-hop.
Playing the dozens or else known as signifying is a put-down game where two contestants display comebacks in the presence of an audience who are usually bystanders. The game focuses on the participants’ intelligence, competency, financial status and social status among others. It is mainly played among black communities. It is important in the hip hop culture because it is the basis of most lyrics. It also enhances creativity, hence ensuring production of quality hip hop music.
Griotism is an art of West African origin that relates to a musician, storyteller, and poet among others relating to the same. This technique is important since it has been adopted all over the world by various hip hop rappers in telling stories of their lives and cultures. Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG are among the rappers who have used griotism.
Y’En A Marre (“Fed Up”) is a team of journalists and rappers from Senegal. They are significant in the Senegalese politics as they used their rap to protest against ineffective governance and advocate for youth voting. They are paramount to hip hop culture since they bring to light the objective and importance of hip-hop through using rap to protest for a better life in this case governance.
What are the main characteristics of hip-hop culture presented in Nelson George’s book and discussed in class that are portrayed in the film Wild Style? Justify your answer with specific examples from scenes in the film.
According to Nelson George, hip-hop is a complicated subject, but it can be viewed as simple history. He tries to eliminate the stereotypic notion that people who rap and write violent lyrics have lived those words. Nelson points out that some of such artists are simply exercising their artistic license. There is also the fact that hip-hop has slowly changed over the years and from the recent past, hip-hop has been mostly commercialized. Therefore, it is slowly losing its touch as a culture as it is becoming more of a business.
Wild Style is a movie about Zorro, a shy guy but very talented at spray paint graffiti on subway cars. It brings to light vital aspects of hip-hop culture as it depicts the elements of graffiti, breakdancing, freestyle MCs, rappers, and concerts. The movie features one of the grandfathers of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash, and it shows a scene of him on the decks doing what he does best. It also shows the Rock Steady dancers who break dance on the floor in their smooth moves. This movie became a dominant aspect of mainstream hip-hop culture. It also shows the various challenges that the youth may face since some families may not have embraced hip-hop culture. For instance, Zorro faced a few challenges from his family, but his determination enabled him to navigate his way through the bombed-out streets to the art world in Manhattan.
Most of the performances were done in makeshift clubs; this is a real depiction of what hip-hop meant to the youth. In essence, they were creative enough to find a way to do what they loved. Another characteristic that is brought out is that hip-hop does not necessarily have to be intertwined with negative aspects of society. Sometimes it could just mean a shy man coming up through various obstacles and making his dreams and ambitions a reality and finding love too. Zorro liked Rose and in the end, he does a spectacular decoration of a platform of a rap concert. Wild style intertwined a variety of aspects of hip-hop culture.
Give an overview of the rap music scene in Dakar, Senegal and in Libreville, Gabon. In addition, explain the origins and influences of West African rap. Give specific examples of artists and songs.
In Dakar, Senegal, over the years, rap has been seen as the real voice of the youth and has slowly been incorporated into the society as an art. It is used by artists to express their struggles, creativity and the hopes of a better life. The rap in Dakar is unique since the rappers have made a political commitment through their music hence it has managed to maintain an international audience, a good example being ‘Guerilla Africa’ by Toure Kunda. Despite all this, the rap scene is crippled by the lack of reliable distribution networks and lack of live performances. These challenges are slowly creeping their roots into the younger generation hence the future of rap in Dakar is quite shaky.
In Libreville, Gabon, the rap industry is quite an interesting one. Most of their famous hip-hop artists and fans in general are faithful followers or US hip-hop to the extent where they mimic American stars like Eminem and Trina. In Libreville, there is Amenem and Tina, who is a fierce rapper just lie Trina. The challenge faced here is that rap music does not thrive so much due to the little pay artists get to the extent where they need to have a day job to sustain their needs. For instance, there is Ba’Ponga a famous rapper who works weekdays in the Ministry of Culture.
Rap music traces its origins to New York among the African Americans. In this case, the fact that it has an African style to it cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is believed that hip-hop traces its origins in West Africa where the griot traditions were prominent. Griots in West Africa loved to tell stories and poems rhythmically, and they used only a drum to accompany their forms of art. Therefore, rap music has been greatly influenced by the griot traditions. Rap music landed in West Africa in the 1980s, and it became a channel for the youth to communicate. It is through rap music that the youth opened up about corruption, poverty, violence, and crime. A good example being Didier Awadi who sang Ma Revolution.
Compare and discuss the following songs: “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash, “Born Under the Same Star” by IAM, and “Born Here” by Doc Gyneco. Justify your response and use specific examples from the songs’ lyrics (in English translation).
All the songs are a true depiction of the objective of hip hop as a way for artists, mainly the youth, to talk about their struggles and the prevailing hardships in the society such as poverty, crime, lack of social mobility and the aspect of social classes. All the songs have in one way or another adopted the tenets of hip-hop though there is a variance that exists due to the different cultures from which the songs and artists are based.
The Message” by Grandmaster Flash was done in the earliest types of rap when rap was about rhyme and alliteration with a strong influence of spoken word poetry. For instance, "Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the edge/I'm trying not to lose my head,"(Grandmaster Flash). It has an expected story, and its chorus is half spoken half sang. The song sets the tone of a glorified sense of struggle despite the chronicling problems of the street life of drugs, poverty, racial profiling, and crime. It does, however, have an uplifting message to people at street level.
“Born Under the Same Star” by IAM is a clear product of sampling as it maintains an alliteration of 16 bars per sound line. It is also a testament of adaptation of hip-hop in other cultures. It has the central tenets of hip hop, but it is done in French. It also shies away from mainstream hip hop since it does not have aspects like graffiti. It also lacks visual hip-hop bravado and flamboyance. It mainly depicts the aspect of poverty that is expressed in the better part of its lyrics “Money is a beautiful woman that doen't marry the poors” (IAM).
“Born Here” by Doc Gyneco is also a sampled song with a dramatic stray from original hip-hop tenets. It does not stay faithful to the singing lines in familiar 16 syllables. The song has reggae and borrows from jazz to a limited extent. It does not have hip-hop mannerisms and is somehow culturally adapted. It depicts the lack of social mobility, and poverty, “My mother was born over there, my father was born over there, I was born here, in misery and cries” (Gyneco). It exemplifies relaxed paradise in the Caribbean sun attitude. It is rap’s adaptation in the foreign culture and foreign attitudes.
Works Cited
Grandmaster Flash,. "Grandmaster Flash The Message HQ". YouTube. N.p., 2009. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.
Gyneco, Doc. "Doc Gyneco - Né Ici (Clip Officiel)". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.
IAM,. "IAM - Nés Sous La Même Étoile (Clip Officiel)". YouTube. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Aug. 2016.
