Week 2: The Art of Hip Hop

This week's readings were exceptionally interesting, and I am not sure that I will be able to pick just one idea that I had to write my entire entry about. So I think I will develop a few ideas that we could talk about or just reflect on...:

1. In Puerto Rocks, Flores points to the bilingual or Spanish raps in the African American community. Specifically on page 80, Flores quotes a member of the Latin Empire (I think) who was paraphrasing some of the African Americans on the early hip hop scene reactions. After hearing some Spanish rap, one person said "that sounds dope!... yo, I don't understand it, man, but I know it was rhyming and I hear the last word, man, that's bad"

This made me curious: does the flyness of hip hop songs transcend language? Is there something aesthetically that can be appreciated about a rap that does not necessarily require meaning? I thought that was amazing. I think this is also part of the idea that it is difficult a clear definition of what hip hop is and isn't because of its diverse heritage, but when they hear it, it is very clear what is dope and what is wack.

2."In historical perspective of Black and Puerto Rican interaction, rap is thus a lesson in cultural negotiation and transcation" (Flores 85). I thought that this was a really interesting conclusion. Perhaps it is best to understand hip hop as a medium that allows people to communicate an experience that is truly authentic. There are not the restrictions of knowing how to play an instrument on the MC; an MC can tell there story, be real, and represent without formal training. I thought a final line from this section was great: The Puerto Rican influence on hip hop "shows how creatively a people can adopt and adapt what would seem a "foreign" tradition and make it... its own." (85)

3. Blackburn's piece frustrated me. To be fair, I think that she made some excellent points about how hip hop has been manipulated by capitalist forces to perpetuate racist stereotypes and commodification/neutralization of a dissident culture. The commodification of "Blackness" should not be ignored and the disparity between rap icons and the African American community is a gross hypocrisy. But I do not think that she gives enough credit to the depth of the hip hop community, nor does she emphasize that hip hop has cultural currency as an art form. I felt like she focused on how hip hop was failing to ask political questions and mobilize youth to action, and did not address the fact that hip hop is also about making people laugh, dance, smile, and utilize their own personal creativity. I think Kelley's argument that African American expressions of hip hop are not exclusively coping mechanisms, but also expressions of aesthetics and creativity fit well against Blackburn.

Also, I felt that it was unfair to look exclusively as the mainstream popular culture version of hip hop to determine what hip hop is or means. Of course artist that are played on the radio or in clubs will reflect the hyper-capitalist mantra, the A&R teams and media conglomerates that own those airwaves like those messages. It is important to remember that within the last 10 years, hip hop has a lot more positive voices competing to its heart (i.e. Talib Kweli, Common, Immortal Technique, Sollilaquists of Sound, Lupe Fiasco, Pigeon John, Jurassic 5, etc.).

4. Finally, I know I've gone on way too long, but I wanted to say I loved the way that Kelley's pieces addressed the idea of "the dozens." I hope we get a chance to talk about this.

That was too long, but thanks for reading anyway!!