Cyber-post for Hip Hop Pioneer Essay
Today we looked at Hip Hop Pioneers. The list was expansive and extensive and covered the older hip hop generation like Afika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc, and their little brothers: Russell Simmons and groups like the Fugees, sisters and daughters like MC Lyte, Lauren Hill, Queen Latifah.
Think about the artist's presence in the world and what role their craft has been used to shape public policy and change society for the disenfranchised and the oppressed. Perhaps the artist's role was more economically viable, in that their entrepreneurial skills developed jobs and set a new standard for their peers and those that follow their lead.
I mentioned the film, starring Jimmy Stewart, "It's a Wonderful Life." In the film a man feels that his life is meaningless and has had no impact on society. An angel shows him how deprived the world would be without his presence.
Look at your artist and in an introductory paragraph talk about the community or world that grew them into the personality they are. Was their a problem the wanted to articulate with their art? Was their a constituency they wanted to give voice to? Was their a problem they wanted to address or offer a solution or answer to?
A lot of the early hip hop music gave the ghetto a visual presence in popular culture. Music and rhymes and spoken traditions are old. All societies have such. It is the more primal of all the arts--poetry, rap or talk: storytelling.
We spoke about procrastination. Think about the urgency of the situation that gave rise to hip hop culture, all the major elements. It was an outlet, it was a way youth expressed their disgust and anger or rage towards the "powers that be." Until these artists started making noise, writing their names on trains, taking over corners with their cyphers--convening meetings with other writers and artists to collaborate and make bigger and more powerful statements, no one really cared or noticed.
It was a quiet movement that grew and grew and grew until now, it is a world culture and a world-wide movement that has its problems and its successes like all other movements and cultures. But look at the roots, these pioneers, and what it took for them to address and redress the social ills in the society with art.
I want you to use 1 direct citation, 1 block quote and 1 paraphrase from Chang's Can't Stop, Won't Stop. See Hacker pp. 401-437. 438 is the MLA table of contents. The essay is due Friday, October 3, by 12 midnight.
Continue reading Chang and keeping a writing log for each chapter and a vocabulary log.
Today we looked at Hip Hop Pioneers. The list was expansive and extensive and covered the older hip hop generation like Afika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc, and their little brothers: Russell Simmons and groups like the Fugees, sisters and daughters like MC Lyte, Lauren Hill, Queen Latifah.
Think about the artist's presence in the world and what role their craft has been used to shape public policy and change society for the disenfranchised and the oppressed. Perhaps the artist's role was more economically viable, in that their entrepreneurial skills developed jobs and set a new standard for their peers and those that follow their lead.
I mentioned the film, starring Jimmy Stewart, "It's a Wonderful Life." In the film a man feels that his life is meaningless and has had no impact on society. An angel shows him how deprived the world would be without his presence.
Look at your artist and in an introductory paragraph talk about the community or world that grew them into the personality they are. Was their a problem the wanted to articulate with their art? Was their a constituency they wanted to give voice to? Was their a problem they wanted to address or offer a solution or answer to?
A lot of the early hip hop music gave the ghetto a visual presence in popular culture. Music and rhymes and spoken traditions are old. All societies have such. It is the more primal of all the arts--poetry, rap or talk: storytelling.
We spoke about procrastination. Think about the urgency of the situation that gave rise to hip hop culture, all the major elements. It was an outlet, it was a way youth expressed their disgust and anger or rage towards the "powers that be." Until these artists started making noise, writing their names on trains, taking over corners with their cyphers--convening meetings with other writers and artists to collaborate and make bigger and more powerful statements, no one really cared or noticed.
It was a quiet movement that grew and grew and grew until now, it is a world culture and a world-wide movement that has its problems and its successes like all other movements and cultures. But look at the roots, these pioneers, and what it took for them to address and redress the social ills in the society with art.
I want you to use 1 direct citation, 1 block quote and 1 paraphrase from Chang's Can't Stop, Won't Stop. See Hacker pp. 401-437. 438 is the MLA table of contents. The essay is due Friday, October 3, by 12 midnight.
Continue reading Chang and keeping a writing log for each chapter and a vocabulary log.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 1:10 PM
7 Comments:
Diddy has had one of the biggest impacts on Hip Hop in the 90’s. Sean
“Diddy” Combs was born and raised in Harlem. He attended Howard
University for business administration, but ended up leaving. His friend
Heavy D got him a job as an intern at Uptown Records. He was a back up
dancer for Father MC. Then later, he became a talent director. He
discovered Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. He became vice president and
executive producer for a lot of successful albums at Uptown. In 1993
Diddy left Uptown Records. He left and started his own label, Bad Boy
Entertainment..
Soon after P.Diddy left Uptown Records in 1993, he then established the Bad Boy Entertainment which became one of the top businesses and is known worldwide. The fact that Bad Boy Entertainment was so successful, it caused a huge conflict between Bad Boy and Suge Knight's Death Row Records. In 1997, Diddy recorded his first album as a rapper under the name "Puff Daddy." In the book, "Can't Stop Won't Stop," Jeff Chang states "The rap industry had become the fastest-growing sector of the music industry." Diddy released "Can't Nobody Hold me Down" and "I'll Be Missing You," which were two of his singles that were big hits. Although Diddy was a successful entrepreneur, he bumped into many struggles which encouraged him to work harder.
The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the greatest artists on his label. The
multi-platinum artist had a feud with another great rapper, Tupac
Shakur.. Then an east coast, west coast feud developed. Tupac ended up
being killed in September 1996 in Los Angeles. Six months later Biggie
was killed in March 1997 in Las Vegas. After the death of his best
friend, Diddy released “I‘ll Be Missing You”, a tribute to Biggie.
It was a big hit, it won an award for Best Rap Performance.
After the death of Biggie, P Diddy decided to change his act and organized himself as well as his occupation. He currently own his own clothing lines name “Sean john” and “Sean by Sean comb”, a movie production company, and two restaurants. He is also the producer of making the band on MTV. P Diddy success was creating many platinum artists; and was nominated as one of the 40 richest under 40th.
During Depression era, there was a talented musical artist born under the name of James Brown. He was born on May 3, 1933 to his mother, Susie and his father Joseph and was named mistakenly on birth certificate James Joseph Brown, Jr. He was born and grown up in poverty and became a Godfather of Soul. His music has become the basic for hip hop music nowadays.
When he was a child, he was not a happy child with his parents. At the age of two, his mother left his family for another man. He had been living with his father still he was six. Then his father and he moved to Augusta, Georgia. After that, his father him to live with his aunt who had been running a house or prostitution. He spent most of the time on the streets and managed to stay in school still he dropped out at the seventh grade. As other children of poverty, he had to work to support his family. He had been picking cotton, picking up coal, shining shoes, sweeping out stores, selling and trading old stamps, washing cars and dishes. Even so, he also loved to sing. He had been singing in contest to get money. During WWII, he had performed bunk dances to entertain the troops from camp Gordon as their convoys traveled over a canal bridge near his aunt’s house. He tried to learn harmonica on himself and learned how to play guitar from Tampa Red, a guy who was dating one of his aunt’s girl. He also tried to learn piano and drums from several other people. He had built up a dream to become an entertainer after he watched a popular jazz and R&B performer called Louis Jordan during 1940s. Later on, he dropped “Jr.” from his name. He had committed when he was young. When he was sixteen, he was arrested and sent to a juvenile center in Toccoa in 1948. When he was in the reform school, he and his companions had formed a group to perform music. They made their own instruments including a paper-and-comb harmonica, a drum set made of lard tins, and a bass made of broomsticks and washtubs. After three years of his sentence, After three years of his sentence, Brown was released under the condition that he had to work and would never come back to Augusta. He accompanied with Bobby Byrd, who first saw his performance in reform and admired his ability. He used to be a boxer, and a baseball pitcher in a semi-professional baseball but he got a leg infury so he had to stop and turned his heart back to music. He had overcome so much obstacles as a youngster but he loved music so his life’s condition had sharpened his dream and made him a musical star.
In 1955, James Brown and Byrd’s sister, Sarah, performed in a group called The Gospel Starlighters. Eventually, he joined Byrd’s group, the Avons, and the group’s sound was toward secular rhythm, and blues. Later on, the group name was changed to The Flames. The group’s first record was “Please, please, please” in 1956 which was a number five R&B hit, selling over a million copies. Brown’s early recording were straightforward gospel-inspired R&B compositions and heavily influenced by the work of contemporary musicians such as Ray Charles and Little Richard. Brown once called Little Richard his idol and credited Richard’s saxophone-studded road band, the Upsetters. The subsequent released by the Flames were failed to live up and the group was in danger of being dropped by King Records. In 1958, The Flames returned to the chart with the number one R&B hit “Try Me.” It was the best album selling of the year, becoming the first of Brown’s seven teen top R&B during the next two decades. During the mid-1960s, two of Brown’s signature tunes “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good)” were his first top ten pop hits, as well as major number one R&B hits, Jos career jad peaked at the late 1960s with the Black Power Movement. He had performed “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” and it was said to prevent riots in racially tense Boston in the immediate aftermath of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Every time he appeared on the stage, his personal MC had given him an elaborate introduction. For instance, Fats Gonder had given an introduction about him:
So now ladies and gentlmen, it is star time. Are you ready for star time? Thank you and thank you very kindly. It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you at this particular time, national and internationally known as the hardest working man in show business, the men that sing “I’ll Go Crazy”, “Try me”, “You’ve Got the Power”, “Think”. “If You Want Me”, “I Don’t Mind”, “Bewildered”, the million dollar seller, “Lost Someone”, the very latest release “Night Train”, let’s everybody “Shout and Shimmy”… Mr. Dynamite, Mr. Please Please himself, the star of the show, James Brown and The Famous Flames! (Fats Gonder)
James Brown was also a teacher of DJ Kool Herc when Herc was a new comer of the Bronx. He had taught Herc to change his accent. However, things were not going smoothly. During the early 1970s, across the country, Black mayors took over in cities that had once burned and James Brown’s career went into steep decline. Even so, his jobs were being used by other hip hop artists. Davey D had said: “If you listened to the Black radio station at the time, WBLS- Black owned, Black-run, the station that everyone listened to you – you did not hear James Brown. Not even at nighttime. So while James Brown was being tossed out, we were embracing him.” (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, p. 77). He had become a model for other artists. In the year 2000, he had made his appearance in television shows and films such as his 2000 appearance at the World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view event SuperBrawl X. On December 23, 2006, he was death because of pneumonia.
James Brown was death, leaving behind a myriad of major works and international fans. During his living time, he had been support the activities against racism. He had helped children not to drop out of school. He was a super star not only in music culture but also in other activities.
Carlton D. Ridenhour is better known by his stage name Chuck D. He is a rapper, author, and producer. He helped create politically and socially conscious rap music in the late 80's, as the leader of the rap group Public Enemy. His comrad William J. Drayton Jr. also known as Flava Flav is also a rapper and a member of the conscious rap group Public Enemy. His trademark was the oversized clock letting folks know what time it is. Public Enemy are one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time. Chuck D alone is extremely politically active. He co-hosted "Unfiltered" on Air America Radio, testifies before congress and has been involved in political rap conventions. In a book that he co-wrote called Fight the Power: Rap,Race,and Reality, he argues that "music, art, and culture is escapism. An escapism from reality. Chuck's opinion of rap is that it is devolving into a commercial enterprise. the relationship between the rapper and his massa. His belief that nothing has changed for African Americans since the debut album of Public Enemy. Although he thinks that the Obama-Clinton alliance was great, he does not feel that the establishment will allow anything of substance to be accomplished. It is Public Enemy's belief that all human beings are equal.Well educated, after high school, Chuck attended Adelphi University in Long Island graduating with a bachelor degree in arts.With that he continues to be an activist, addressing the negative views associated with rap music.
These are great starts. The assignment was to identify one of the anchors or founders or forefathers of the hip hop movement. The task was to show how this person shaped the movement and use Can't Stop, Won't Stop, as a source to support your claims. You were not limited to Chang, but I wanted students to use him as a resource in this essay.
In the essay on James Brown, the sources are not cited in text or in a works cited afterwards. Also, I'd like to note that some of these posts are not essays, such as the last post.
I would suggest, in the James Brown essay that the connnection should be made between hip hop and James Brown. Also, the conclusion needs to be developed a it more. How do you know all that you do about Brown?
In the first essay on P. Diddy, the writing team obviously did research, but there is no attribution. Revise it.
Where are the other essays? If you weren't here, write your own essay.
Kylah Quintal and Curtis Perry
YO! MTV Raps broke grounds for being the first hip hop music show to hit television. The show first aired on MTV (musical television) on August 6th, 1988. The show lasted all the way to August 17th, 1995, before being taken off the air. With hosts: Fab 5 Freddy, Ed Lover, and Doctor Dre’, YO! MTV Raps put hip hop music on the map for everyone to see and hear.
The sixty-minute show YO! MTV Raps, brought to light a new type of music- hip hop. Hip hop was a bit underground before the premier of YO! MTV Raps. Most of America hadn’t heard hip hop before the show. Every episode, host Fab 5 Freddy, traveled the streets of New York City interviewing various hip hop artists and fans on the streets. Viewers also got to see hip hop in its rawest form with street battles amongst men and women mc’s.
A lot of the biggest hip hop acts made their first appearances on YO! MTV Raps, such as: Salt N’ Pepa, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Doggy Dogg, N.W.A., MC Hammer, Naughty by Nature, and many more. Every episode a special guest would come to perform and/or host. But by the year 1998, YO! MTV Raps was already changed to YO! and the special guests were no longer appearing on the show. Competition from other music shows, lead to the demise of YO! MTV Raps.
YO! MTV Raps first introduced mainstream hip hop to America. If YO! MTV Raps had procrastinated the start of the show, some hip hop artists might still have been unknown, hip hop would have had an even later introduction to television and airwaves, and the whole hip hop culture just would not have been the same. Thanks to YO! MTV Raps, hip hop has been put on the map for all to listen and relate to.
Elesha Martin
Khalid Arghandiwal
Salvatore Castellano
Kelly Liu
In the 1970’s , Bob Marley and the Roots generation was the first movement
to emerge after Jamaica received independence from Great Britain in 1962. The movement came about in reaction to “Jamaica’s National crisis, global restructuring and imperialist posturing, and intensified street violence”(p23). It was then that global popular culture transcended and was fused into this third world country, making their story the “prelude to the hip-hop generation”(23).
The tumultuous face of Jamaica was somehow ambiguous to the rest of the World. Chris Blackwell, head of Island records, broke the mold after the production of the “The Harder They Come” a controversial film which imparted an accurate depiction of Jamaica's state of despair. The soundtrack for “The Harder They Come”, in addition to Bob Marley's debut album w/ the Trenchtown native band “The Wailers”, gave the popular culture a piqued curiosity of the Old (pop) with the New (reggae). By incorporating film and sound, the Third World and the First World countries inevitably revolutionized into a global phenomenon.
Amidst the vast warfare now rampart in Jamaica, Marley struggled to keep solidarity amongst the people. His music was the platform for which he voiced his dismay and concern in response to Jamaica's heightened hostility. As he relentlessly fought to bring about change, the song “Smile Jamaica” was born, and a free concert was to be held to initiate a truce. The PNP (Peoples National Party), who were the democratic socialists which Marley favored, and the opposing conservative JLP (Jamaica's Labour Party) were starkly at war. As the Smile Jamaica concert and
impending elections neared, gun wars amongst the political parties amplified resulting in massive bloodshed. Unwavering amidst the adversity, a vivacious move to undermine the JLP transpired as PNP officials would overtly send armed guards to Marley's upcoming show. Only days prior to the event, a murder attempt ensued in which Marley was the target, but in the aftermath, his wife and manager detracted the marked bullets. The notion was that the JLP lacking moral constraint, were the ones to despise the sinister murder plot. Marley's resiliency subsequent to the attack, was his driving force to proceed with the show which in turn was a success.
Bob Marley feverishly preached love and peace to no avail. The “One Love Peace Concert” was a benefit Marley held to raise proceeds to aid the disadvantaged ghetto (p37). At the conclusion of the concert, he enigmatically conjoined the hands of Manley and Seaga, both opposing JLP and PNP political leaders, and formed a political alliance amongst the two.
(blockquote) Though his music Marley had brought together a trinity of power and restored unity to the growing nation. Culture, it seemed, had transcended politics.(38) (end of block)
Marley proved to be a commodity where his music was in high demand not solely for listening pleasure, but even more inadvertently for the proliferation of World peace. Not only did Bob Marley and Reggae music greatly impact Jamaica, but the duo vastly perpetuated a global movement which curtailed the unsettling havoc, thus bringing about eminent change.
Works Cited:
Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop. NewYork: Picador, 2005.
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