Professor Wanda's Posse

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Research Essays: Can't Stop, Won't Stop posts
Post the planning, outlines, and final drafts.

8 Comments:

Derek Goldstone said...: Indivdual Planning Sheet: Cant Stop Wont Stop Research paper

1. What is the subject of your paper?

Ronald Reagan, the actions of his administration & Reaganomics are responsible for the current state of hip-hop & the hardships of the black community.

2. Why do you want to write about this subject?

Because one individual changed the course of the hip-hop movement (if not history itself) through his self-serving policies, corrupt leadership and unscrupulous business affiliations.

3. What audience will you write for?

Those who are uninformed about the wrongdoings of the Reagan administration & the negative impact it had on the hip-hop community as well as black society.

4. What question do you want the research paper to answer?

What did Ronald Reagan do to undermine the early hip-hop movement & black community?

5. What is the main writing strategy you think you will employ?

Casual analysis/arguement

The next time we meet I will turn in a paper copy of my essay due to the fact that it is really long.; 8:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Derek, you can still post the essay. Your proposed (re: outline) analysis of the policies which led to the demise of certain communities in America, and the strategic and purposeful intent of such leaders and law makers, sounds just like Caprice's research on NY's Mayor Moses who unlike his namesake, did not lead his people, or maybe he did--I was just confised for a second as to who his people are--to the promised land.

What did they cross biblically...the Red Sea? I wonder what the metaphor is here...the freeway which bypassed an entire community --literally deemed not important enough to warrant the same rights and access to opportunity as all other Americans; the people in the cars or those with the matches or those paying the arsonists to light the matches.

Email me the essay, save the trees.
professorwandasposse@gmail.com

WS; 10:34 AM
Anonymous said...: 1. What is the subject of your paper?
Robert Moses and his contribution to the destruction of the South Bronx.

2. Why do you want to write about this subject?
Want to inform audience who was the key player in the destruction of the South Bronx

3. What audience will you write for?
General Audience,just to give them insight on the Birth and origin of Hip-Hop

4. What question do you want your research paper to answer?
Was all this destruction necessary and what was really gained from this action.

5. What is the main writing strategy you think you will use?
Description as to what happened and the birth of Hip-Hop

In 1959, A Parks Commissioner by the name of Robert Moses a.k.a “The Master Builder” began building an expressway through the heart of the South Bronx. As a result of this, the middle class African American, Caribbean, and Latino communities were all displaced. In addition, the South Bronx had lost 600,000 manufacturing jobs, 750,000 residents and 43,000 housing units. Robert Moses choice for urban renewal was a controversial issue. Some critics say that Robert Moses chose automobiles over people. Through this depressing time Hip-Hop forced its way through the rubble and ruins of the South Bronx on its way to become the international phenomenon it is today.

Under the direction of Robert Moses in 1968, a 15,382 unit co-op apartment complex was built. This was where families were forced to relocate. Their once comfortable homes were replaced by low rent, high story apartment building that was accompanied by crime, drug addiction, and unemployment. As a consequence of this action, the work of Robert Moses helped lead to the decline of South Bronx during the mid-20th century. The South Bronx was nothing less than “a Necropolis-a city of death.”Leaving nothing but ruins of lives and businesses and gentrification.

Robert Moses so called definition of commercialization and urban renewal didn’t do anything for the community but make matters worse. It was Moses that purposely retooled the entire city to accommodate the automobile. Moses preferred to tear down cities and towns just for his own commercialization reasoning. People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input. Moses was also known for demonstrating racist tendencies. He wanted to disregard human life and build expressways and parks all over the city of New York. Turned once a beautiful place to live and raise families into nothing but and express route.

Critics contend that Moses’ vision of towers, cities and parks linked by cars and highways in practice led to the expansion of wholesale ghettos, urban decay, middle class urban flight. Moses had no regard for human life. The man’s morals were unethical. What he considered right was immoral. What was particularly immoral was his practice of using municipal projects and simple engineering to separate the races and classes into physically and functionally separate worlds. As noted by the biographer of his life and career, Robert Caro, Moses was very insensitive when he decided to construct the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and how he neglected public transit. He even left his only brother Paul to live in poverty much of his life.

The streets were soon invaded by street gangs on every corner. The Hip- Hop culture would arise from the conditions of no work. During the mid 70’s most of the youthful energy that became known as hip- hop could be contained in a tiny- seven-mile circle of the South Bronx.

Hip –Hop came to serve as a template for social change both here and abroad. The hip-hop generation takes the template of social change as its starting point. Record of the cultural movement, the music inspired, defines hopes and nightmares, ambitions and failures of a generation whose only unifying characteristics is to unite and start to make statements through graffiti art, breakdancing, MCing, and DJing. The local gang leaders were not impressed. The Savage Skulls leader Felipe “Blackie” Mercado told his gang members, “Politics is only about bullshit.”

Hip –Hop was all due to innovators like DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, who plugged their sound systems directly into the city’s power grid and turned their turntables into musical instruments. Also to be duly noted is Afrika Bambaataa (Former gang leader), who spread the music while he traveled the Bronx on foot, turning legions of gangbangers into hip-hop heads. Bambaataa then made his way across the Harlem River to become alliances with downtown Manhattan’s art bands and gallery owners. These inspiring and influential individuals made sure that Hip-Hop made a legendary name for itself and also spoke out about the social and political issues that were going on.

Through Robert Moses vision for urban renewal Hip-Hop was emerged as a viable force in national politics. It will require, however, continued efforts chronicling its past and those disputing its future, and most of all by the young Americans still trying to hear voices over the music.

Works Cited:
Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop/ Intro by DJ Kool Herc. St. MArtins Press. New York

Caprice Eddington
(I tried to include my websites and it will not allow me to incorporate them because the tags were broken) Typed them correctly but will include them in the email.; 7:39 PM
Derek Goldstone said...: Crack Music: The De-Legitimization of Hip-Hop

In this day and age when we see urban youths running the streets ten to twenty kids deep, wearing their stunner sunglasses at night, white t-shirts, baggy blue jeans and fresh Nikes our initial reaction is to become intimidated. The average person would envision these youngsters as petty thieving, blunt smoking, crack dealing, forty ounce drinking, fatherless bastards; who need to man up and get a job. All of these negative assumptions have come together into one greater stereotype; any person who exhibits these qualities is a “rapper” and all those who produce and enjoy such music are also vagrants, potential criminals and drug dealers. People like to profile rather than look at the root of their fear and the injustice that put impoverished people in that position to begin with. Regardless of what type of music they listen to. In essence, crack cocaine and the Reagan Administration are responsible for the negative portrayal of Hip-Hop and what the genre has become today. Long forgotten are the voices of Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers and Barry White in the musical interests of today’s kids. The revolutionary messages of Afrika Bambaataa and The Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five and Public Enemy are but an afterthought on the radio and have been replaced by poppy dance tracks glorifying black on black violence, the sale of crack, and “getting stupid”. The average mind is content with believing whatever the right-wing media force-feeds down their already bullshit filled throats, but the objective scholarly mind should be asking, simply, why?
If Mississippi is home to the Blues and New Orleans the birthplace of Jazz, then Hip Hop had Jamaica. Pioneer DJ Kool Herc spent his earliest childhood years in the neighborhood that Bob Marley had once lived in (Trenchtown). DJ Kool Herc a.k.a. Clive Campbell can be considered the Abraham of hip-hop. In Kingston he bore witness to the rebellious Roots generation, the emergence of the Selector and club scene, reggae and powerful sound systems. He took note of how in Jamaica, dance clubs and parties no longer revolved around live performers, but the sound reproduction aspect itself; “Them said nothing good ever came outta Trenchtown,” Herc Says. “Well, hip-hop came out of Trenchtown!” (Chang 22)
Soon after the party-goers were exposed to Herc's innovation and overall size and power of these speaker systems the buzz began to circulate. With his popularity growing, Herc had to begin innovating; “I was smoking cigarettes and I was waiting for the records to finish. And I noticed people was waiting for certain parts of the record.”(Chang 78-79) The movement when the dancers really got wild was in a song‘s short instrumental break, when the band would drop out and the rhythm section would get elemental. When Clive decided to give the dancers what they wanted; break, followed by break, with another break immediately afterwards, he called the technique “The Merry-Go-Round”. Shortly afterwards, Chang states, break dancing or b-boying was born; “They would simply jump in one after another to go off, take each other out, just “break” wild on each other. Herc called them break boys, b-boys for short.”(Chang 80-81)
Throughout the rest of the late 70’s Herc steadily increased his reputation as a DJ by performing monthly at block parties which were the talk of the Bronx. Although Herc predominantly performed in areas that were less affected by the scourge of gangs, gangsters were ever present at his shows; such as the young Afrika Bambaataa, then the leader of the Black Spades and future leader of the Zulu Nation and Flash who would later become known as Grandmaster Flash. Yet no violence ever broke out at these dance parties. The youth gangs of the Bronx shifted their attention from conflicting with one another and turf. They wanted to have style, individuality and the ability to create dope music and moves that would cut up the dance-floor at parties. DJ Jazzy Jay of the Zulu Nation was quoted as saying;
Instead of gangs, they started turning into little area crews where they would do a little bit of dirt. In every area, there would be a DJ crew or a break-dance crew. They would be like, ‘Okay, we all about our music and we love our music but you come in this area wrong and we all about kicking your ass.’ Competition fueled the whole thing. (Chang 80)
Bambaataa saw the future before anyone else. Bambaataa, he told them his name was Zulu for “affectionate leader” and would lead them where they didn’t know they were ready to go. Soon Kool Herc had assembled his own crew; The Herculoids. Due to the negative connotation of the word “crew” being associated with gang membership, Herc tried his best to omit the suffix of crew in reference to his group. Chang makes it clear that;
By 1977, Herc and his competitors had divided the Bronx into a new kind of grid. In the South Bronx from 138th to 163rd streets, where the Bachelors, the Savage Nomads, the Savage Skulls and the Ghetto Brothers had once run, Grand Master Flash, backed by the local Casanova Crew, was emerging as the area celebrity. In the Southeast, formerly the territory of the Black Spades, P.O.W.E.R. and the Javelins, Afrika Bambaataa held sway with his Zulu Nation. In the North, there was DJ Breakout and DJ Baron. And the West Bronx neighborhood and East Bronx nightclubs were still Herc’s. Herc remained the undisputed king of the borough by virtue of his records, his loyal crowd and his sound system. (Chang 83)
The unfortunate downfall of Herc paved the way for Bam to take center stage in the up and coming movement. According to Chang; “Herc’s time was passing, but the new culture that had arisen around him had captured the imagination of a new breed of youths in the Bronx.” (Chang 84) Herc’s “New Cool” offered Bambaataa and others a way forward. Punk rockers and black youths alike were peacefully getting down to the same funky groove. Bambaataa started out as the Black Spade warlord who became the Master of Records. He is the shaman of the Zulu Nation & the ambassador to Planet Rock. Bam has made so many significant contributions to hip-hop and the culture which it has inspired that he can incontrovertibly be called one of the most prominent patriarchs of the original hip-hop movement (Mid 70’s to early 80’s). He formed the group by transforming the Black Spades into politically minded, party-going, social activists. During the promotion for an event Bam held he had his promoters proclaim; “Free Jam! Come one, come all, leave your colors at home! Come in peace and unity.” (Chang 104) The other gangs were under the impression that the party was a setup by the Zulus to jump anybody dumb enough to respond to the invitation. Those who decided to attend were astonished to plenty of gang members from all the various crews of the Bronx present. No colors, no set-up and no fights.
Bam was the preacher of the gospel of the “four elements”-DJing, MCing, b-boying, and graffiti writing. The missionary who took the hip-hop message to the four corners of the globe. If Kool Herc was the Abraham of the genre, Afrika Bambaataa has to be equivalent of Moses. He transformed his environment in sonic and social structure, and in doing so, he called forth the ideas that would shape the generational rebellion of the 1980’s. The doors of segregation that the previous generation had started to unlock were battered down by the pioneers of the hip-hop generation. Soon hip-hop went from all-city to global. The Zulu Nation was returning the Bronx to an era of style, celebration and optimism. But as the 70’s came to a close, so did the foundation and integrity of hip-hop.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five seemed like the poster-boys for the crossover of hip-hop into the main-stream. But to Flash, the idea of recording hip-hop was absurd; "Who would want to buy a record of a bunch of kids from the Bronx rapping over a record?"(Chang 129) They denied any and all attempts by promoters and producers to get signed and relied on their night club gigs to keep them afloat in the now expanding hip-hop scene. Then in October of 1979, the game changed. Chang describes this turn of events quite eloquently;
In retrospect it makes perfect sense that a no-name group using partly stolen rhymes-the definition of a crew with no style-would have been the first to tap hip-hop’s platinum potential. When three anonymous rappers stepped into Black indie label owner Sylvia Robinson’s studio to cut “Rapper’s Delight,” they had no local expectations to fulfill, no street reputations to keep, no regular audience to please, and absolutely no consequences if they failed. (Chang 129)

This slap in the face to the layers of the foundations of rap opened the doors to various fakers and rhyme takers. The scene had moved from the originators in New York, nationally to anybody who had the financial means or desire to buy a mixer, turntables and a mic. Hip-hop was beginning to be whored out, just like rock and roll had been a few decades earlier. Music moguls were now beginning to realize the profitability factor and power of the message in hip-hop. The government began to take notice as well. Charlie Ahearn, close friend of FAB FIVE FREDDY, summed the whole situation up quite nicely; "Nobody was dancing. Period! Rap became the focal point. MCs were on stage and people were looking at them…This is 1980. In other words, hip-hop is dead by 1980. It's true." (Chang 132) But it wasn’t hard for them to notice that the streets were changing. The effects of Reaganomics were coming home, making millionaires of Contra entrepreneurs, illegal arms dealers, and "Freeway" Rick Ross. Since 1982, the number of gang homicides had doubled. In 1983 the reemergence of organized crime and the cocaine/crack epidemic was both prominent and troubling. As cocaine and a glorified gangster image emerged, names like DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash became the stuff of myth. They abandoned the movement without precedent and the genre has yet to recover.
Writers, authors, activists, gang members and others have implicated the U.S. Government in the deadly crack cocaine-gun trade. Many have charged the U.S. Government with supplying gang members with these tools in an effort to undermine and eradicate the Black community through wanton murder, drug addiction and crime. Chang gives a concise and clear explanation as to the roots and origin of "crack" cocaine:
For years, Andean farmers had smoked coca paste, which they called basuco, or base. The high one got from smoking the paste was much more intense than snorting it. In 1974, a San Francisco Bay Area coke-powder smuggler and his chemist friend tried to replicate the smokable coke. They converted the powder by mixing it with ether and heating it, creating not a paste, but little crystals. When they smoked them, they couldn’t believe what they had done. This product got the name “freebase,” because the process that made the rocks had literally, in chemist’s terms, “freed” the “base”. Their mistranslation-Spanish “base” to English “base”-had led them to something entirely new. Freebase was marketed as even safer than the powder itself. Journalist Dominic Streatfield writes, “One 1979 manual I found in the Drugscope library in London, called Attention Coke Lovers! Freebase = the best thing since sex!...[concluded] that freebase is ‘considerably less harmful, physically, than regular cocaine in any quantity.’” At that point, cocaine’s price was still too high for many to experiment with freebase, so for a time, cocaine smokers remained among the most elite clientele. (Chang 207)
Gary Webb, Ex-CIA operative, author of Dark Alliance and reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, wrote:
In one of the reports I read, there was a concern with the CIA regarding the growing population of black people. The CIA operative U.S. Army Colonel Al Carone stated that, 'at the CIA, there were a few people in the right positions who blamed the decline of American culture on people of color living in the United States, that the blame of the fall of American culture began with the creation of the National Security Memorandum-200 which stated, among other things, the concern of overpopulation in the United States, which many at the CIA attributed to the birthrate among people of color, and that there were some at the CIA that felt that physical slavery could be replaced by pharmaceutical slavery and that's why African American gangs, i.e. 'Bloods' and 'Crips' were singled out for distributing the drugs brought into the United States by the CIA. (Muhammad 1)
The stage was set for one of the most dastardly acts the American government would ever perpetrate against an ethnic group; the unquestioned, unrestricted flow of high grade, dirt cheap cocaine into black neighborhoods by covert CIA agents, working with and funding the Contras of Nicaragua in a Civil war against communism. Three men can be cited as the key players in this conspiracy: Norwin Menses, a Nicaraguan smuggler and Fuerza Democratica Nicaraguense (FDN) boss also known in Nicaraguan newspapers as “Rey de la Drogas” (King of Drugs). Danilo Blandon, a cocaine supplier, top FDN civilian leader in California and DEA informant and overall scumbag. And "Ricky Donnel Ross, a South-Central Los Angeles high school dropout and drug trafficker of mythic proportions, who was Mr. Blandon’s biggest customer.
This CIA backed drug network opened its first pipeline between Columbia’s cocaine cartels and the Black neighborhoods of Compton and Los Angeles when they came into contact with Ricky Ross a.k.a. “Freeway Rick.” They formed one of the most bizarre alliances in modern history: the union of a U.S.-backed army attempting to overthrow a revolutionary socialist government and the “gangstas” of Compton and South-Central Los Angeles. Unaware of his suppliers’ military and political connections, “Freeway Rick”, as he came to be known, turned the cocaine powder into crack and wholesaled it to gangs across the country. In time, the cocaine that flooded Los Angeles helped spark a ‘crack explosion’ in urban America and provided the cash and connections needed for Los Angeles’s gangs to buy Uzi sub-machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, and other assault weapons that would fuel deadly gang turf wars, drive-by shootings, murders and robberies-courtesy of the U.S. government. Ross would eventually own millions of dollars worth of Real Estate across Southern California, including houses, motels, a theater, and several other businesses. (His nickname, “Freeway Rick,” came from the fact the he owned properties near the Harbor Freeway in LA) Ross’ drug operation grew to dominate inner-city Los Angeles, and many of the biggest dealers in town were now his customers. When crack hit L.A.’s streets hard in late 1983, Ross already had the infrastructure in place to corner a huge chunk of the burgeoning market. Ross is the first to admit, however, that being in the right place at the right time had almost nothing to do with his amazing success. Other LA dealers, he noted were selling crack long before he started. The secret to his success, Ross said, was Blandon’s cocaine prices. Ross said he never discovered how Blandon was able to obtain the cocaine so cheaply. He didn’t know about Menses, or the CIA, or the Salvadorian air-force planes that allegedly were flying cocaine into an air-base in Texas. And Freeway wouldn’t find out for nearly another ten years.
Soon the empire established by Ricky would all come crashing down. Freeway Ricky remains in jail to this day. Some believe crack did not become an ‘American problem’ until the drug hit white neighborhoods and affected white children. The damage had already been done however. Chilton Alphonse, long time Los Angeles activist, had warned for years; “The flow of crack cocaine and assault weapons into the Black community was not the doing of the Bloods and Crips. Inner City youth do not have the resources to manufacture cocaine or ship in guns.” (Muhammad 2) The Columbian cocaine coming through South-Central was the same cocaine being abused by those in Cincinnati and New York. The country, along with the entire world was finding itself in the grip of an epidemic. Even as the CIA pumped more and more cocaine and weapons into the impoverished communities, the penalties for possession of rock cocaine vs. powder cocaine became ridiculously disproportionate. Someone in possession of 1 gram of crack rock would receive the same sentencing as someone who had 100 grams of powder cocaine, thus the 100:1 ratio was born.
It's ironic, if you look back at Reagan's campaign for the presidency, he had a superb reputation as an economist. If you were to ask a modern scholar what "Reaganomics" was, you would more than likely get the text book definition. If you cut taxes you would increase Federal Revenues since economic activity would increase. The increase in economic activity would bring with it increased Federal tax revenues. In other words the tax cut would be self-liquidating and self paying since any lost revenues for the moment would almost immediately be made up by increased revenues in the future. Lowering taxes without pain or cost was Reagan's vision of an economic Utopia. I think it is fair to say that this was one of the key platforms which got Ronald Reagan twice elected as president. Ronnie made a convincing argument that he knew what was right for the country. Little did we know after his two terms in office we would plunge into the largest national debt our country has ever encountered. Chang states; “The 1980’s were the triumph of upper America-an ostentatious celebration of wealth, the political ascendancy of the richest third of the population and a glorification of capitalism, free markets and finance.” (Chang 220) Reagan left us a national debt of about $3.5 trillion or $3,500 billion. The national debt when Reagan took office was about $1 trillion. That included in it all the debt run up from the Revolutionary War, the Spanish-American War, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam war and all the social wars of the 1930’s and subsequent years. In other words it took the US from 1776 until 1980 or more than 200 years to accumulate a national debt of $1 trillion…It took Reaganomics only 8 years to increase the national debt from $1 trillion to about 3.5 trillion (see Fig.1). Given the spending habits established by the legacy of Ronald Reagan the national debt is now about $5.5 trillion. The interest cost on the national debt now runs about $250 million a year! When Ronald Reagan took office they were about $53 million a year. (Rinfret 5)

Fig. 1. The Statistical Abstract of the United States 1996 Edition: (Rinfret 5)

Reagan used the guise of "Reaganomics" to increase spending for defense during the Cold War,
even though the Soviet Union was already on the brink of collapse. The Gipper intentionally misled the US, his own party, his aides, his cabinet and Republican Congressmen to fund his own personal agendas like the "War on Drugs" which is awfully reminiscent of turn of the century drug policy and racial profiling against users of cocaine and heroin who were largely of color. He reduced the affirmative action requirements of corporate recipients of federal contracts and cutback oversight; diminished the role of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in filing discrimination claims; and drastically cut the federal and state welfare rolls under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).
The list of injustices he committed against the black community goes on; he appointed Right-wing conservative judges who continue to issue rulings to the detriment of African Americans, he made underhanded racial remarks like referring to poor black women as "welfare queens" (Davidson 2), he sought to phase out the influential Voting Rights Act which been passed during heat of the civil rights struggle, he also doubted the integrity of civil rights leaders, saying, “Sometimes I wonder if they really mean what they say, because some of those leaders are doing very well leading organizations based on keeping alive the feeling that they are victims of prejudice" (Davidson 2). Perhaps one of his most blatantly racist moves as president was sympathizing with the apartheid government of South Africa. Pushed by black leaders and organizations, Congress passed sanctions against South Africa. Reagan, on the wrong side of history, vetoed the bill. Congress, to Reagan’s shame, overrode the veto. The anti-Black, anti-poor venom that came out of the Reagan white house spared no one. Williams exclaims; Even children were not safe. At one point the administration reduced federal funding for school lunches, going so far as to classify ketchup as a vegetable. (Davidson 2) According to the Center on Budget and Budget Priorities, as reported by the Los Angeles Times as Reagan left office in 1989, programs that helped black America suffered greatly during his tenure. (Davidson 3)
Here we are in the year 2008 and hip hop is more than 30 years old. Unfortunately the genre has not gotten much wiser with age. The 90's gave birth to "Gangsta rap" which completely shattered the entire message the original hip-hop trinity (Herc, Bam and Flash) was trying to convey of inter-racial community peace and unity. Reagan is a demagogue for the atrocities he has committed against the black community of America. Although the CIA was the "group" directly responsible for flooding the impoverished streets with coke, who is ultimately the Commander in Chief of that organization? The president, Ronald Reagan, that's who. Who was hell-bent on the destruction of Communism to the point that he deceived his own people and attempted to poison them with a foreign substance to fund his crusade? Good old Ronnie. What he did is inexcusable and yet, when I set out to find literature for this paper on the subject of Reagan's presidency and the policy of Reaganomics all I could find was nostalgic biographies of the true "Cowboy President". After going from bookstore to bookstore and finding the same sappy biographies, it dawned upon me; maybe there are certain people who don't want this negative information readily available. Makes sense, considering, the man was able to conceal his red hands long past his presidency.
If I had been given more time to research and space to write, I would have also like to have looked into the "White Flight" in New York during the late 60's/early 70's and later in LA during the 80's and 90's. This exodus from the city to the suburbs I believed fueled a lot of racial tension, stereotypes and set back the achievements made in Civil Rights during the 60's drastically. Another topic which would have assisted my research is the lack of Black leadership since the Civil Rights era and how most of the Black elite are content with being miserly Uncle Toms who watch their own people suffer daily from the comfort of their suburban homes and flat-screen TVs and never give a cent back to the community.
Crack dealing made no-name, high school dropouts and losers ghetto-celebrities over night. Gold chains, staying on the grind (selling drugs) and hooking up with the loosest women in the neighborhood became the new message of the Hip Hop generation. Crack has become the next scourge of the human race. The research from ex-CIA operative and author of Dark Alliance, Gary Webb would have helped me as well. But out of five local bookstores not ONE carried the book which not only chronicled the Contra scandal but the other injustices and lies the CIA has perpetrated as well. I came to find out from an employee at Barnes and Noble at Bay St. that they haven’t carried the book since it was first published in 1996 and Webb according to newspapers not that recently "committed suicide". Sounds like a likely death for somebody who just snitched on the largest, most well paid group of thugs known to man, the CIA. In the black community, cocaine related arrests are obviously made daily, but what is the message coming out of the radio? Keep pushing. They ultimately want the black youth to emulate fools like "Freeway" Rick Ross. The message behind that to me is; go ahead and live fast, that way your black ass will die young. It seems like kids have gradually only gotten more ignorant and they latch specifically onto the negative elements of the message that rappers portray in their lyrics. What I believe we have on our hands right now with popular hip-hop is a modern-day minstrel show of sorts. A bunch of ignorant black men putting on a song and dance at the whim of their white executives who ultimately decide what they rap about. They have the message completely misconstrued about individuality and being unique in both flow and the way you dress. It's all cookie-cutter, "studio-gangster", Hip-Pop you hear on the radio now. There is no passion in that music and music without passion is like sex without climax, what really is the point?

Works Cited

Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History Of The Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador, 2005.

Davidson, Joe. “Reagan: A Contrary View.” MSNBC 7 June 2004

Fields, Walter. “No Tears For Reagan.” Blackamericatoday.com 8 June 2004

Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks And The Crisis In African American Culture. New York: BasicCivitas Books, 2002.

Muhammad, Rosalind. “Secret Ties Between CIA, Drugs Revealed.” Finalcall.com 9 May 1996. 9 May 2006

Rinfret, Pierre Andre’. “Reaganomics As Perceived And Remembered By Pierre Andre’ Rinfret.” Parida. 20 Oct. 1998; 11:15 PM
ester said...: Initial Planning
1. Subject: Apartheid in South Africa
2. Purpose: Inform and explore the issues of racism and how it affect people in the Hip Hop Era.
3. Audience: I am writing for an audience that may be curious about the history of South Africa and the problems that the people went through.
4. Questions: What did people do to help stop segregation?
What happened to those who tried to help?
How did it affect people in the Hip Hop Era?
5. Writing Strategy: I plan to describe the problem in South Africa and how racism also occurs in other countries.

Outline
Thesis- There has been a huge racial segregation in South Africa that people need to come together as one to understand each other’s problems and to help one another.
First Major Point- Racism has always been a major problem in the world but in the 1980’s, the struggle in South Africa had encouraged many individuals and groups to help fight against the issue.
Evidence 1-Quote from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (Pg. 215) “The Black struggle…”
Evidence 2-Quote from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (Pg. 216) “After arresting Mandela..”
Second Major Point-After a period of time, the people were finally able to get the word across about racism and even got the help of the Congress to help pass an Act.
Evidence 1-Quote from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop(Pg.220) “Emboldened, Congress passed the Comprehensive…”
Evidence 2- Quote from Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (Pg.228) “Rap proved to be the ideal form…”
Concluding Sentence-Years of struggling through all the hardships of racism, South Africa managed to receive support from people all over and different races to help stop the racial segregation.

Loop 3
Racism in South Africa

Racism had an impact on the world especially South Africa in the 1960’s and in the 1980’s, the racial issue occurred once again. Not only were people in South Africa were going through a moral struggle but people in other countries and of other cultures were as well. African Americans had gone through so many struggles and hatred from the Anti-Racism Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Public Enemy, and even through the Hip Hop Era. Every event that had occurred and the people who were against apartheid had to pay their consequences for demonstrating apartheid, which encouraged more people to protest and help solve the issue. There has been a huge racial segregation in South Africa that people had to come together as one to understand each other’s problems and to help one another.
In the 1980’s, which was the time of global fight against apartheid, the Blacks were always outnumbered because the Whites had to maintain their political and economic power over African society. Racism has always been a major problem in the world but in the 1980’s, the struggle in South Africa had encouraged many individuals and groups to help fight against the issue. In “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” Jeff Chang explains what had happened with the segregation in South Africa. “The Black struggle in the American south for desegregation had inspired millions around the world to throw off the shackles of white rule…(Pg.215)” There were so many people who were inspired to help with the anti-apartheid movement, like students at UC Berkeley, SF State, just family of civil rights activists, and even just random individual such as, Nelson Mandela. Nelson who was a freedom fighter who joined the African National Congress to improve conditions and rights for people of color. Mandela and few other ANC leaders were arrested by the CIA for promoting laws that prevented Africans from moving freely in the country. “In 1990, after nearly three decades behind bars, Nelson Mandela, the man that the Reaganites and right-wingers had once called a racial terrorist, was released from jail.“ (Pg.220) Nelson Mandela was life sentenced for being convicted of treason and spent 27 years in prison. The fact that he sacrificed so much for his country, he was viewed as a martyr, which made him a symbol of international protests against apartheid. Four years after his release, Mandela was elected the first black president in South Africa.
After a period of time, the people were finally able to get the word across about racism and even got the help of the Congress to help pass an Act. The Anti-Racism Movement was a difficult time for everyone of color until in 1986, an Act was passed. “ Emboldened, Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which banned any new investment in South Africa, except to Black-owned firms, and ended arms sales and military aid..”(Pg.220) South Africa was finally safe from any act of apartheid. Even though the depressing anti-apartheid movement in South Africa was over, racism was still existing when in 1909, the Civil Rights Movement started, which was basically a Black-Jewish Coalition. The Black and Jewish lawyers came together to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) so they can try to end racist lynching. Blacks and Jewish were always first to be targeted and the Jewish businesses were often first to burn down. When the Civil Rights Movement had ended which was in the 1980’s, a new kind of culture was transitioning into a new era in the mid 1980’s. The Hip Hop culture from Bronx, New York, has introduced few types of Hip Hop to the people. Graffiti were all over subways, highways, trains, and even on the streets. B-boying is a dance style but was not really that popular and some of the steps that were created disappeared faster than any type of Hip Hop. “Rap proved to be the ideal form to commodity hip-hop culture…”(Pg.228) Rap and DJ-ing were the most popular but when technology came into the picture, the technology could do anything that the DJ’s could do, so basically the DJ’s were no longer needed for the Hip Hop industry. Rap had expanded itself to join other prospective such as, teenybopper rap, John Wayne rap, X-rated rap, and more. Rap was spreading to be known worldwide and was also being recognized as “the voices of their generation.” It was said that the Hip Hop culture was a “rap thing and a Black thing”
South Africa has gone through many obstacles of torture, hatred, and basically a moral struggle to survive and live with freedom. The Anti-Racism Movement to the Hip Hop Era has been changing by the way people treat each other especially, people of color and how people view the world. For every movement that had occurred, there was always somebody or groups of people who were willing to help. Years of struggling through all the hardships of racism, South Africa managed to receive support from people all over and different races to help stop the racial segregation.

Works Cited--
Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop.A History Of The Hip Hop Generation.New York; 11:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Chesi Brown
English 1A
Mid-term: Can’t stop, won’t stop
Loop 3

Initial Planning Sheet:

1. What is the subject of your paper?
My paper is about the B-boying, Graffit, and Deejays and how hip-hop artist thrive off competition and innovated other hip-hop artist to be original.
2. Why do you want to write about this subject?
To give my audience a detail understanding of the message Jeff Chang was trying to address in Loop 3 about “Furious styles’

3. What audience will you write for?
Those who are unaware of different styles and technique the artists had to develop to be legendary.
4. What question do you want the research paper to answer?
Why was new techniques to an artist so important and why is styles became so aggressive.
5. What is the main writing strategy you think you will employ?
Casual analysis/arguments

Chesi Brown
English 1A
October 28, 2008
Essay: Furious Style

During the early stages of the hip-hop movement, “Graffiti,” “B-Boying,” and “DJing,” were commonly known for fueling competition. For a graffiti artist to keep status in his or her community tagging the unexpected is common. Artists had to keep developing new skills to keep their reputations in the forefront, whether they were a writer or a DJ. B-boys had to create new moves every week because staying relevant was extremely important. Journalist Richard Goldstein states in “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop”that“Style involves conflict, the strain of races, classes, ages, and sexes pitted against each other in the arenas of clothing and music and slang” (19).
Joseph Saddler, a well know DJ, known as “Grandmaster Flash,” grew up having a passion for taking things apart and trying to put them back together. In the early 70’s, Joseph Saddler was living in the South Bronx and studying electrical engineering. However, Saddler, a native of the Bronx, had a much deeper passion for music; he had been experimenting with his father’s vinyl since he was an adolescent. His knowledge of audio equipment led him to an idea that would revolutionize music: the turntable would become his instrument. Grandmaster Flash expresses in Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, “I wanted to know what a resistor is, what’s a capacitor, what’s a transformer, what’s AC, what’s DC, [what do] these things do….” With the influences of other pioneers, DJ Kool Herc and DJ Pete John, Flash was inspired to become a DJ. He used to attend weekend parties, but instead of partying he would provide the music to keep the party HOT! His curiosity created a technique that would change DJ’s into entertainers. He invented the Quick Mix Theory, which included techniques such as the double-back, back-door, back-spin, and phrasing. This allowed a DJ to make music by touching the record and gauging its revolutions to make his own beat and his own music. He laid the groundwork for everything a hip hop DJ can do with a record today, other than just letting it play. What we call a DJ today is a role that Flash invented.
By the end of the 70s, Flash had started another trend that became a hallmark of hip-hop: emcees asked to rap over his beats. Before long, he started his own group, “Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.” Their reputation grew up around the way the group traded off and blended their lyrics with Flash’s unrivaled skills as a DJ and his spinning and cutting vinyl with his fingers, toes, elbows, and any object at hand; he also expanded the foundation that Herc established into an outstanding presentation. Flash is a legendary person to the hip-hop movement. He had a high competitive drive and due to that he was consistently innovating—this inspired those around him to do the same. Whenever Flash came out, everybody copied his technique; he was the official trend setter for DJ’s; whatever he did, up and coming deejays were trying to copy the following days. His accomplishment inspired those around to always try to be creative and original.
Jeff Chang says that, B-boying is a style of aggression (114). B-boying is a dance that began back in the ‘70s with kids who were too young to get in clubs. The gangs no longer existed and B-boying was the only activity that could entertain the youth and help elevate their “hood” status. Crazy Leggs was one of the originators of B-boying he says:
We didn’t know what the fuck no capoeira was, man. We were in the ghetto! There were no dance schools, nothing. If there was a dance school it was tap and jazz and ballet. I only saw one dance school in my life in the ghetto during that time and it was on Van Nest Avenue in the Bronx and it was a ballet school” he says, “Our immediate influence in b-boying was James Brown, point blank
(Can’t Stop” 116)

As B-boying began to expand, so did the standards. It began to become unpredictable. Bouncing around, pivoting, turning, twisting, and front-sweeping were all routines that began to go out of style. The natural progression elevated the craft and new styles began to occur. While B-boying became more popular, so did competing. Eager to show the world they were the hottest in b-boying, a Zulu King by the name of Robbie Rob took the dance style to a higher creative level. He elevated the standards of B-boying “sky high” when he invented the freeze- suspending motion, where he balanced his body upside down on a single elbow and toe, twisting the rest of his body, throwing his legs forward toward his opponent to taunt him without hitting him or touching the floor.
Graffiti, also known as outlaw art, is a form of expression; to some it is vandalism. The objective of Graffiti is to tag the unexpected. You start with your neighborhood, the local busses, sub-ways, division, and other people’s turf. Tagging your city and the riskiest targets like a police car or police station was things that got hood credit. A pioneer by the name of Stoney tagged the Statue of Liberty, which still holds as the “illest” Graffiti move ever. By reading upon Graffiti, I realize it takes a lot of guts you must be brave and strong at all time because there were consequences to being involved in the Graffiti game, competition in Graffiti is a little different.
Lady Pink was one of the well-known writers who were inspired to do Graffiti. She felt alienated when she knew she had the ability to compete with the other established male graffiti artists and wouldn’t allow her in. Lady Pink was born Sandra Fabara, in Ambato, Ecuador, in 1964. She was raised in Queens, New York. She started her career in 1979 while a student at the High School of Art and Design, and made a name for herself as one of the only females capable of competing with men in the graffiti subculture. Pink began to prove herself, risking her freedom and life to become a graffiti artist, climbing up ten-foot fences; she even climbed to the top of the court house building while the court was in session, just trying to stand up for something she believed in. Lady Pink states, “Excuse the French, we’re not a bunch of pussy artist[s]. Traditionally we’re a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely” (Can’t Stop 118).
She was featured in the film Wild Style (1982) and worked with Jenny Holzer. As one of the first females to write graffiti, she is credited with opening the doors for other female writers. Her works are in collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Groninger Museum. She now runs her own mural paintings company with her husband Smith. In July 2006, an art piece titled "The Black Dude" (1983), by Lady Pink, was featured at the Brooklyn Museum's exhibit on graffiti. Pink began to prove herself, risking her freedom and life to become a graffiti writing, climbing up ten-foot fences, and she even climb up the court house building, just trying to stand up for something she believed in. Lady Pink states, “Excuse the French, we’re not a bunch of pussy artist. Traditionally we’re a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.”
Everybody who was involved in the hip-hop movement created techniques that have inspired others to perfect their craft and innovate in order to remain original. These styles are legendary; this is another foundation of expressive hip-hop in our culture.

Chesi Brown
English 1A
Work cites:

Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History Of The Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador, 2005.
http://www.google.com
http://alphabetiks.com/gallery.php; 2:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Ashley Dorsett
10/29/08
Eng 1A Sabir
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation
By: Jeff Chang
LOOP 3: The Message 1984-1992
Racism and Poverty effected the development of Hip Hop culture in American Society. As I started reading Jeff Chang’s Cant’ Stop Won’t Stop Loop 3 it was like walking into the wrong neighborhood not knowing anyone there or what to expect. I was lost and had no idea of what Chang was talking about, or where this chapter would leave me but I wanted more.
In the 1980’s it was a fight against global Apartheid (racial segregation) which allowed the White minority more power over the Black majority. This movement began in the early 1900’s when Black and Jewish lawyers came together to found the NAACP to stop racist lynching’s. This inspired many around the world to step up and fight against Apartheid many organizations formed, such as The Black Panther Movement, American Committee of Africa, and many others. Years later the CIA arrested Nelson Mandela (key stakeholder) a freedom Fighter for anti-apartheid in South Africa, when he was arrested they banned his organization The African National Congress. After his arrest The National Council of Churches asked General Motors to divest all of its direct investments in the South African economy, by stopping all investments activist thought this would make a statement and weaken the apartheid regime. After spending 27 years of his life in jail, in 1990 Mandela was elected 1st Black president of the country.
Steven Biko (key stakeholder) leader of Black Consciousness died of injuries due to prison beatings. After his death, more black and multicultural organizations where banned and President Jimmy Carter recalled the South African Ambassador. In 1980 when Ronald Reagan (key stakeholder) took office things didn’t get any better we experienced “Reaganism” which is an important idea within the confines of political, social and civic activities of American cultural and social influences.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, protest had deepened black teens were getting killed, and Jewish businesses were getting burned. Over the years Black community activist and Jewish teachers on the school board clashed, due to the fact that the school board was mainly Black and they brought in a new board of principals and superintendents all of who were African American . United Federation of Teachers, which was mainly Jewish, went on strike and their citywide rally worked. After that, African American and Jewish relationship would never be the same.
Louis Farrakhan head of the Nation of Islam said “We don’t have to waste time discussing weather racism exists. Racism is so pervasive it has corrupted religion, politics, education, and economics.”(p.224) after his speech The Nation of Islam and the Civil Rights Activist worked together to make changes to the African American Community. They spoke to gangs and youths in targeted areas such as Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and New York were almost all African Americans lived under racial and economic restrictions. African Americans and Latinos had moved into the suburbs of Queens which later was known as “The Black Belt” this caused many problems because Queens at the time was predominately white.
When the Fair Housing Act banned discrimination in selling and renting homes “The Black Belt had became the Black suburbs, with numbers showing that it was 90 % African American(p.233) In other areas like East Meadow, Rockville, and Baldwin they still practiced illegal selling by dis-criminating against minorities. This did not stop in just communities but schools as well. Black kids had inexperienced teachers, low test score, and high dropout rates, when white kids had academic programs better educated teachers , and every student went to a University because their parents could afford it, but Black and Latinos had to go to Cal States and community colleges.
As Public Enemy and other Rap groups formed they faced many challenges. Labels didn’t want to sign them unless they changed some of the lyrics, and at the time MTV was only showing rock, and new wave videos, all of this excluded blacks. When Columbia records threatened to boycott they began playing black artist. Run DMC didn’t get positive feedback from white audience when they covered Aerosmith “Walk this Way”, racist remarks were made like “get the niggers of the air” and black radio channels were afraid of being” too black”. The white media began calling Public Enemy the world’s most dangerous band. For movie director Spike Lee it was the same way in 1988 he began filming “Do the Right Thing” in Bed Stuy, New York. Lee wanted to show the racial tense on a Brooklyn block, but the movie had already been rejected because of the ending critics called it to “controversy” (p.276) because they didn’t know how young urban audience would react to the interracial violence. In “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy they sent a message that Black people needed to stick together and fight for their rights and that the real enemy was police and white people.
When Jesse Jackson ran his political campaign in 1984 and 1988 his slogan was “Rainbow Coalition” which meant that it was room for everybody to come together and be one, such as disabled people , veterans, farmers, poor and wealthy Asian, Arab, Latino , and African Americans .He was very close to winning until he made racial comments against Jewish people by calling them “Hymies” and New York City “Hymietown” (p.265), soon after people in the Community were calling him Anti-Semitic and a Black Nazi (p.268). He lost many Jewish votes, Ed Koch mayor of New York said “that if any Jew voted for Jackson they’d be crazy because he was praising Arafat in Israel, and that Blacks would be crazy to vote for somebody who was praising Botha and the racist supporters of the South African Administration. (p.267-268)
Things were just getting worse on the West Coast as well, such as racism and gang violence in Los Angeles. A rap group was introduced by the name of Boyz-N-The-Hood. They rapped about the fatherless, brotherless, state-assaulted, gang violence, of urban youth generation (p.306). In 1982 the number of gang homicides had doubled. Some white and black prisoners at Soledad had a minor fight a white guard had broke the fight up by firing at 3 Black inmates, two died instantly, and the guards denied medical aid to the last man whom died on the yard. On August 3 a man named Jonathan Jackson went to a Marin City Court house where John McClain was defending himself against charges he had stabbed a prison guard. Jackson had fired at a Judge and held several jurors and a district attorney hostage .The gun Jackson had used was registered to Angela Davis a black activist and Black Panther, who was then sentenced to prison.
Whites had felt that blacks were different -less fortunate, and more practical, they didn’t want them in the neighborhood, but black families broke through and moved into all white neighborhoods, when white families saw this they moved out, some people called this “Negro Invasion” (p.307), sometimes white people would buy their property just to see them out of their “community”. The KKK had erected racial covenants and black restrictions that prevented blacks from moving into the neighborhood, if they did they would be threatened by eviction. After this Black families had nowhere else to go but Watts also known as “Mud Town” (p.307) now this neighborhood was in demand of health care, schooling, transportation, and housing but racial discrimination kept the rent high. The unemployment rate was high as well in 1983 it hit 11%. In South Central were it was mostly minorities it was higher 50%. White poverty rates had been declined 7% and Black, Asian, and Latinos lived 14% below the poverty line. (p.315)

These types of things made up the first race riot in 1943 named the Zoot Suit Riot which had banned Chicanos, and Blacks from Venice Beach. Cops were coming into Black communities such as Watts and beating them for numerous reasons, this caused the Watts Riot and LAPD’s relationship was never the same with the African American Community.
One racist event that played a big part in the community was the Rodney King beating, who had been beaten by several white officers, after getting pulled over. This beating had been broadcasted just a while after it happen and many riots took place, African Americans were upset and they weren’t afraid to show it, by burning s, breaking in stores, and going against the police in any way possible. Korean relationships were worsening with African Americans to, after a Black teenage girl by the name of Latasha Harlins was shot dead by a Korean storekeeper. This all stared because Soon the storekeeper though that Latasha was stealing, which most of the time the Korean store keepers thought. Like in movies such as Menace to Society, and Don’t Be a Menace while Drinking Your Juice in The Hood. Showed Korean’s accusing African Americas of stealing.
Korean storeowners prices had gone up in South Central with expenses on grocery prices 20-30% higher than in the suburbs, they figured that liquor was more important than food. The racial tension came from pent up frustration of both groups. Gary Kim who is the president of the Korean American Coalition said that “When Koreans and Blacks are involved in a crime, and we have a Black Victim, it’s automatically a racially motivated incident.” “When there’s a Korean victim involved it’s not a racial incident” (p.341) African Americans and Koreans felt it was difficult to get along with one another so they formed the Black-Korean Alliance in 1986, this group wanted to open up cultural exchanges between Black and Korean churches.
Racism not only affected African Americans, but anyone who was considered different or had different beliefs from another group. Racism is the National obsession. The problem is that in this country, in our attempt to avoid being Racist we do exactly the opposite. We recognize race and make it an issue everywhere.; 5:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Ashley Dorsett

INTIAL PLANNING SHEET

1)My paper is about the Civil Rights era
2)Im writting to look at the themes of Racism and how it affected Hip Hop
3)I am writting for the Hip Hop Generation, so they can get some History on what happen before.
4)Which artist were targeted.
How did they find a resoultion.
5)Cause and effect, problem and soultion.; 5:27 PM

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