Topic: A Few Things to Ponder... Hip Hop is Jumping Off Everywhere
- Oct 13, 2005 03:59pm by NRG - livin the art that is life !
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by Davey D
Well as we all know Hip Hop has definitely come a long ways. As I write this column I’m in route to Beirut for a Hip Hop conference where the focus is on the censorship of political music. I just came from Montreal’s Pop Music Festival where I got to break bread with Hip Hop artists from all over the world.
What’s amazing is that in 2005 I am seeing artists from all over the world networking and building crucial cultural bridges with one another sans the US with the exception of the so called underground artist like dead prez , Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Immortal Technique to name a few. Around the world you are seeing and hearing artists from various countries linking up to release DVDS and do special collaborations like last years ‘African Way Project’ which was an outgrowth of the United Nations Hip Hop Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Hip Hop artists from around the world are going out and making DVDs that focus on the political challenges and plight of their communities as opposed to the ‘bling-bling infested –girls gone wild-I’m a gangsta thug’ variety that seems to dominate our shelves. Interestingly enough many of these DVD projects like the 4 Real series (www.DirectCurrentMedia.com) which comes out of Canada’s Hip Hop community are getting lots of support and airtime all over planet as viewers are able to see how rappers in Kenya, Venzuela, Brazil and Somalia use Hip Hop to address their political-economic and social challenges. We’re able to see how folks in live day to day in wretched environments that would remind us of New Orleans after the Katrina, are able to overcome and rise up in spite of their hardships. These DVD documentaries are being shown everywhere but here in the US. Meanwhile here in the states we’re stuck with having to watch endless episodes of cribs where multi-million dollar rap stars show us pimped out houses and cars and show us refrigerators and liquor cabinets stocked with Hennessy and Beer.
If we’re not seeing that we’re seeing yet another rap group sexually pushing the envelope on BET’s Uncut. I’m still waiting to see Mos Def’s compelling video for Katrina Clap (www.presstheissue.org/) which is getting shown outside the US, or at least hear his song with same frequency that I get to hear 50 Cent tell us he wants how he wants you the women to take your clothes off just a lil bit.
Before I left on my trip, a number of artists were being flown into Los Angeles to be part of a special porno movie project. It’s supposed to be hush hush as producers were trying to find incentives to for these stars to bear all and go to work. This is going on as the rest of planet seems to be moving on. Heck the President of Venzuela Hugo Chavez saw fit to address Hip Hop during the recently held Youth Summit a couple of months ago.
Generally speaking there seems to be a general awareness and appreciation amongst artists and more importantly Hip Hop fans in these countries about the scene in other places. Here at home I’m hard pressed to find someone who can name off 3 or 4 artists North of our borders or even one or two to the south . While we can point to our media which interestingly enough has reach in other countries for narrowcasting and not showing the wide spectrum of music (i.e MTV is in Africa, Europe and India but we rarely see the Hip Hop videos they show there over here), there is still an arrogance and global ignorance held by many of us which may one day be our undoing.
What I mean by this, when you start to hear from people on the world stage we in the states oftentimes come across in the same disappointing ways that New York Hip Hoppers did in the mid 80s when artists from other parts of the country especially the west coast started coming up. Many New York based artists and media pundits held a dismissive attitude that eventually forced various regions of the country to bypass New York and start building on their own. So you had Texas artists building with Cali artists and Midwest artists collabing with down south artists. One day a bunch of arrogant New Yorkers woke up and saw that Hip Hop had not only grown but in many ways surpassed them. From a global perspective the US may be headed in that direction.
As Somalian born rap star Knaan noted in a recent interview, The rest of world has been trying to come up and they will with or without the help of the US. He's getting ready to do a big concert in Brazil before 100 thousand people where Mos Def will open up for him not the other way around.
Chuck D of Public Enemy has been speaking out for the past couple of years urging people to get a passport and see the rest of the world. He said a lot of things are happening in major ways beyond our 2000 by 3000 mile box. From what I’m seeing Chuck is absolutely right.Hip Hop is alive an well all around the world and starting to make moves .
