Watching VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors honoring the 25 year legacy of Hip-Hop made me remember the time when this new style of music that we called our own was created completely as an underground hood style of music, where I would have to sneak into clubs or hope to catch a good block party because it was rare that I could hear it on the radio, let alone see it in its full culture on a music channel on TV. A time when the revolutionary evolution of Black & Brown people in New York created a new music genre that we had no idea would permeate throughout the world as a global culture.
My highlights were The Roots, Public Enemy, Mary J. Blige & Method Man & the crazy ass, always keeping it real & hood, Reggie Noble. I never thought that I would see DMX & EPMD rock a stage again, but that is the power of Def Jam & hip-hop, which can always bring us back together and put out the DEFest JAM! It took me back to a time when we were just starting to truly own our power & seeing our reach as a people with a voice behind the power of a thumping drum & bass, taken from those before us & cut up to create a new sound that gave props to the magic of a DJ that would move crowds.
The Hip-Hop Honors honoring of the 25 years of Def Jam also got me back to thinking how we have continuously waited throughout history for the White man to put us on as a people by packaging & selling our own creations to ourselves & the world. I believe that we are one world & one race of human beings, so when we work together to create history it’s in the natural order of humanity, but when there is an imbalance of profits, bosses & workers then we really need to look within, examine & find better solutions rather than just complaining. It is baffling to me that 25 years later this same formula still exists. I just read an article the other day on the penetration of hip-hop in Africa/African hip-hop & its refining, defining, branding & selling to the world thru the Nomadic Wax record label, founded by yet again another White man named Ben Herson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8286310.stm) . Don’t get me wrong because I applaud him for his brilliance, business mind & recognizing that there is money to be made in a missing genre in Hip-Hop, but why couldn’t it be Jay Z (the biggest entrepreneur in & of global Hip-Hop) or an African recognizing, refining, defining, branding & selling our own creation? Are we that lost or set in always being the workers complaining about working hard & never becoming the boss who reaps the profits, when the chance & opportunity is right in front of us?
I am so tired of hearing people of color & particularly Black people constantly speaking of the White man not giving them a chance instead of recognizing that the chance is there for us all as human beings , but it is up to us as a people & as individuals to take the chance & sculpt it into what we wish, deem, dream & manifest it to be as leaders and everyday people. We can’t seek the White man to give us a chance then complain about it manifesting. If you have something & there is someone who can make it better or more profitable then why not forge a good business relationship with them & collectively work to make it a success? Would hip-hop as we know it have been possible without Rick Rubin, a young Jewish -American student at NYU (my alma mater-Go violets) who had the audacity of hope, work ethic, creativity & know how to seek a partnership with Russell Simmons, who he knew could bring the product to the table & legitimize the selling of what was brewing in the the urban ghettos of New York?
We celebrate Def Jam as the catalyst that took hip-hop, a creation of Black urban young people, to the global arena with the leadership of 3 Jews & 1 Black man (Rick Rubin, Lyor Cohen, Julie Greenwald and Russell Simmons) handling the business with a majority Black workers/creators. Hip-Hop thru the push of Def Jam became a genre that in 25 years has penetrated every part of the globe & everyday life. Just think about that for a minute because even today the business & true ownership of hip-hop is in that same warped imbalance & 25 years later we are still complaining about not getting our just due when without the artists there will be no business of Hip-Hop or Def Jam, so who is really to blame for the imbalance? We can’t always wait for the chance to be put on or get our just due! If a young Jewish student can create a conglomerate from his dorm room by refining, defining, branding & selling a creation from a ghetto, which he is not even from, then why can’t those who are the creators refine, define, brand & sell their own creation & cut out the middle man in a game of profiteering & capitalism? As the saying goes “God helps those who help themselves”.
He argues that Africa is the true “birthplace of hip-hop”. “It traveled through the transatlantic slave trade to the US, via the Caribbean – that’s what created this culture,” he says. “Hip-hop is the missing connection between the US and Africa. It’s about a conversation within the African Diaspora. There was Creole culture, the blues, jazz, rock’n'roll and it has become hip-hop.” Ben Herson (founder of Nomadic Wax).
Eve should be saying because of hip-hop , Gwenn Stefani had the opportunity to work with her. How we think of ourselves & the level we reach is all in our mind & the words we use to express it! I love Gwenn Stefani because her sound comes from music created by those who I can directly relate to & a familiar sound: ska, reggae, rock n roll & hip-hop – Black Music! Don’t get Twisted!
As 2face Idibia says ” “Remember there’s only 1 race ..the human race..cuz we struggle & hustle & laughing & crying & shout & do it all 2gether..we’re stuck together can not live without each other.. irrespective of ur color, ur religion or political border..all we need is one love”
Black Music is world music because since the days of slavery, everyone who has even 1 drop of Black in them is defined as Black, so the majority of the world is Black- Think about it!
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” Eleanor Roosevelt