Entries Tagged 'Hip-Hop' ↓

Yet, “Rapper’s Delight” isn’t the best aspect of “Cog,” a 2-minute Honda commercial, produced by Nike stalwarts Wieden + Kennedy, which aired in the UK during 2003. That would be its sheer visual inventiveness and luscious backstory, one of filmmakers going to insane limits to create a vision that, until the moment the lights go dark, only exists inside their heads.

I recently discovered this spot while doing research on Rube Goldberg machines…and I was looking those up as an aspect of some religious writing I’m doing…which is, I should say here, what I’ve always loved about the net and, certainly by extension, Wikipedia: Its serendipitous nature, and that, following it, you never end up where you started or expected…that being, I think you’ll agree, what this advertisement is about, too.

I don’t know how, until this very morning, I missed the April 15 New York Times profile of white rapper Asher Roth by former VIBE music editor Jon Caramanica. (“To Be Young, Rapping and White,” it was near sacrilegously titled.) But it was certainly worth the wait.

Continue reading →

Fluid dynamics—the movement of particles in flow—remains one of the most intractable areas of study in all of science, with fluids in action being among the hardest phenomena to model, even with a very high-speed supercomputer.

The same may be true of hip-hop, if the relative absence of scholarly writing on the principles of the art form is any indication. Enormous swaths of text have been, and are being, composed on hip-hop’s master narrative: The Bronx, poverty, Kool Herc, Danceteria, Run-DMC, etc. Meanwhile, others delve into rap’s social and sexual politics, ad infinitum.

To my thinking, though, the real excitement truly, absolutely, lies near hip-hop’s epicenter, and its most elemental, fundamental questions; those corresponding to its mechanics.

For example, Why does rhyme work? Why does the act of mating like sounds grab a listener’s interest? I mean, when you think of it, why should so simple a trick hold the fascination of grown men and women, or anyone older than an infant?

Or, how do artists make word choices, winnowing away all possible semantics until they have crafted a narrative, or maybe a diatribe?

From what does rhythm derive its power? When a rapper speaks confidently over a strong meter, what new sound is he, by fusion, building, different from either his voice or the track, alone? Is this singing? If not, why not? How is doing this different from the way people made music before hip-hop’s advent?

And, most of all, when these and other queries are considered all together, how, and why, does hip-hop  function as a system, one of both cognition and action?

Or, as Dr. Adam Bradley says in his amazing new text, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, in one of a seeming cluster of elegantly parsed, yet deeply thoughtful insights, “The MCs most basic challenge is this: When given a beat, what do you do?”

He continues:

“Rap is what results when MCs take the natural rhythms of everyday speech and reshape them to a beat. The drumbeat is rap’s heartbeat; its metronomic regularity gives rap its driving energy and inspires the lyricist’s creativity. ‘Music only needs a pulse,’ the RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan explains. ‘Even a hum, with a bass and snare—it’ll force a pulse, a beat. It makes order out of noise.’ Robert Frost put it even more plainly: ‘The beat of the heart seems to be basic in all making of poetry in all languages.’ In rap, whether delivered in English or Portugese, Korean  or Farsi, we hear two and sometimes many more rhythms layered on top of one another. The central rhythmic relationship, though, is always between the beat and the voice. As the RZA explains,  the beat should ‘inspire that feeling in an MC, that spark that makes him want to grab a mic and rip it.’

“Rappers have a word for what they do when the rhythm sparks them; they call it flow.  Simply put, flow is an MC’s distinctive lyrical cadence, usually in relation to a beat. It is rhythm over time. In a compelling twist of etymology, the word rhythm is derived from the Greek rheo, meaning “flow.” Flow is where poetry and music communicate in a common language of rhythm. It relies on tempo, timing, and the consituitive elements of linguistic prosody: accent, pitch, timbre, and intonation.”

There are so many good things about writing like this: The clarity of Bradley’s language; the gentle way he uses technical terms, in order to bring readers into his secrets; the subtle manner by which he alludes to hip-hop’s global impact; his ear for pounding quotes; the good sense to mate RZA and Robert Frost, maybe for the first time, ever; the fact that all of this occurs within the book’s first six pages.

I had to make certain that Adam Bradley would be the guest, today, on my WBAI-NY / 99.5 FM radio show, NONFICTION, this afternoon, Friday, April 17, at 2 pm ET. And so he is.

You can hear his ideas by tuning in at 2 pm. If you’re outside of the New York tri-state, check out our stream on the web. If you miss the live show, dig into our archives for up to 90 days after broadcast.

Maybe, upon hearing Girls, I Got ‘Em Locked, Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud’s 1988 debut CD, you immediately noted the unique nimbleness of Super’s gifted tongue. Or perhaps all you dreamt about was him giving you some of that gift, because you thought he was foyne! and would buy anything with his face, eyes, and supple lips across the front.

At least I hope so. Because, if you didn’t, reclaiming your childhood is going to really cost you. Ear Wax Records Atlanta is selling Amazon.com’s sole copy—”Open Case/Never Played Condition/MISSING BACK COVER/First Class Shipping”—of Girls, I Got ‘Em Locked…and it’s $200.

No lie. That’s, like, at least twenty regular CDs! Good thing YouTube’s still free. You can watch the title track’s little seen, negative-budget music video, or this slightly more hi-fi audio-only version. And start saving your lunch money.

Before I started writing professionally, I took pictures of the stuff I was doing and people with whom I was mostly hanging out, the members of Long Island’s Spectrum City mobile d.j. crew. After I became a writer, I stopped shooting to a great extent, put my negatives in bags, congratulated myself on accumulating the world’s largest archive of Spectrum pics, and called it a day.

Subsequently, Spectrum reinvented themselves as the hip-hop crew Public Enemy. Much to my delight, people started asking to see those pictures.

Someone else just did. At 7:30 pm, tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 1, at the University of Iowa’s Iowa Memorial Union, I’ll be speaking as part of the University of Iowa Lecture Series.

For more than 30 years, The University of Iowa Lecture Committee has brought some of the world’s great thinkers to the University of Iowa campus. Speakers have included an impressive roster of national and international figures in science, politics, business, human rights, law, and the arts. Each year the University hosts from 6 to 10 thought-provoking lectures. These events help enrich Iowa’s academic environment and enhance its reputation as a prestigious Big Ten university.

My lecture is titled “Part of the Permanent Record,” and takes its name from the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery exhibition of my work in the summer of 2007. Wednesday night, I’ll be screening some of those photographs and talking about the journey through hip-hop I’ve been blessed to make with Chuck D, Flavor-Flav, Bomb Squad leader Hank Shocklee, above, and the rest. (An article in the local Corridor Buzz, previewing the lecture, goes into a lot of that.) I’m really honored to have this opportunity, and I’m looking forward to the talk. If you’re in Iowa, come through. Admission is free.

Why did hip-hop succeed?

That’s probably the first question I’m going to be asking tonight at the free Future of Music 4: The Rise of Hip Hop and its Influence on Other Media panel, 8:30 pm, at Tekserve (119 W. 23rd St., bet. 6th & 7th Aves.; 212-929-3645), New York City’s premier Apple retail and repair store. My job is moderating a discussion between DMC, aka Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC fame; the pugilistic Freddie Foxxx, aka Bumpy Knuckles; and Troy Hightower, of Hightower Productions, the renowned audio engineering firm. I’m expecting a rich convo from this power-packed trio.

Some background about “Future of Music”: We’ve been hosting these events at Tekserve, right, more or less bimonthly, as of this year. The turnout’s been consistently excellent, and I’ve been having a fantastic time with the folks there. Tekserve’s a great shop to roll through, ask questions, or just see the latest toys. It’s a friendly, helpful kind of establishment, of the sort that you don’t see a lot anymore, especially around anything having to do with computers. Hey: I’m not just president of the panels we do: I’m a client. In fact, every post I’ve ever written for MEDIA ASSASSIN, including this one, was created with a PowerBook G4 12″ that I bought at Tekserve four years ago, and it’s still clicking along. Consider me one of the faithful, as I expect we’re gonna meet, and make, more tonight.

So, first I’ll talk with the panel: What is the source of hip-hop’s influence? How has it affected the media we consume? Where do we see the greatest resistance to its clout, and what is at risk where it is denied? Then we’ll take questions from you, our always-curious audience. The issues are serious, the talent is legendary, and you rarely get to just ask these guys questions, so represent.

Gangsta Babies dolls proves it’s never too early to model crass materialism for your tykes. Plus, those Exorcist eyes should have the little ones completely captivated.

As the site says,

Comin straight outta crib-town! Each of these 10-inch hooddlers is A-Listing in the play ground. Rockin fabtastic clothing and so much baby bling that other rug rats can only catch their vapors.

“Pookie,” above, is

the green-eyed baller. But dont make him cranky… ya wouldnt like him when he’s cranky. Featuring a thermal shirt, t-shirt, dew rag, ring, and pimped out pacifier necklace.

Don’t hate the baby. Hate the crap.

I’m doing a couple of public events tonight and tomorrow, here in New York, and would love to see you in the place.

• First, tonight, Wednesday, January 28, at 7:30 pm, I’m at the Brecht Forum in discussion with cultural anthropology doctoral student / blogger Michael Partis (Ambitionz as a Writer) and writer / poet Anika Lani Haynes, for a talk titled “Biggie, Brooklyn and the World: Conversations on the NOTORIOUS.” It’s in part a response to the eponymous new biopic on the Notorious B.I.G., the powerful hip-hop vocalist who, after releasing two astounding albums, was murdered in Los Angeles in 1997, at the age of 24. (That’s actor / rapper Jamal “Gravy” Woolard, above, as he portrays the artist in the film.)

Say the promo materials:

With the release of Notorious, once again the famed rapper NOTORIOUS B.I.G. has taken center stage in the consciousness of the hip hop generation. Tonight our panel of experts will examine the film as well as the living contradictions of Notorious B.I.G. How do we understand Biggie’s relationship with Lil’ Kim and Faith Evans inform conversations about overall relationship between Black men and women? How does Biggie’s life play out hip hop in the age and crack? And finally in what ways does Biggie’s career mark the end of hip hop era and the presence of Black death? “Biggie, Brooklyn and the World” will bring all of these elements together in a conversation on hip-hop, past, present and future.

There’s a suggested donation of $6-$15, but no one will turned away.

The Brecht Forum is at 451 West Street bet. Bank and Bethune, (212) 242-4201; click here for directions.

• Then, tomorrow night, Thursday, January 29, Tekserve, New York’s preeminent Apple retail and repair shop, will be hosting the third in its ongoing “The Future of Music” series of panels, examining the way technology is rapidly evolving the entire realm of audio entertainment. Guests will include Sadat X (vocalist, Brand Nubian), Claudia Gonson (pianist/drummer/backing vocalist, The Magnetic Fields), Adam Farrell (head of marketing, Beggars Group), and Peter Rojas (founder of the tech blogs Gizmodo, Engadget, and Joystiq).

I’ll be moderating, and if past panels—featuring such luminaries as Chic founder Nile Rodgers, recording engineer Bob Power, and Bomb Squad producer Hank Shocklee—have been any indication, the conversation will be animated, fast-paced, and provocative. Get there, if you can.

Charlotte, NC public relations consultant Charla Muller had a problem.

Her husband, Brad, was about to turn 40, and she needed to appropriately commemorate the date. She wanted to give him something unique and original, something that nobody else would think of giving him, “something so dramatic and different that Brad would never ever pause to remember what I gave him for his fortieth birthday.”

She thought, and thought, and strategized, and when she finally told her husband what she wanted to give him, “he literally fell over”:

Sex. Every Day. For a Year.

Her story of their experience, 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy, tells how gettin’ it on every 24 hours “transformed a marriage.” But as opposed to being a diary of Charla and Brad’s technique, “it’s a book about the ups and downs of married life, trying to have it all (and failing) and figuring out how to get back to the basics of a grounded, faith-based marriage,” Charla says on her web site.

Charla Muller is the guest today on my WBAI-NY / 99.5 FM radio show, NONFICTION, this afternoon, Friday, January 16, at 2 pm ET.

Following my conversation with Charla, I’ll also be talking with Jackie Salloum, director of the documentary Slingshot Hip-Hop, right, and Ora Wise, education director / associate producer of the project.

The film covers the resistance against Israeli occupation in Palestine as it is waged intellectually by hip-hop artists in the region. Some may recall that I wrote about Jackie’s film and the Palestinian hip-hop scene, back in the March 2008 edition of VIBE magazine, and here, on MEDIA ASSASSIN. As well, I subsequently spoke about these subjects on WNYC Radio’s Soundcheck program, with host John Schaefer.

Given the logarithmic escalation over the past three weeks of the ongoing atrocities in the region, I’m thrilled to have these brave activists on my program.

You can hear their ideas by tuning in at 2 pm. If you’re outside of the New York tri-state, check out our stream on the web. If you miss the live show, dig into our archives for up to 90 days after broadcast.

I’m not a big rare record collector, as a) I’m not a d.j. or a producer, b) a lot of music is on CD or p2p networks, and c) I bought most of what I really love when it originally came out. (Well, O.K.: I didn’t purchase World’s Famous Supreme Team’s “Hey D.J.” 12″ (the track’s glorious video, here), a Jean-Michel Basquiat “test pressing sleeve” version of Rammellzee vs. K-Rob’s “Beat Bop,” or perfection itself—Endgames’ “Ecstasy” instrumental—but hey, I can’t be everywhere at once.)

However, I did once gleefully fork over significant cash to an unseen Brit for a beautifully preserved, 12″ copy of the Russell Brothers’ 1983 electro-funk masterpiece, “The Party Scene,” above. The reverb-laden, synth-spazzed track’s first minute-and-a-half have always sounded, to my ears, like something big, dangerous, and powerful being turned on, then warming up; like, say, the Large Hadron Collider if it was being run by Parliament-Funkadelic.

If you know what I mean, or loved this disc during your Back In the Days days, this chilly YouTube link will, paradoxically, warm your cockles. The rest of y’all, take your chances. Play loud, as always.