"Don't Mess With Me" Street

My Hip Hop Generation

Yo, what's good. I'm critiquing this artist, Nightmare, on his piece, My Hip Hop Generation. Nightmare, up until this point as been a quiet artist making little underground rhymes here and there. He hasn't really come out with a certified mix-tape or something he can put his name behind. When I spoke to him last he said he was working on a piece called "MC Name". He didn't really go into any more detail than that, but I expect the piece to be crazy hot.
Now the piece he just did, My Hip Hop Generation, is a sensitive piece. It's about an altercation between he and his brother about when his brother was shot a couple of years ago. The spoken word piece/dialogue was very real and it talked a lot about the hip hop generation and how it affects the youth of every age. When his brother first starts out talking about what he is wearing, the Stan Smith's, the Brooklyn Express jeans, the 'Don't Mess With Sesame Street' shirt and the LA Dodgers cap are all examples of items that glorify hip hop. He makes sure that he is color-coordinated and matching from head to toe, literally. The shirt, is a great example of hip hop's effects on the media when they change a children's show into something 'gangsta'. He continues to go on about his gang life, the Crips. The artist makes a great recognition to the creator of the Crips, Stanley 'Tookie' Williams, with his rhyme saying, "Ok, Tookie, calm down, what's your name then, Pookie?". His brother continues about his gang name and what the 'central message and image' of his gang portrays. As the rhyme continues, a form of the effect of media shows it face again with his only way of creating income is selling weed. Now, there are definitely other ways of selling weed but because he is a paraplegic he believes he has no other way of making money. His brother continues to speak about when he got shot and who's fault it was. The artist is called a Captain Save-A-Ho, which is a rhyme from Eazy-E for brothers that save gold-diggin' hoes. The anger continues to swell until the artist calms the whole scene down and ends it on a positive note.
This artist has great potential for a very positive and successful future. We should hear more from him in the upcoming months. I rate this artist with a 3.8 out of 4.

Hear me out, tell me what life is about...

Here's a little something, I was thinking about a couple of days ago. Tell me if it's something plausible and something I can perform for you.

It's funny when you wake up in the morning and your brother is in you face, like, "How I look?" Now, I'm thinking to myself, saying to myself, "Hmm, what is this nigga wearing? He has on black, white & blue Stan Smith's , some blue jeans from Brooklyn Express, a name belt that has an 'S' on its chest, a shirt that says 'Don't Mess With Sesame Street' and a LA Dodgers cap, not Miami Heat." So I say to him, "What's all the blue for?" He tells me, "Motherfucker, I'm crip." Now, pause, stop, rewind, wait a couple of seconds....play. "Now, what the fuck did you just say?" I said, "I'm Crip, nigga." I'm like, "OK, Tookie, calm down, what's your name then, Pookie?" He's like, "Na, it's P-Loc." I say, "Word? That's dope, but why a gang, why Crips?" He tell me, "These are my niggas, my brothers, we stay together, we're loyal and we protect one another, almost like a brotherhood, just with more paranoia. A gang is just an emphasis on our central message and image of brotherhood/loyalty." I said, "What about a fraternity, something with less modernity that has brotherhood & loyalty, but is less violent, you see?" He tells me, "No, that's not how it is, that's not how it's gonna be. So today is the day I need you to do something for me." I say, "What's that?" He says, "I need you to sell this weed for me, while I'm in Jamaica." I'm like, "No, I refuse, to meet my Maker." He's like, "It won't take ya, long to get the concept down, you won't be gone by the time I get back around." I say, "I'ma be doin' this for a month. You gonna be in Jamaica, smokin' blunts." He's like, "Please, this is my only way for income, remember? I got shot two years ago, four months before December, now I'ma paraplegic, with disabled members. As a matter of fact, this shit is your fault, I remember! Fuckin' Captain-Save-A-Ho! If you didn't help that bitch, I wouldn't be in this predicament." I say, "Yo, it's not even like that, if you weren't a part of a gang, you wouldn't have gotten sidetracked. Let's remember, you do start school a month after December. Let's try to stay alive, cuz life gets hard in the winter. Truce?" "You right, deuce."

No Time For Fake Niggas

I enjoyed Tara's teaching and knowledge of hip hop. Although, I do think she went a bit fast it was all for good reason and she had a lot of knowledge to drop on us young bucks. Anyway, I appreciated the fact that she went all the back to Bessie Smith and explained that origins of hip hop were based in the blues and jazz. A little background on Bessie Smith: She was on July 9, 1892 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her father, William Smith, was a laborer and a part time preacher. He died before she could even remember him. Her mother died when she was nine, leaving her in the custody of her older sister. She and her brother performed on the streets in front of saloons to make some money for the household. She would sing and dance and he would play the guitar. She was eventually signed with Columbia records and was known as "Queen of the Blues" for records like, Gulf Coast Blues and Downhearted Blues. Her nickname "Queen of the Blues" was upgraded to "Empress" after about 160 recording with Columbia records. Her most notable recordings were with the finest musicians of the day, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Green, Joe Smith, James P. Johnson and Fletcher Henderson. Bessie Smith died in a car accident on September 26, 1937.
Here are a couple of recordings of Bessie Smith as well as Gill Scott-Heron, who I did not speak about....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrx2-vvwC4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCrtErmipXE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I54DgVennXU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM_r9qDDmyc&feature=related

The Real Ol' School

I have appreciated everything that Kashi has been teaching and it has inspired to look up and research everything that I read in out text. I really liked the Danny Hoch film and Rennie Harris' performances. The reading within Part II No Time for Fake Niggas: On the Question of Nigga Authenticity by R.A.T Judy was very informative and forced me to really think and value my vocabulary and what one additional letter can do to a culture. I especially like when the author breaks down, thoroughly, the difference between a badman and bad nigger. That shit right there is the truth. I want to bring the part of the article where the author explains, or tries to explain, the difference between a nigger and a nigga to comedians and all people that like to make these kinds of jokes so that they know the true distinction for themselves and maybe in the future they can make more informative jokes about their culture.
Other than that, I've looked up a couple of things on youtube that the book kept repeating. One of the main artists that the book continuosly calls on to show where rap beats originate is James Brown. So I put up one of his songs that you can probably figure out was mixed in one Grandmaster Flash's mixes for a party. I also put up Sly & the Family Stone which Afrika Bambaataa used for his mixes. Finally, I put up, I believe, one of Grandmaster Flash's first mixes for a club party.