Assignment One Discourse Observation repurposed:JESSE HODGESOBSERVATION ONETUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2015VH1 “AND YA DON’T STOP, 30 YEARS OF HIP HOP PT.1”“WHAT IS BEEF?” DOCUMENTARY

Relevant Background Information:

uIt is the 1980’s and many kids in the streets of New York city were looking for an outlet to express their inner feelings. The Party scene was very much crowded and chaotic and all people needed was a new sound to grove to, thus, hip hop was born.

Figured World: A figured world is a large social group that conduct rules for engagement in that particular world.

u In the world of music, there are many different conventions that need to be followed so everything can flow cohesively. Many beefs and hatred of one rapper towards another can really hurt the culture and the Music. One of the biggest beefs in hip hop history entailed two artists from different sides of the united states and these two rappers single handedly made one coast of the united states hate the other. I intend to watch the documentary “the message” because it points out the significant moments in hip hop history. It tries to explain how hip hop came to what we know it as today and why it transformed so drastically. Why are so many young people trying to pursuit this industry now a day. People aren’t doing it because of passion, but rather it’s a trending fashion. Many artists from the 80’s and 90’s joined this world because of their love for music rather than people now doing it for ulterior motives. Concerts have changed from people knowing and paying attention to the artist to kids just trying to hook up with one another. The trend of acting like “dope boys” and “thugs” is a recent trend because rappers want to earn street cred as well as love from their fans. The communities of practice that can be associated with hip hop are: the wannabe dope dealers, the third eye/beast coast movement, the trill guys, and the females who are trying to get the most attention as possible through ultimate feminism or extreme displays of masculinity.

Actors: People that play a particular role in a figured world and serve a specific purpose.

u Grandmaster Flash: One of the original DJs in the hip hop culture. He designed the whole DJ set up with the turntables and the mixing. Grandmaster Flash used to take local parks by storm with his unique new sound.

u Kurtis Blow: One of the first real MC (Master of Ceremony) or, how we know them now as rappers in hip hop history, Kurtis Blow had many hits which lead him to be the first MC to ever be signed by a record label. Kurtis was one of the firs rappers to ever take a tour around the United States. Blow paved the way for many rappers to sign to record labels and reveal their talents to the world.

u Russell Simmons: Co founder of the infamous rap record label “Def Jam”, Russell Simmons is known to be one of the greatest managers of all time. His younger brother Joseph Simmons had formed an up and coming rap group called Run DMC. With the little money he had, Russell invested everything in his brothers group and helped them rise to the top in not only the rap industry, but also the pop and rock and roll industries respectively. Russell became an instant hit gathering more talent in the process. Russell Simmons grew to be one of the biggest rap moguls in hip hop history

Grandmaster Flash

Russell Simmons Kurtis Blow

Artifacts: Physical objects, emotions, or ideas that impact a community in a specific and unique way.u Turntables: Without the turntables, none of this will be possible. Its known as the DJ’s best

friend because it allows them to create the sound of hip hop. Taking old records and creating the breaks in them is what got people to fall in love with the sound. DJ’s used the turntables as pilot equipment to later get use of different things such as sound boards and the electric keyboard.

u Microphone: the microphone is a huge deal for the MC. It allows them to express their voices loud and clear to the audience and get the party or event as live as possible. This is very significant because the microphone is a tool given to just the MC and occasionally the DJ. This allows both parties to express their creativity and imagination to a large mass of people allow them to expand the culture.

u Boom box: A boom box is a large stereo system that allows people to listen to cassette tapes. As DJs and MCs grew, more people who couldn’t attend these events wanted to listen to what they had to say, thus the Boom box was created. Many DJs and MCs would record their most popular songs and have them sold in local music stores so people around the city could purchase them. This also helped expand hip hop as a culture because now it wasn’t limited to just one place. Kids would walk down the street with a huge Boom box on their shoulders or in their hand.

Artifacts Continued…

u Walkman: A Walkman was the first form of personal music listening. Before IPods and MP3s, Walkman were individual cassette players that allowed you to listen to music without anyone else hearing. With hip hop now containing explicit content was frowned upon and looked at as criminal to play publically on a Boom box, Walkman created a happy medium that people can listen to their music publically without anyone else hearing it.

u Anger: an emotion artifact that can be presented is the anger in which hip hop artist rapped with. With social issues going on in New York City and around the world, groups like public enemy and N.W.A used rap as a tool to let America know that there are issues with the stuff that goes on in our country. Racial violence as well as poverty were explained to Americans across the nation letting them know that everywhere isn’t a party. People are actually struggling and we have the power to raise awareness.

u Social Change: Socially, African Americans felt they were far less superior as a race in America. Many Hip Hop artist wanted to change that by making music that reflected the success of African Americans. Specifically, Public Enemy, a group who prided on social change in the late 1980’s spoke about problems that others were afraid to express. Examples of problems were police brutality, racism in America, and affirmative action. They took their opinions and used hip hop to generate this picture and exploit truths that many white Americans didn’t want to be recognized.

Turntables

Microphone

WalkmanBoombox

Communities of practice: The community are all of the people that share the same domain. The community can consist of people who do or do not know one another and the community doesn’t have to be limited to a certain region. Members of the community build of one another’s ideas and research to form opinions and further their quest in really trying to understand their domain.

u DJ: The DJ is the one that creates the music. They create the breaks in the music which we know as the beat. The DJ is the early form of a producer, who, in all actuality is the most important segment in the process of making hip hop music.

u MC: The MC or Master od Ceremony is the one who is actually attaining to the audience. The MC or what we know them as today “rappers”, are the ones who rhyme words together to make an actual song. At first, the MC was the back up to the DJ. Now People praise the MC more and don’t give DJs or producers the credit that they are due.

u Managers: Managers are the ones who do all of the event bookings. They create gigs for the DJ and the MC to make appearances at clubs and parties. They also schedule tours and get them deals for endorsements if they blow up and become big.

DJ Jam Master Jay: DJ of rock group “RUN DMC”

MC Ren Of the group “N.W.A” Easy E and Jerry Heller who managed the group “N.W.A.”

The Observation: part 1u 2:10mins- Two minutes into the video, Fab Five Freddy, one of the rap legend

commentators, expresses that power was such a symbol of uniqueness. When DJs had local parties and gathering in the parks they needed power to enable use of their equipment. The concept of taking the “power” from the city made it a scenario which it was the hoodlums in the park against the world. Hip Hop began from a lower class of people who wanted to find a sense of pride that they can contribute a significant thing to this world.

u 6:24- The next couple of minutes expressed the uniqueness of the DJ and how each Project in the South Bronx had their own DJ and took pride in that DJ. The DJ of the project gained so much power in the community because all of the fellow community members had faith and backed that DJ. Grandwizzard Theodore expressed that if the community wasn’t behind him, he probably wouldn’t have had the motivation to continue and be a pioneer in the hip hop culture.

u 11:00- They begin to speak about the Sugarhill gang and the controversy of their first rap record “rappers delight”. The controversy is that Grandmaster Caz and the cold crush brothers actually wrote that song for the Sugarhill gang. After the Sugarhill gang got a record deal with Sugarhill records and recorded the song, it became an instant hit not only in the United states but around the world. The cold crush brothers never received the credit that was due to them for writing that whole song. This would prove to be a detrimental point in hip hop because it was the first real beef and dark side of the industry.

The Observation: Part 1 Cont…u 21:23- Run DMC came out with a purpose. Their purpose was to integrate rap

with rock and roll by using the sound of bas and electric guitar and the drums. At this point in rap history, hip hop was known as an African American form of music and many Caucasian people really weren’t digging it. Run DMC’s mission was to change that. Although they were rapping, they utilized the guitar and the drums in ways that the rock and roll groups did and created a unique sound that had not been heard before. After they were first put on MTV in 1984, Run DMC finally got the exposer to white people that they wanted. This crossover finally gave hip hop exposer to the other side of America and it helped elevate the genre of music as a whole.

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u 28:09- In the summer of 1989, film director Spike Lee wrote and directed a movie called “Do The Right Thing” This movie sole purpose was to wake black America of the continuous racial violence that was still present in America. Spike Lee turned to radical rap group Public Enemy to Create a record that can be the official song to the movie. Public Enemy took that task by storm creating arguably the greatest hip hop song of all time, “Fight the Power”. This song paved the way for hip hop being an outlet for political, radical and social change.

The Observation: Part 2u 2:07- Hip Hop Started to expand to the west coast in the late 1980s. Their interpretation on

the west coast was a more real life intake of rap. Gangs and illegal activity started to be more prevalent in the lyrics of rappers and more images of street violence was put on screen in music videos. Many people in America were not ready for this transition from having a great time rap to reality rap that depicted real life situations and lifestyles that involved gangs and violence.

u 4:33- Ice-T was one of the first if not the first rapper from the west coast to display his lifestyle on a national level. Ice-T was a gangster and a pimp who just started to write down his daily experiences on paper and create songs out of them. Ice-T was still doing this activity while rapping which made it real. In his music video for his hot song colors, Ice-T brought women, cars, drugs and guns onto the set of his shoot and the director allowed him to put all of these props in the video because it was real stuff. It really depicted a day in the life of Ice-T

u 8:55- N.W.A was a group from Compton, CA who took gangster rap and combined it with the Public Enemy gist of getting people to realize the racial violence that was still around in American culture. N.W.A wrote songs that insulted police and law enforcement informing them that they are not as powerful as they think. Their music was loud and it woke people up on the east coast of what was going down on the west coast. After the unlawful beating of Rodney King, N.W.A capitalized on the terrible time by making records that blatantly targeted LAPD officers and Police officers around America. N.W.A was feared by many and celebrated by many. They got their reputation of being “the worlds most dangerous group”.

The Observation: Part 2 Cont…u 16:41- In the mid 1990’s, west coast record label Death Row records had 3

solid artist featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Tupac Shakur. The east coast was waiting for someone to break out and secure their spot back on top of the hip hop game granted New York City was the mecca of rap culture. The east got what they needed in an artist known as The Notorious B.I.G AKA “Biggie Smalls” who rose to stardom thanks to the help of Sean “Puffy” Combs and Uptown records. Sean Combs would eventually break off from Uptown records and took his star rapper with him forming Bad Boy records. An established Tupac Shakur met Biggie Smalls in New York City and became a mentor figure to Biggie, showing him the ropes and the ugly side of the business world. A shooting in New York City which left Tupac wounded broke off the friendship between the two artist because Tupac did not trust Biggie anymore. This Feuded an east coast vs west coast battle when in actuality it was just a misunderstanding between two hip hop artist. Both of these artist would fall victim to murder because of this silly beef that the street took seriously. It is sad to think we lost two of the best ever to touch a microphone because of silly violence and Those two are truly missed in the hip hop community. The hip hop community was halted after these two incidents and Gangsta rap was starting to fade away.

Observation: Part 3u 10:32- N.W.A was an elite radical hip hop group out of Compton, California. Eric “Easy-E” Wright

was the first artist out of N.W.A to put out a record. Jerry Heller signed Easy-E to a record deal with Ruthless records but didn’t offer the rest of N.W.A a record deal the exact same time as he did Easy-E. It was a tour in 1990 that sent N.W.A member Ice Cube over the edge because he felt that Easy-E was collecting all of the funds and the rest of the N.W.A members were collecting pocket change for their equally as hard work. After the tour, Ice Cube deciding to break off from Ruthless records and get paid what he felt he was owed form the tour. N.W.A hated Ice Cube fro leaving the group, calling him a Benedict Arnold for betraying them. N.W.A came out with tracks that dissed Cube and a beef was created. Ice Cube responded with a single called “No Vaseline” that squashed the whole beef and starts the dismantle of N.W.A.

u 14:23- After the death of the Notorious B.I.G in 1997, there was no real hip hop music being produced in New York City to the capacity as it was in years past. Jay Z was the front runner to take the throne as king of New York while he was working on his album “Hard Knock Life Vol. 2”. Nasir Jones, a rapper known as Nas from Queens, New York was an outstanding lyricist and felt he did not receive much love for his album “Illmatic” that had released in 1995 when Biggie was still alive. People thought that Nas was good, but Biggie and Jay Z were great. This created a beef between Nas and Jay Z because of the vacant throne and because of Nas’s hard feelings of Jay Z’s stardom. Their beef would last four years with many songs made to dis one another. “Ether” by Nas and “Super Ugly” by Jay Z would be their most famous dis records.

u 19:09- In the fall of 2005, The Game, a rapper out of Los Angeles, California, was discovered by G-Unit founder and CEO Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. 50 Cent was mentoring The Game and was even allowing him to tour with G- Unit in the summer of the following year. The Game started recording his first album entitled “The Documentary”, Which had quite a few 50 Cent and G-Unit features. The Game then betrayed G-Unit and 50 Cent because he felt that 50 had lied to him about his stardom and G-Unit contract. This rap beef was short and sweet because, unlike 50 Cent, The Game didn’t understand the business side of rap and none of the contracts stated that The Game was guaranteed a spot in G-Unit and the luxury of collecting G-Unit funds. A couple dis records were made but ultimately the beef was one sided leaning toward 50 Cent and G-Units way.

Interview with “Vic Bank$”u Q: As an artist, who do get your inspiration from? Discuss how that drives you to produce records?

u A: I get my inspiration from past experiences in life. I’ve gone through a lot in my 18 years on earth and I use that to drive me in recording my music. I have aspirations and

u goals in life that I want to accomplish and I want to talk about it through my music. I listen to records produced by other rappers and I use that to create my own style of music using a little of their flow and how they rapped in years pass.

u Q: Do you have a specific purpose of rapping?

u A: My purpose is to express my thoughts and feelings on today’s society and the social issues that go on in America and the world. I feel that I can speak out my opinion and speak for all of the people who are shy to speak up about their own opinions.

u Q: Explain how do you feel about the rap game changing so much in years past?

u A: At first, rappers took rap seriously and used it as a tool to express themselves. As years progressed, rappers started using hip hop to flaunt themselves and as a gateway to quick stardom. As for me, I like rap because I’ve got passion and I’m not worried that it’s the trending fashion. I feel like rappers now a day like Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Kanye West and Joey Bada$$ actually have musical genius and care about the art of hip hop but others who I want to remain nameless just do it because they can get rich quick.

Interview Cont…u Q: Do you have a self comparison to any rapper in the game now or in the

past?u

u A: I don’t have a self comparison but people tell me sometimes that I have flow like Nas because he was very persistent in his flow and as a lyricist he put a lot of thought into his raps and I do the same thing. Nas is one of my favorite rappers of all time and I listen to his music to get inspiration for my songs all of the time.

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u Q: Reflect on if you feel that you get as much out of rap as you put in?u

u A: With the phase that I am at now, no I don’t feel like I get as much out as I put in but if I continue to perfect my craft then I feel like the outcome will pay off. I hope to takeoff in the next few years with this and hopefully I get a break and someone listens to my music and sees something special in it. I love the fact that I can do it for fun now and not have any worries but I’m really hoping that someone listens hard enough to see my raw talents.