Observation one

Tuesday September 15, 2015 VH1 “And Ya Don’t Stop, 30 Years of Hip Hop pt.1”

Note: This particular observation took place over the first 30 minutes of an hour long episode. In order to provide a truly detailed account without overkill, I have chosen to only focus my observation notes on this section of time; however, examples of the key vocabulary were gleaned from the episode as a whole not restricted within the time period allotted. The specific timing of events listed here is based on when they occur in the original episode instead of a fictional time of day (example: 3:27 stands for a span of event that begin at 3 minutes and 27 seconds into the observed action). Relevant Background Information: It 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 live and all people needed was a new sound to groove to, thus, hip hop was born. Figured World: A figured world is a large Social structure with rules and conventions for appropriate behavior. 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: a person that fills a specific role or function within a community. Actors can be viewed as archetypal characters that serve a specific role in the community of practice. Assignment one discourse Observation Jesse Hodges, 2015, p. 2 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. Kurtis Blow: One of the first real MC 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 first 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. 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 Artifacts: Physical objects, emotions, or ideas with cultural significance within a specific community. Turntables: Without the turntables, none of this will be possible. It’s 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.

Comment [HJ1]: What  do  you  mean  by  the  party  scene  was  "live"?  Please  elaborate  on  what  this  slang  term  means.  Not  everyone  knows  the  terminology  used  in  the  Hip-­Hop  world.  -­Brandon  Burgess  

Comment [HJ2]: Your  definitions  look  exactly  like  the  ones  that  Ashlyn  has  used.  Perhaps  you  could  use  your  own  words  to  describe  the  terms.  Also,  use  words  that  most  people  will  understand.  -­Brandon  Burgess  

Comment [HJ3]: I  appreciate  the  use  of  beef  and  hatred  so  close  together.  As  stated  earlier,  many  people  do  not  know  the  lingo  of  Hip-­Hop.  Now  people  can  use  context  clues  to  figure  out  that  beef  and  hatred  are  similar.  -­Brandon  Burgess  

Comment [HJ4]: What  is  a  mc  rapper?  I  am  familiar  with  the  term  rapper  but  the  mc  slightly  confuses  me.  Can  you  explain  or  maybe  put  in  parethesis  what  that  means. -­‐Adam  Beason  

Comment [HJ5]: You  have  done  a  very  good  job  explaining  your  artifacts,  but  I  am  wondering  what  they  mean  in  the  episode.  Maybe  you  can  add  another  sentence  on  each  artifact  to  display  what  they  do  in  the  show. -­‐Jack  Byrne  

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. 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. 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. Assignment one discourse Observation Jesse Hodges, 2015, p. 3 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Observation one: “And Ya Don’t Stop 30 Years Of Hip Hop Part 1” 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. Assignment one discourse Observation Jesse Hodges, 2015, p. 4 6:24mins- 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.

Comment [HJ6]: I  don't  really  know  how  these  words  contributed  to  your  figured  world.  Add  a  sentence  about  what  they  did  in  hip-­hop  and  why  they  were  so  useful  in  those  times. -­‐Jack  Byrne  

Comment [HJ7]: I  suggest  you  elaborate  on  the  problems  you  are  referring  to.  Some  people  do  not  know  what  possible  problems  were  like  at  this  time.  For  those  that  do,  they  may  not  want  to  acknowledge  them  so  it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  add  in  a  few  examples  anyways. -­‐Brandon  Burgess  

Comment [HJ8]: The  format  of  the  timing  in  this  confuses  me.  Could  you  possibly  change  the  format  so  it  is  more  easily  understandable?  Other  than  that  the  first  observation  looks  good  in  my  personal  opinion. -­‐Adam  Beason  

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. 11:00mins- 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. 21:23mins- Run DMC came out with a purpose. Their purpose was to integrate rap with rock and roll. 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 it. 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. 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. Observation 2: “And Ya Don’t Stop 30 Years Of Hip Hop Part 2” 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 gangs and violence. 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 Assignment one discourse Observation Jesse Hodges, 2015, p. 5 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”. 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

Comment [HJ9]: Just  slightly  confused.  Are  you  saying  they  mixed  rap  and  rock  and  roll  to  attract  white  people?  Please  elaborate -­‐Adam  Beason  

Comment [HJ10]: What  exactly  is  reality  rap?  Why  did  it  depict  gang  and  violence?  Whats  the  reason  behind  the  switch? -­‐Adam  Beason  

Comment [HJ11]:  think  you  did  a  good  job  changing  the  way  you  started  each  Timeline.  You  didn't  start  with  the  same  thing  on  each  paragraph,  making  the  observations  intriguing. -­‐Jack  Byrne  

Comment [HJ12]: The  timing  of  your  events  seems  to  be  all  over  the  place.  I  understand  you  watched  a  documentary  and  made  observations,  but  I  feel  that  people  would  be  better  captured  by  a  consistent  time  frame.  Such  as  1  minute,  3  minutes,  5  minutes,  etc. -­‐Brandon  Burguss  

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 3: “What is Beef?” Hip Hop Documentary 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. 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 Assignment one discourse Observation Jesse Hodges, 2015, p. 6 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. 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$” · Q: Tell me about the first time you heard the sound of hip hop/rap music? A: I remember listening to hip hop in my dad’s car on the way to school and liking the beats and hooks of the songs. The first album I think I heard was the blackout tape by Redman and Method Man. These two guys would scream on the songs and it was a little scary at first because of their voices but then as I got older I just realized it was their passion for the genre that was the reasoning for their screaming · Q: What was the first hip hop song that you feel in love with? A: G-Unit Stunt 101 was my favorite song in 2nd grade. After that song I pretty much loved anything that G-Unit put out as a group. I really loved their flow and their style in music videos. They were my first inspiration to rap when I got older. · Q: When did you know that you wanted to take rapping seriously? A: My senior year is when I finally realized I can go far with rap. I’ve been writing lyrics since my sophomore year of high school and people started telling me that my lyrics were good and meaningful. I took advantage of that and started recording heavily my senior year of high school. · Q: As an artist, who do get your inspiration from? Discuss how that drives you to produce records?

Comment [HJ13]: I  think  It  is  a  little  hard  to  keep  up  with  your  observation's  because  they  don't  tie  in  to  one  another.  Between  all  of  your  observations  I  feel  as  though  you  go  back  to  stories  while  skipping  over  several  paragraphs. -­‐Jack  Byrne  

Comment [HJ14]: I  really  like  how  much  information  you  have  given  in  your  observation,  However,  for  someone  that  doesn't  know  much  about  the  music  industry  this  can  be  a  bit  hard  to  follow  if  they  are  unfamiliar  with  the  artists  you  talk  about. -­‐Jack  Byrne  

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 Assignment one discourse Observation Jesse Hodges, 2015, p. 7 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. · Q: Do you have a specific purpose of rapping? 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. · Q: Explain how do you feel about the rap game changing so much in years past? 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. · Q: Do you have a self comparison to any rapper in the game now or in the past? 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. · Q: Reflect on if you feel that you get as much out of rap as you put in? 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.