Common:The Hip Hop/Rap Lecturer

This week i was fortunate enough to see hip-hop heavy weight Common. Common has been in the rap game for over 18 years  and is widely respected amongst members of the Hip-hop community.


Common, the king of conscious hip-hop, rose to prominence as one of hip-hops most poetic and respected lyricists having recorded over seven albums. He worked with Kanye West on two of his albums, BE and Finding Forever. This resulted in four Grammy Award nominations in addition to being nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards including Best Hip Hop Video.

In 2007, he launched the Common Ground Foundation, which gives back and allows our youth to realize their full potential. The CGF is dedicated to the empowerment and development of urban youth in the United States. AlCommon made his acting debut in Smokin’ Aces. Since then he’s co-starred in numerous movies.  He can currently be seen starring opposite Queen Latifah in Just Wright.

His talk was about how his career began and what Hip-Hop meant to him. He said that Hip-Hop gave him a voice and through it he was able to express himself. This statement proved what I thought was the whole point of the Hip-Hop culture which is to express yourself in a positive manner.  I was really taken by  how eloquent he was and how he engaged with his audience. He showed me how to truely get your  your message across. It was one of the best lectures  I have ever witnessed and it was real helpful for the lecture I had the next day which was a success.

HipHops Physical Expression B-Boying

 A b-boy/b-girl( break boy/break girl) is a dancer who practices breaking or b-boying the acrobatic hip-hop dance style, commonly known as "breakdancing."


Breaking or b-boying,is a style of dance that evolved as part of hip hop culture among Black and Latino youth in the South Bronx during the 1970s.The term comes from the fact that hey were called beat boys because they had to dance to a specific beat.

It is speculated that this dance comes partially from the lindy hop, and also from the Charleston. Several moves are inspired from Kung-fu, and once or two have support actions that are almost balletic.

There are four elements that form the foundation of B-boying
 The first is Toprock: a term referring to the upright dancing and shuffles.


The second element is: Downrock which refers to footwork dancing performed on the floor.


The third element is the Freeze: the poses that breakers throw into their dance sets to add punctuation to certain beats and end their routines.


 The fourth element is the Power Moves: These are the most impressive acrobatic moves normally made up of circular motions where the dancer will spin on the floor or in the air.


There are many different individual styles used in breaking. Individual styles often stem from a dancer's region of origin and influences.Although there are some generalities in the styles that exist, many dancers combine elements of different styles with their own ideas and knowledge in order to create a unique style of their own.


 The term breakdancing, though commonly used, is frowned upon by those immersed in hip hop culture because the term created by the media to describe what was called breaking or b-boying in the street. The majority of the art form’s pioneers and actual b-boys refer to the dance as b-boying.

In the early 70’s competing teams would dance to win, usually a real fight would break out. The muscles developed under this kind of dancing are the same used for fighting. An unusual fact is that the best breakdancer, in the early 1980's, was often the best fighter or gang member on the street.

B-boys also have their own unique way of dressing. B-Boys typically wear low pants, T-shirts and a hat tipped sideways. The dance must be done in sneakers, for the dancers safety. B-boying is known as an especially dangerous sport for several reasons. This dance is never done on a soft surface. It emphasizes the rough, raw urban feel of fighting. Several dancers have broken their necks, and one died notably in 1982, due to a b-boy move gone wrong.

MC hammers pumped-up dance style are just improvised forms of b-boying. Elements of this dance are still present today, in rap videos.

B-boying has evolved into the dancing that is seen today in music videos and rap. The "boy band" phenomenon and leading pop stars like Britney Spears use elements of b-boying in their work. B-boying has brought new ideas onto the world of social dance. 

History of Mixtapes

Something that has become very popular in modern Hip-Hop culture is the mixtape.  Not a lot of peopleknow the history of the mixtape. 

A mixtape is a compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto cassette tape.  Mixtapes, were initially intended to reflect the musical tastes of its compiler, it could be a selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs with a particular theme or mood.  Homemade mixtapes became common in the 1980s. The problem was cassettes were not good enough to be considered for music recording until further advances in tape formulations. The growth of the mixtape was encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio cassette players in car systems and by the introduction of the Sony Walkman in 1979.

There are two different types of mixtapes, private mixtapes and public/”party mixtapes”. Private mixtapes were intended for specific listeners or private social events.Public mixtapes/ “party mixtapes” were club recordings of Dj’s, which were to be sold later. DJs a such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc would of distribute recordings of their club performances via audio cassette, as well as customized recordings. These recordings were of higher technical ability than homemade mixtapes and incorporated techniques such as beat matching and scratching.


Nowadays mixtapes are now used by labels and new artists as means of promotion to generate  hype. This is something that is frequently used by unsigned artists to recognition from record labels. Signed artists release mixtapes to promote future studio albums. Most rappers use mixtapes as a way to gain street credibility and appeal more to the market. 


Mixtapes usually have the same artist and can sometimes be difficult to differentiate from a studio album,although mixtapes will usually have much lower production values than a studio album. Mixtapes may contain contain numerous collaborations, remixes, freestyles and voice-overs. It is most common for mixtapes nowadays to be freestyles of popular songs by other artists.


Most mixtapes are free and distributed for free on the Internet. If there are physical copies they  are cheaply packaged.

Music/Hip Hop and The Digital Age

Over the years Hip-Hop has been changing and adapting. One of the things that have changed dramatically is technology.  Technology is more readily available and used more frequently. We live in a digital era. For music especially in Hip-Hop this has been a gift and a curse.

Early in the 70’s and 80’s, Vinyl’s and cassette tapes where the way to get music and then came the Compact Disc. Now it’s all about getting music digitally. Even though officially album releases come out on compact discs the CD industry  has been hit drastically. Most teens prefer not to want to buy a complete CD but buy only a few songs from the Internet, and listen to it on MP3 devices, which have become very popular and support the digital age. The problem with Cd’s and more with digitally getting music is piracy. This has negatively affected the industry and is still a major problem

Some companies though such as Apple have tried to cash in on this problem and created services like iTunes download that it is possible to make money from music downloads over the Internet. In Europe, where Apple now operates in 17 countries, the company reached the landmark of 100 million songs sold legally a mere year and a half after it arrived on that continent.

The digital age has also been a revolutionary way for hip-hop artists to advertise themselves and their music. Through such phenomenon’s as YouTube. One example is the young rapper Soulja Boy, he composed his hit Single Crank that and advertised it on the Internet, and it became a number one hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks. He is the youngest person to write, perform, and produce a number-one song on the hot 100.One of the most common phenomena is the blog, or web log. To date there are millions of blogs on the Internet. Every second, someone somewhere is creating a new web log on cyberspace, experts estimate. Anyone can have his or her own blog because the online publication tools are very easy to use. Some bloggers have managed to attract a loyal public that follows them on a daily basis. This media has allows a lot of up and coming artists to publish their works and gives a wider variety to audiences.

Intro to Graffiti-Hip-Hop's Marketer

Graffiti
Graffiti is one of the four elements of Hip-Hop culture. It is commonly credited word about the culture out there in 60's and early 70's. 

In the early years of  graffitti it was used by political activists and gangs that used it to mark territory. Graffiti embodies the visual  aspect of the culture/Rap music, just as break dancing is  is viewed as a physical expression.It as well started off from the bronx NY and spread to the rest of the city and eventually the world.In the early days of culture Graffiti artist's were also usually also Dj's,B-Boy's or Emcees. The Art form mostly started out with tag's which were stylized signatures of names.Graffiting was seen by a lot of as a way to advertise themselves so they tried to tag as many places as they could,targeting places that would be very visual. Places such as city's walls, bridges, monuments, subway stations, and other public places. A lot of kids would get praise for tags but the Media and city officials saw it as the worst possible pollution. 

Hip-Hop and Materialism- Do we Really Understand?

Hip-Hop and Materialism-

When a lot of people think of hip hop, they think of rappers with flashy designer clothing, flaunting gold watches, in the latest sports car spilling bottles of expensive champagne. This would be an accurate analysis of a lot of modern rap videos. They glorify materialism. Most people often think this is a modern trend in Hip-Hop but it has been a re-occurring theme. A question that stands is there anything wrong with this? We live in a capitalist society so why are we complaining about materialiasim when clearly it goes hand in hand with capitalism. Another question that could be posed is do we simply not understand the culture. If we really think about it there could be some depth into why these rappers are materialistic. Just like a painter needs brushes, paints and a canvas to create his masterpiece, these materialistic items to rappers may just be a way to express themselves. If people at the country club can indulge in five star dining and bet millions of dollars on horse races why don’t we criticize them? Aren’t they in a sense expressing their lifestyle in a similar over top way but instead it’s not in the public eye as much.

An  excerpt from bayexpress.com stated “In modern hip hop culture in order to be seen as a hot shot you have to have a fancy car, designer clothes, designer jewelry This trend isn't even a new one; back in the old-school days, Grandmaster Melle Mel exclaimed, it's all about the money/ain't a damn thing funny, Jimmy Spicer shouted out, "dollar bill, y'all," and Trouble Funk succinctly stated, "I need some money."

Clearly we see that this materialistic trend has been a long on going one. This shows us how it really could be part of the culture. Another thing that we need to remember is that music is a business. Rappers are businessmen. So even though flashing all these objects around may seem pointless it is very smart marketing.

Clyde Smith, webmaster of Pro hiphop.com, who's been documenting advertising and marketing trends in urban street culture since 2004. According to Smith, "Marketing's always been a part of hip-hop ... as soon as they started doing shows in the clubs, marketing became a normal part of business, as it does in all fields."

Rappers have always been good marketers from the days of Phase 2 fliers promoting Kool Herc's block parties to 50 Cent's rumored $300 million deal with MySpace. Hip-hop's economic development has been a gradual process. Flashpoints along the way include Run-DMC's endorsement deal with Adidas, Ice Cube's St. Ides commercials, KRS-One's Sprite and Nike ads, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' gangsta rap soundtrack, Fitty's link-up with Vitamin Water, and Jay-Z's role as pitchman for Hewlett-Packard.

Hip-hop has be come more main stream and marketers have been taking advantage of this. For us to really understand why having all this materialistic stuff means to the hip hop culture more has to be uncovered about the culture and lifestyle.

Hip What?Hip-Hop!-The Origination of A Cultural Word

The Word Hip-Was used by African Americans in the 19th century to mean current and Hop refers to the hopping movement.

The form of term was first coined by  Grandmaster Flash and the Furious five and their friend Cowboy. They were making fun of a friend who had just joined the army.They uttered the words Hip/Hop/ Hip/Hop/ as a way to mimick the rythmic cadence of  marching soldiers. Cowboy incorporated this into his acts. They also performed with other disco artists  and they started calling these DJ/MC combination as Hip Hoppers(the first version of name) it was a first mean  to be a insult but it later was the word  that came to identify this new culture and music.

The term came into light in 1979 can be heard  at the beginning of the classic records Rapper's Delight by the Sugar hill gang, Superapping by Grandmaster  Flash and the positive life by LoveBug Starski. A Hip Hop pioneer and South Bronx leader Afrikka Bambata also did a lot to  popularize the term but he credits LoveBug Starski as the first to coin the term.

A lot of people confuse the term Rap and Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a culture and rapping is part of that culture.