My
oldest brother, Rob, claims that he was the first white boy to hear a rap
song. It was in the town next to mine, a
few miles away. As the story goes, my
brother was dating a girl who was in the recording studio when the famous
“Rappers Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang was first recorded some time later my brother,
Rob, came home with the 12-inch record with the large, colorful script with the
written words, “Sugar Hill Gang” on it.
So to me, being a candy loving kid, I was willing to give anything that
had the word “sugar” on it a try, even if it was music. I was not allowed to go
on my brother’s side of the room, let alone touch his “HI-FI” (record player).
But the day came when he was gone. I crossed the line and queued up and heard
it: “I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you don’t
stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm
of the boogie, the beat. Now what you
hear is not a test I’m rappin’ to the beat…”
(Those of you who know the rest can put down the book and rap as far as
you can.)
I
had no idea what I was listening to, let alone the power this form of artistic
expression would have on our future as well as my own. A few years past and my
friends and I devoured every ounce of this art form. We could not get enough in the few hours we got
on the radio each Saturday night, beat-boxing, break-dancing, rhyming in the
hall each moment between classes. As I
look back and think back in reference to the idea of a seed, an ounce, and a
pound, I now realize that, in this time period, the seeds of freedom for
hip-hop were growing. It was becoming
free for these artists to express themselves for the ethnicity and culture of
people who carried this art form forward from African tribal praise to slavery
past the Civil Rights movement into our future. It was also for all or any who
wished to feel the rhythm of this movement.
As
I fast forward about ten years, I was in Hollywood, California, working as an
intern for a national TV station. I was
working for a show called “Pump It Up”,
the first national (non-cable) televised rap video show. The only time slot the show was aired was
anywhere from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. every Saturday night, as it often faced
opposition from jaded (racist) programmers.
But on my down time, I had access to a library of any rap video ever
made (at the time, they all fit into a 5-foot x 10-foot room). This was where I started to see the ounce
part of my equation in relation to the power hip-hop was starting to possess,
as it moved from my hometown to the west coast and soon the whole nation.
Fast-forwarding
five years, I was back on the east coast in New York City, where I was a
cameraman and contributor for another rap video show that featured new and
up-and-coming talent. We would go from
borough to borough interviewing those who were “up next” in the hip-hop arena.
One day, I got a call from a producer giving me the address of our next
shoot. I arrived, and we started
shooting. Soon, all the neighborhood kids gathered around waiting to see the
interview. This “new talent” talked while puffing from his blunt, speaking
freely, and cursing about. I wasn’t
impressed by the interview until we asked him if he would rap. WOW!!! He flowed so well that it made me feel that
rap can have the power to sand all the edges of the English language. After the shoot, I packed my bag and watched
more kids run up to this “new” natural talent.
I do not think I was alone in my feeling that this guy was going to be
notoriously “BIG.”
In
the years ahead, I continued to travel from homes to streets to recording
studios to clubs to performance halls and even over seas following the past and
present of hip-hop. I was traveling with
my brother, John, who was working on a hip-hop documentary. As I go back to the idea of a seed, an ounce,
and a pound, I believe that these times signified when rap/hip-hop really got
its ounce of power.
I
will fast-forward about ten years to when rap and hip-hop got its freedom, its
props, and had power. But now it faced
the choice as to how it will be responsible.
A few years ago, I remember the many days I walked through the Harlem
blocks of my neighborhood and seeing the affects of this musical and cultural
movement. Within a matter of minutes, I stepped down 20 steps to ride the “A”
train, shot downtown, stepped up 200 steps, where I was in my place of work
directing a camera during Pro-basketball games. I stood face to face with some
of the most powerful hip-hop musicians and leaders of this movement. Some were in the spotlight, and others made
all the moves behind the scenes. After
seeing some of the affects of this music movement, often I just felt like
shaking them and saying “Please, please be more responsible.” But, I held back and first asked myself what
“being responsible” really means. It is
so hard to say because, as times change, so do our understandings of
“responsibility.”
…
This
is when we should look at the numbers, not of record sales or banks accounts
but rather the numbers of who it affects, how many we are helping, and how many
are hurting. We should also look at the
numbers of how many can barely survive. And how many are truly growing? Maybe, if we can be honest with these
numbers, we can cultivate some new seeds of freedom. Most importantly, our youth needs to feel
freedom to grow so their minds cannot only taste the fruits of our past labors
of love but so they are able to grow their own unique trees to blossom.
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