Some Interesting Reads

Here's a few articles I've read in the last few days that have really been interesting to me.

The first is titled "The Cotton Club," by Bakari Kitwana. It's about how politically charged Hip Hop -- the shit that I fucks with -- is met with a mostly white audience at most of these groups. Brother Ali makes an observation at the end of the piece about the white audience's opinion of white rappers that is startling, considering Hip Hop is the nonwhite response to imperialist oppression:

"One of the hardest things we're dealing with now is the underlying feeling of white supremacy among fans who feel they are a part of hip-hop, but are listening to and prefer mostly white MCs. hey believe that Aesop Rock is better than independent artists who are Black and mainstream artists like Ludacris. These MCs are doing a lot with hip-hop artistically that they have learned from Black people, but [their fans] don't want to hear from the old-school originators because they believe it's the white MCs who created the styles they like. This isn't an underground-versus-mainstream thing—it's a racist thing."

Ain't that the truth.... Damn, it's sad to think of hwo racism can creep into any facet of American culture.


(dead prez)

The other article Id like to share is a multiple part story titled "Maid for a Month," by Jan Wong. It's about a journalist who decided to show how Toronto's minimum wage increase affected those working for minimum wage by giving up all the luxuries of her life (she herself employs a maid) and working for a cleaning service. my problem with these stories is that the person undergoing the experiment always has a fallback plan they have an education, they have money if they needed it, they have good credit, and they tend to know how to avoid the trappings of their new lifestyle better than those that actually live it. for instance, Wong knew more about workers rights than the rest of the maids. she was also the only one in her company who didn't smoke. Wong also probably had a better attitude toward her vocation and living arrangements (she rented out a basement where she and her two sons stayed) because after all, she knew she was only doing this for a month. To my surprise, Wong acknowledges this.

"Were this my real life, I couldn't stand it. This is Maggie's (Wong's Co-Worker) real life, and she can't stand it."

So although no upper class reporter can truly capter what it is to be poor, I nevertheless enjoyed this story because I didnt really know how bad it was sto be a cleaning lady be fore i read this. Wong actually developed carpal tunnel syndrome from her month of working.

(Wong cleanin a toilet)

Dontsleep! Rappersiknow.com

Dontsleep! is the portion of this blog where I try to kick some knowledge to whoever is reading. I might talk about artists, songs, albums, movies, websites, or whatever. Feel free to let me know about something I"M sleepin' on, If'n ya feel the need to.

I wanted to let everybody know about the wonder site/goldmine known as rappersiknow. This site is dedicated to giving free mp3 downloads of little known artists out for free. I've gotten a great number of mp3's and .zip files from this site. Don't fret that you haven't heard of the artist, it's a FREE DOWNLOAD. If you don't like it you can delete it. But given the great music I've heard offa this site, chances are the recycle bin will remain empty.

My Namesake

Since this blog is still barely 24 hours old, I thought I might explain what my blog's title and my bloggin pen name (or would "keyboard name" be the more fitting phrase?) means.

Well, first off, I suppose "The Hip Hop Nerd" is a bit of an oxymoron. After all, Hip Hop is seen as the staple of cool in pop culture, as black culture has always been romanticized by white Americans as the barometer of cool (check out the origins of Jazz and Rock n Roll). I personally LOVE Hip Hop the way a man can love watching a sunset. I doubt I can go a day with out it. Phonte of Little Brother once said in an interview that there are to kinds of people who listen to Hip Hop (or any other genre of music i guess): those who are truly listening to it because it stimulates their minds, and those who just want to dance to it or whatever (I'm paraphrasing). I would most definitely find myself in the former. I'm not gonna bore you with the long list of artists I listen to, but if I had, you would probably categorize them into a sub genre using such labels as "underground", "conscious", "positive", and Golden Era."

So why am a Hip Hop "Nerd"? Well, thanks to the innanets and sites such as Okayplayer.com and Rappersiknow.com, I don't really listen to the radio anymore, nor do I watch any music videos on any Viacom owned channels (MTV, VH1, and The Notorious B.E.T.) because I am personally boycotting them (you prolly should too, but that's a post for another day...). In some ways, I feel out of the loop on what is "cool" in Hip Hop. And a nerd is simply someone who is someone who isn't cool.

No, I'm don't think I'm a nerd in any conventional sense of the word. I don't have a severe stutter whenever I talk to a female, and I don't wear high waters, but in the world of the music I love, I'm man enough to admit that I'm a nerd.


(If you know who this is you just might be a Hip Hop Nerd!)

Somethin's fishy...

Coincidence?

Nope.

I wasn't always on blogspot, man...

Yeah for my first post I thought you might want to see what I'm about. so here's pretty much the best posts from my MySpace bloggin' days:

Is Hip Hop Dead? (Nov. 10, 2006)

For Four Women (Nov. 17, 2007)

It's Black History Month -- So Why Do We Hate Ourselves? (February 11, 2007)

What is a Man? (September 14, 2006)

Hmm. I myself haven't looked over these blogs in a minute. Yes, they are very long, and took me a few hours to write. I don't know if i have the time or patience to write incredibly long post that nobody's going to read anyway (that's why i include pitchers), so we'll see how this here bloggin thang goes.

I'll prolly blog about the same things I wrote about before. Mainly: Hip Hop, the outlook on life positive Hip Hop has provided me, racism in contemporary media and politics (those'll prolly have a ton of lainks because I'm waaaay too lazy to do that type of research myself), and my deeply introspective thoughts on my journey to becoming a black man who also holds a college degree.