I also did other things, like playing sports and singing in the church choir, but rapping was my passion. My life was consumed with Hip Hop. the way I dressed, spoke, and even the way I interacted with other people was influenced mainly by Hip Hop.
Being raised by my single mother, Hip Hop sort of became my father figure. It taught me about girls, friends, money, drugs, cars and even education.... yeah... education. What made a m.c. great in those days was the way that they expressed themselves by using intelligent words and saying things that you were not aware of as well as things that you were familiar with. I would listen to the radio and there were songs like "crack monster" about the dangers of using crack, "go see the doctor" about protecting yourself sexually and even the songs that were mostly bragging and boasting always had some new words that I had not heard before being used in music. Of course there were songs that were just about "bugging out" but knowledge was the main ingredient in Hip Hop back in those days.
Since I have been living in Europe from 2004, Ive had the opportunity to educate people about some of these things. I have been working as a Hip Hop teacher in a few programs funded by the government. When I speak to youngsters about my experiences I always put a positive spin on it no matter what the story is about. The reason I can do this is because I have a lot to draw on. Any question a youngster asks me, i can just quote a song that I heard back in those days.
Even though Im from a group called Tha Alkaholiks and we made songs about drinking and partying and things like that, we always wanted to say things that make people scratch their head and say "damn, what did he mean by that?". We always made that a point and it was all in fun.
Well, that was a long time ago and things have changed in the Hip Hop world tremendously. I´m not about to start bashing young rappers and the industry but the content of commercial Hip Hop today is teaching our youngsters what?? Im not even sure about the answer to that question but I´m happy i grew up in the era that I did.
Once again, I´m not here to bash young rappers or the people who promote the music these days. My only question is, when another artist like myself decides to educate people about Hip Hop say twenty years from now, What are they going to teach? What are they going to draw from their younger days to talk to the kids about?
Being able to look ahead at how things may turn out later, I dont think rapping is the tool I can use to educate the youth of the future so i will be changing my profession. Hip Hop will always be my passion and i will continue making music but it will be mainly be producing others. I wont go into which profession I will tackle next, but around 2013 or 2014 I think I will be in full swing with it.
Big up to the rappers that ARE droppin knowledge these days, its just too bad they get no commercial airplay like the m.c´s from back in the day. Peace...J-RO
No comments:
Post a Comment