Sunday 16 October 2011

And I Just Thought It Was Cacophonous Din…

'Akala' (a MOBO award-winning, acclaimed hip hop artist and founder of The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company, in case you were wondering) on the amazing properties of ‘hip hop’.

Not, as you might have thought, just another type of incomprehensible music that da yoof seems to love:
When understood in its full context, rather than as a misogynistic, materialistic handmaiden of American capitalism, it is easy to see why hip-hop has such power.
It has..?
It may still be, as Chuck D of pioneering 1980s hip-hop group Public Enemy said, the "black CNN", but it has increasingly become a news network of the downtrodden, oppressed and the socially conscious across the globe.
Really? Tell us more…
However, unlike the brief period in the late 1980s, early 1990s in the US that gave us Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Wu-Tang, the UK has as yet been unwilling to acknowledge our voices on a national level, even when artists prove they are able to succeed with little or no investment.

Is it too much of a stretch for people to believe that popular entertainment is not just about what will and won't sell, but also about what will and won't maintain particular states of consciousness? Can we really have young, working-class, predominantly black and brown people becoming opinion formers in people of all classes and creeds the way Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur or Chuck D were?
So….you’re not getting enough attention, and it’s all the fault of the public and their particular ‘state of consciousness’?

Maybe they just don’t like your stuff…
And for those that would single out a particular strand of rap music as being responsible for societal ills, like the August riots, I would say the following: rap is often a means of communicating and expressing the sometimes brutal reality of life in areas neglected by those in power.
And what it mostly conveys is ‘I want your stuff, and I’ma gonna take it!’.

12 comments:

Edwin Greenwood said...

Now I'm more or less retired, I was thinking of taking up the cacophone again. At school the music master said I had a natural talent for it.

MTG said...

Kingslee Daley the rapper, explains his adoption of the singular name 'Akala' owes everything to a Buddhist reference to anything obstinately immovable. Golly.

The Australian meaning of 'Akala' refers to mimicry. You know, like the bird taught to recite Shakespeare without any comprehension of plot.

I thank God we live in a Country where even a parrot can make a good living as an artiste.

wiggiatlarge said...

Phil Spector when asked what he thought of rap ,was quoted as saying ,it came back from the recording studio ,but they left the c of the front,pedants will no doubt correct that slightly.

Dr Crippen said...

If only all black artists were more like Michael Jackson.

Longrider said...

No, you are correct, it is a cacophonous din.

Anonymous said...

'...more like Michael Jackson.'

predatory paedophiles you mean?

Lynne said...

Actually rap is a misspelling. It should be rope, as in money for old...

Dr Crippen said...

#predatory paedophiles you mean?#

Is there another kind ?

No, as vivacious as he.

Captain Haddock said...

"When understood in its full context, rather than as a misogynistic, materialistic handmaiden of American capitalism, it is easy to see why hip-hop has such power.

It may still be, as Chuck D of pioneering 1980s hip-hop group Public Enemy said, the "black CNN", but it has increasingly become a news network of the downtrodden, oppressed and the socially conscious across the globe.

However, unlike the brief period in the late 1980s, early 1990s in the US that gave us Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Wu-Tang, the UK has as yet been unwilling to acknowledge our voices on a national level, even when artists prove they are able to succeed with little or no investment.

Is it too much of a stretch for people to believe that popular entertainment is not just about what will and won't sell, but also about what will and won't maintain particular states of consciousness? Can we really have young, working-class, predominantly black and brown people becoming opinion formers in people of all classes and creeds the way Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur or Chuck D were?

And for those who would single out a particular strand of rap music as being responsible for societal ills, like the August riots, I would say the following: rap is often a means of communicating and expressing the sometimes brutal reality of life in areas neglected by those in power"...

Anyone care to explain that load of self-justifying bollocks in plain English, please ?

MTG said...

@ Captain Haddock

I got the impression of a verbose description supplied by his record company, to imply this noisy rubbish has political substance in a contemporary style which reflects Paul Robeson's Mississippi metaphors.

"Lootin n stuf is hour rite, innit."

Captain Haddock said...

@ MTG ..

Thank you Melvin ..

As I originally thought .. a load of self-justifying bollocks .. ;)

JuliaM said...

"At school the music master said I had a natural talent for it."

:D

"I thank God we live in a Country where even a parrot can make a good living as an artiste."

He doesn't seem to be starving, does he?

"Phil Spector when asked what he thought of rap ,was quoted as saying ,it came back from the recording studio ,but they left the c of the front,"

For a murderer, he has a way with words... ;)

"Actually rap is a misspelling. It should be rope, as in money for old..."

Spot on!