Rap is Poetry... Hip Hop - A Way of Life!

The other day, I was inspired by a SPECial little sister to write this post:

She tweeted “Rap is poetry… Hip Hop is artistry. Please let me know if your feeling is otherwise. I’m curious”. I boldly retweeted letting her know that my feelings ARE otherwise. Between us two, there’s never a dull moment when we discuss music. There was no way I could let my fellow music consumers not be involved in our rich dialogue.

Poetry is defined as the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative or elevated thoughts. There is no doubt that rap is poetry. Whether you like it or not, you can’t discount the fact that artists around the globe put words & beats together, telling a story that we all “bop our heads” to. So yes, rap is poetry; poetry that has told stories relating to the masses.

But I do not agree with the statement that Hip Hop is artistry. Hip Hop is so much more than that. Hip Hop is an entire culture with various subdivisions (including rap) that allows our community to come together. I could not allow my little sister to limit Hip Hop to just artistry. Hip Hop is language, style, fashion, music. Hip Hop, whether some believe it or not, is a way of life.

So I blog: Rap is poetry… Hip Hop is a way of life. Please let me know if your opinion is otherwise. I’m curious

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Some of you know him as Gil Scott Heron. Some of you know him as a revolutionary artist and poet and some of you may even know him as the “Godfather of Rap”. Whatever you knew him as, it holds true across the board that he was a man who truly left his imprint on the world of Hip Hop. So when Friday, May 27, 2011 hit a lot of hearts around the globe were still as they heard of the passing of this phenomenal man.

Scott-Heron rose to the scenes in the ‘70s, the post-civil rights era – the moment where we were moving towards a new age but the same moment where everything was not answered from the civil rights movement. He took his artistry to another level where he discussed the social and political and what we faced as a country at the moment: racism, sexism and even classism. Although he had his own issues, crack addiction and being in jail quite a few times, he had a powerful voice that reached many.

His mark of Hip Hop will forever remain and his “revolution will not be televised”.