As I wait for my homework to complete itself, I think that it is a perfect time to launch the first Comaforum themed blog week (possibly two weeks depending on how many albums I review). Themed blog weeks will consist of a series of reviews about a specific topic, like folk music or John Philip Sousa marches. This weeks topic is hip-hop.I have to draw the line about what I qualify as hip-hop. What made me think of this topic is the recent discussion on how hip-hop/rap culture supposedly corrupts the African-American youth and provides false role models and immoral images. The same could be stated about basketball, about its showmanship, its idolization of money and fame, and how pop culture promotes of basketball as the only feasible way for a black child to live some version of the American dream. Charles Barkley knew he was not a role model -- he made an effective commercial about it -- and he is right. He's not a role model, he's a basketball player.
Pop culture innundates us with the worst image of hip-hop. At this point, its not even appropriate to associate the phrase hip-hop with any of the gaudy, salacious music and music videos that appear on MTV -- artists like Chamillionaire, 50 Cent, the Game, Lil John and the East Side Boys, and so forth. Videos about rims, money, prostitutes, female exploitation, videos that have a very palpable effect on youth culture and thinking.
Hip-hop music, with its emphasis on lyrical content, on prose, on empowerment, on intelligence and creative ideas, on moral betterment, is one of the purest forms of artistic expression. The artist is alone with his words, his voice, he pushes his ideas to the front stage. Hip-hop week celebrates a culture of progression. I selected albums based on the message they promote, on the emotion left after listening to them, and on the energy put it to try and push hip-hop towards something better than the drudges of what its in now.
So, here's what you can look forward to in the next week:
One Self - Children of Possibility
Immortal Technique - Revolutionary Vol. 2
Lyrics Born - Later that Day . . .
K-OS - Atlantis-Hymns for the Disco
El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
