Friday, May 09, 2008

Jay Electronica vs. S.O.U.L Purpose?

TwitThis


"How can you be nostalgic for something that you
didn't live through"
What?

According to Webster defines nostalgia as:
1: the state of being homesick : homesickness2: a wistful
sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or
irrecoverable condition
; also : something that evokes nostalgia

While I think it is reasonable to criticize the young bucks for not coming
up with their own thing, no one starts from scratch when making music.

For that matter, sampling is a cornerstone element of HIP HOP. So
why the resentment toward the young bucks?

I must say I liked the video and the song. It seems to be more
of a critique of passive consumption than contempt of '89 nostalgia.

What struck me about this is that no one can CONTROL culture,
especially when the culture (music, videos, distribution and display
methods) isn't OWNED by the people that create it.


I have had conversation
with countless cats who think that
the teens with the dookie chains, door knockers and name buckles
lack creativity.

But, if you were a young buck NOW wouldn't you think that
the '89 style was fly in comparison to now?

What did they say about imitation and flattery?

I LOVE the mentioning of "the Internet Nerds".

The whole time Q-Tip is talking all I am thinking about,
"Back in the days when I was a teenager/ Before I had status and before I had a pager/ You could find the Abstract listening to hip-hop/ My pops used to say it reminded him of be-bop/ I said, "Well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles"/ The way that Bobby Brown is just amping like Michael" ~ Excursions, Low End Theory
Tip has a point about the fact that during that era CATS were inventing
new steez. BUT. Its important to NOT become dogmatic and insist that
WE never borrowed from other people in order to make our 'ish.

Hip hop is all about sampling. So in a way that Tip and SOUL Purpose
are making their argument, they sound like our parents generation
who were mad that EPMD, RAKIM, TRIBE, HAMMER were sampling
"their" OLD soul songs.

We turning into our parents? Yikes.



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One of the first things that I noticed when watching this
was a sense of intimacy.
I knew, based on the music used
and how it interplayed with the images
on the screen, that this
documentary was made by someone is his inner circle.

It soon became clear that it was his brother he made it.

This trailer moved me for several reasons. The first is that I have
been listening
to a lot of Ol D B lately. Second, I was surprised by
the production values. Third,
given the fact that so many
of us have lost love ones, especially Black men, I began

thinking about ways of using video/documentary to grieve
our losses.


Sidenote. Is it legal for Masta Killa's & the GZA's skin to be
so luxurious?
Aren't they like 36 & 38 respectively?

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via Grand Good

Wow. Man. I realized I usta have the horn intro from "Sh*t is Real"
on my answering machine. I know. I know. My backpack is showing.

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