Louisiana is good. Are we homies?
Anyway, I spoke on this topic with my friend Dave, the guy who first
schooled me on the difference between hip-hop and rap. And though I
honestly couldn't care less if anyone thinks the Beasties are hip-hop, I
have a few parting words:
Do the Beasties participate in the hip-hop dialogue? Are they responding
to and furthering the conversation that flows between artists through,
within and across the different hip-hop scenes? I don't think so, but
hey, I'm a well known asshole. The Beasties have always seemed to stand at
a remove from the hurly-burly of hip-hop. Culturally they are closer in
meaning to Cake than to PE.
As for race and class, there is no litmus test. As Dave (who's white)
says, you either are hip-hop or you are not. There's no qualifications and
you can't buy a membership just by hanging around the scene. You show up
and everyone else just knows whether or not you are real. I go to lots of
local shows and hang with lots of hip-hop activists and artists, still, I
am not part of their community. However, there is mutual respect, even if
I don't understand half of what they're saying.
Chuck D., and Guru are upper middle class, well educated individuals. To
me, what makes them hip-hop is that they consciously strove to develop a
new way of communicating and speaking musically about urban culture. Just
as Eazy-E and Master P. did, albeit with a less intellectual stance.
I think the Beasties are about making cool music without an underlying
social or cultural agenda. Nothing wrong with that, it just ain't hip-hop.
