Re: All The Way Down
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.
Re: All The Way Down
Anyone who claims License to Ill is hip-hop is fronting - I don't care who
they are. Such claims are revisionist history. At the time of its
release it was widely recognized as a jokey joke from a gang of upperclass
brats.
JP
Once again, JP, I agree with you here, but only to a point. Licensed to Ill
was most certainly a send-up of rap, but as far as it, or the Beasties, not
being taken seriously as artists, I refer you to Daryl McDaniels of Run-DMC,
who once said on touring with the Boys: "From day one they were killing.
Even when nobody knew them. It could be a completely black, Negro, Southern
crowd there to see Run-D.M.C. and Whodini, but when the Beasties came on it
wasnt like people were walking around getting hot dogsthey really paid
attention to them white boys."
And Chuck D has been quoted as saying: "They came out to our radio show at
WBAU (in Long Island), trying to prove to the rap market that they were
viable white kids. You really couldn't doubt their legitimacy 'cause they
were down with Def Jam and Run-D.M.C., and the beats were right. And as long
as they talked about white boys and beer and stuff like that, who could
knock their topics."
These quotes may be revisionist history, but if so, I would say that's not
giving DMC or Chuck D too much credit. And as far as the class issue is
concerned, that's a sword that cuts both ways. Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Eric B
Rakim, De La Soul, LL Cool J, Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre
all came from working middle-class (or better) homes. Does this mean that
their contribution to rap should be less significant because they really
didn't come from "the streets?" Or if you say that because they're black,
their contributions are inherently more credible, doesn't that smack of
racism? I guess it comes down to an oppositional argument--Class vs.
Race--and I'm not so sure that class has been less significant in the
development of the rap genre.
Lance . . .
PS--Found the Beasties first Def Jam 12" ("She's On It")--with LL Cool J's
Radio stuck inside!!--Run-DMC's Raising Hell, and Eric B Rakim's "Move the
Crowd" 12" (inside of an Afrika Bambaataa sleeve) for two dollars each in a
Lafayette, Louisiana junk store this weekend. Life is good.
All The Way Down
. They are making white music for white people. Nothing wrong with that, but it ain't hip-hop. Dude. Dude. Dde. Put on "Liscence To Ill." There are some major f*cking beats and grooves on that record, which a black man should be so lucky to put together. Just because your black does not mean you've got "dope moves" or "mad game" floating around your head. Conversely, just because you're white, does not mean you don't. I mean, I do g Beep-beep, y'all, John Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Re: All The Way Down
. They are making white music for white people. Nothing wrong with that, but it ain't hip-hop. Dude. Dude. Dde. Put on "Liscence To Ill." There are some major f*cking beats and grooves on that record, which a black man should be so lucky to put together. Just because your black does not mean you've got "dope moves" or "mad game" floating around your head. Conversely, just because you're white, does not mean you don't. I mean, I do g Geez. I never said they sucked. I said their audience is overwhelmingly white. And i said they are not making music from a hip-hop cultural perspective. Of course I used more words than that...
Re: All The Way Down for postcard2@u.washington.edu; Fri, 23
WRONG. Read Nelson George's new book HIP HOP AMERICA and get yourself schooled...Def Jam records/russell simmons/rick rubin/NYC b-boying/breaking ground ZERO...while you're at it read BOMB THE SUBURBS by William Upski Wimsatt... See you at the Eminem show is Austin next week! xojns -- From: JP Riedie [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "passenger side" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: All The Way Down Date: Fri, Apr 23, 1999, 3:44 PM And i said they are not making music from a hip-hop cultural perspective Why don'y you quit reading that pencil dick stuff and go find some people to teach you how to dance? Anyone who claims License to Ill is hip-hop is fronting - I don't care who they are. Such claims are revisionist history. At the time of its release it was widely recognized as a jokey joke from a gang of upperclass brats. If the Beasties had not dug down deep, found their muse and gone on to artistic triumph with Paul's Boutique the urge to re-cast them as hip-hop all along would look even silllier than it already does. Now I know a couple of hip-hop guys who disagree with me. And everybody rightly respects the Beastie Boys. But it does not invalidate their accomplishments to get real and face up to the fact that they did not come from a hip-hop scene - look at their music prior to License to Ill... And just because they thought the Soul Sonic Force was cool doesn't mean a thing. Hey, I love Prince, but no one could say that I'm anything close to funky, or that I know where he's coming from. Carpetbagging ain't nothing to be ashamed of. And nope, I ain't gonna waste my time at the Eminem show, even if the chance of seeing you there is tantalizing
