A person Can however Be too Young for Hip Hop. in the same way that a person who predates Hip Hop Kulture can be too old. The Youth Kulture of the Day is Pop.
That said, Your Age is Little to No Indication of How Hiphop you are. Your Claim to Hip Hop is Based On your Knowledge of it and the Level of Respect you Hold for the Ones by Which that Knowledge Came to You.
for a Young Person Today to be Down With Hip Hop, they must be willing to study tha Past and Learn from their Elders. It Is Not Possible to ONLY Have Knowledge of Todays Rappers and Be Down With Hip Hop. in that case you are a Rap Fan Only. Not a Hiphoppa.
note: there are many old Rap Fans as well. many rap fans never matured into Hiphoppas
note: there are many old Rap Fans as well. many rap fans never matured into Hiphoppas
Hip Hop is has and may Always be an Underground Movement/Sub Culture because Hip Hop takes a strong stance, and A Majority of People have never in earths History taken the same strong stance together on anything.
Rap is Mainstream, Hip Hop is not.
The Foundations of Hip Hop as We (Those who were/are there) Know it, Happened in a Certain Space and time. to Truly Represent Hip Hop, one must have lived in that space and time and also currently have respect for what took up that space and time.
Note: Everything is Now. so to live in a Certain Space And Time, you must simply be Focused on that space and time.
Note: Everything is Now. so to live in a Certain Space And Time, you must simply be Focused on that space and time.
As far as "black music" goes...
Hip Hop is a Black Kulture if one sees Black as a mindstate. The Black mindstate being that of the oppressed but determined to rise personality.
In the Beginning of Hip Hop Kulture, Rap was closely related to Black/Hiphop Kulture and was indeed a Part of Hiphip/Black Kulture. Rap is still Such. but Rap is also Now Anything But Hiphop/Black. It Depends On Which Rap you are listening to.
Because of KRS-One -The first one to say it and explain the statement- it is now popular to make the statement, "I Am Hip Hop". Any One is free to make this claim. the catch is, in the tradition of Hip Hop, One should expect to be tested on any claims they make. When Tested one must be able to "Show and Prove" on a consistant basis among the previously established holders of that claim. The Funny Thing is That You now have people who Claim to Be Hip Hop and Who also disrespect KRS-One at the same time. if you don't know where your words and style originated. than you look like an idiot to people that do know. Contrary to what the media would have you beleive, There Are still Alot of Us That KNOW, And not only that, We Have Children That have-been/are-being Taught by US
Hip Hop has Always Been made up of at least 9 elements. previously only 4 or 5 where recognized at One Time. The Most Important and Most Overlooked Element of these Nine is KNOWLEDGE, without Knowledge One can not practice anything at all with any degree of skill. That includes the other 8 or more elements of Hip Hop Kulture Including Emceeing/Rap.
If you do not KNOW what you are doing, you are NOT Doing Tha Thing, You Are Abusing Tha Thing That you Claim to be Doing. (Paraphrasing Buckshot)
It Is A Permanent LAW of Nature and Supernature (Supernature is Nature that has yet to be under and overstood and/or excepted by mainstream concepts of nature) That Abuse Will Always Be Corrected.
A Young Practioner or Fan of Jazz has ultimate Respect for the original Jazz musicians
the Same with Blues, Gospel, Classical, pretty much all styles of music except for Rap. because of this many young and even lost Old Rappers are making only Rap Music while many people mistakenly believe them to be Making Hip Hop music.
A Similiar thing Happened To Rock n Roll Music, But over a much shorter time period and with verying nuances. This is due i believe to the limited (compared to Hip Hop kultures Time and Space) flow of information between People.
As Usual i didn't Write Everything that was/is in my head when i was prompted to write this. But We have Come to the point Where i Feel you The Reader may Start Feeling Fatigued. so My Thoughts Will Be Continued and possibly Revised and/or expanded upon in the Comment Section if Any One Cares To Commnet and/or Turn this into a Dialouge or Polougue
I AM HIP HOP.
Check out my latest Work on Google by Searching for "A.M. & JAH Rhythm"
