Chillin on the Stoop again Tues 25.

8:30 PM

On the stoop again man these stairs are hard as fuck. Aint got enough paint ta go bombin tonight so son im outtta luck. I shuda gone rackin with sick actions sneak outta home depot with a can of flat black in my ass crackin. But my dude, that shits not happening, shit at least not tonight. Plus its clubbin season so the birds have taken the flight. So now we got no bird watchin, and no bird callin, beside i aint trying to have you get me locked for sexual assaulting, cat callin whatever.

9:15
At least its nice weather, check out son across the street haha. A YO KID NICE PLEATHER! that shit aint pelle pelle thats helle smelle, yo whats good wit ya man jay and the fat Elle. What he stopped blazing????????? AMAZING. I thought he was a rasta i guess he went and changed then.

10:10
Son! don't look now here comes Lou. The only homeless cat i know who owns a mansion or two. Yea under his daughters name, but he aint wrong in the brain, just cause he live in his car don't make his crazy ass insane. He got the feds watchin what he spends his cream on. King pin; usta flood the streets with mad heron-- in the 80's-- now a days he traded to a silva honda no more Mercedes. No more Mackin now he gotta pay up if he wants the ladies:
and wrap it up if he don't want the VD's ya feel me?
Plus when he was up state he became born again christian , trying to convert me every time he sees me even though he know I don't listen.
Ay son? yo he gone? Good

11:20
I would get chinese food but yo the heath department shut them down again maybe this time for good. I know I'm hungry i don't care if that shit is mushu pigeon, Im more hungry that that fat brutha that Eric's sista stays dissin, That kid B. he lives on Bushwick ave. By building 16. He got McDonald's in the stash, and if you talk slick he gunna crush ya with his ass. Call that shit ass-phyxiation.

12:25
Yo ya heard that new shit, that shit was mad wack, I get already --weezy loves codeine and crack. O shit check out shorty, chill not now though she looks better from the back. wait for it wait for it, AHH messenger bag blockage. That's violation. Man I need to get back on my graff game no more procrastination.

12:42
Aint that john's shorty from Williamsburg houses? Or is that Karen from Borinquen Plaza, yea that's her, she fucks wit my man Cooper who lives in Cooper. He straight Casanova now; in 8th grade he used ta eat glue, word.

1:00
Times is changing though Brooklyn is rearranging . They even got modern art and shit by the Montrose station. Plus they call us indigenous now, aint that shit amazing and fazing. But whatever. nah I aint feeling lazy, I'm just mad bored but what else is there to do? My shorty is on vaction but I was too broke to go too.

1:23
Nah I aint gunna get drunk again with you, cuss then i end up passed out in ya house sleepin wit one eye open, so one of those Madagascar roaches you got in there don't leave my ass chokin. Yo is there really nothing to do tonight?

1:47
Boom -What the fuck was that shit? Oh shit a fight!?- SON! is he aight? Yo they jess sliced Don's man, I think them cats from Morgan, man his father owns the fruit store too, God damn.
Why dudes always getting reckless???? Why do I always have to expect this? Why don't the cops ever show up, damn unless they fucking some innocent kids up, man we need a crispy cream in this neighborhood. So the boys in blue might finally do something good.

2:15
Fuck it I'm goin in to sleep so I can wake up to eat breakfast.
Peace Kid try not to be too restless.







"It would be impossible to understand B.I.G.'s artistic statement without understanding the centrality of his indigenous lands in the Borough of Kings because, dig it or not, the Borough of Kings in the reason for the artistic statement" pg 112 - Jelani Cobb.


BROOKLYN^^^^^^^^^^

Supa Fly

Yo I gotta pay respects to a man I think is a musical god. Now you know I am a hip hiop head first and foremost. That don't mean though i don't listen ta other shit. Yo I don't klnow how mnay bruthas an sistas my age are up on Curtis Mayfield, but I been listening to him nonstop since like thurs, and have been a fan since like i was 12 when my moms used to play superfly in my house ( spanish people who grew up in Brooklyn in the 60's liked soul too FYI). Listyening to his work is crazy eye opening on how something that ain't hiphop can tell a crazy storya bout the way people are living better then some if not most "street" shit out there. Mayfield is THE soul brutha numero uno baby, and from one soul brutha (thats right, tell me I aint got more soul then you) to another his shit speaks ta me the same way Illmatic or Cuban Linx speaks to me. I mean I remember even at 12 when ai first heard superfly I was like, that shit sounds cool, and not cool like a that new kid in school wit the new gameboy was cool, but cool like, even a lil mutha fucka like me could recognise what the kids today call swag. This man had more swagger in his pinky then half the corny ass rappers out there now. As I got older and started reasearching the samples used in the golden age classics dear ta my heart i learned more of his work and was just amazed. Son was beyond ill, beyond fly, he was supa fly--waht more can I say. He left the earth too damn soon. Peace Curtis

Childrens Story. Assignment for 11/18

AJuliani Cobb on Illmatic: "The LP was by a jaded project ennui, an old- to- soon kind of lyricizing that said as much about Nas as it did about the people he was describing." Pg 70



Once upon the time not to long ago, shit it gotta fourteen years back ta 94'. I was a little shorty, chillin on the stoop. Watch the rudeboys roll by in gold rim coups. Even then at the tender age of five I understood that shit always stood live. No Jive, i remember Carlito from the forth floor pissed of the Italian connect so they put holes in his car door. Shit was crazy ill grow up quick-- the kids always will-- form deadin candy bars to ta breaking into parked cars. That was the environment b, lying I got no need. They stood breaking inta cars with tha need for speed. They stood lifted puffing on the greenest weed-- even before I knew the smell that shit made me sneeze. Son please-- children gotta grow up fast, how you gunna enjoy shit if nothing lasts. Thats it --caskets-- and Im sorry for ya loss gift baskets. Son was 19 god knows its tragic. But no news story though; no front page, just a new apartment on the market and a carving on the grave. So ya ask how nas sounded so old, man age comes quick when the world so cold--damn. That means 19 is actually 45, because enough 19s aint reaching 20 alive. But we gotta strive for perfection, some times got to pack the Smif N Wesson-- so no man can be having us undressin. But that just the story of how it goes, turning young gods in thugs and mad queens into hoes. Its dramatic how the static can make ya mind straight panic, --or explode creative dropping jewels like Illmatic.

Justice

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my entire life. To see a black man in office is a dream not only for my Black brothers and sisters, but for me as a latino as well. Even though I was born in Brooklyn yesterday was the day I became an American. For my whole life I never once felt like anyone in this country gave a fuck about me or any of us. Not just blacks and latinos, but immigrants and everyone who wasn't the ruling class. I aint saying racism is over; its alive and well unfortunately and so is classism, but we can do it now. To my people told that they could never been anything besides criminals and failures, to all my people who came up in a public school system in that made it seem as though college wasn't an option, to my people who bust their ass to make a living with no help from anyone while the rich catch more and more breaks, to all of us who were told we weren't good enough; this is the opening of a new chapter. I have been told my whole life that I was no good by people who didn't even know me, and I know I am not the only one. Now I know that me in college isn't some freak accident, I am here because I can be a force to change the world, we all can in college or not. Nothing can stop us now. Nothing.

BUSHWICK BROOKLYN-


Peace to President Obama and his family. Thanks for giving someone raised on a history of broken promises something to believe in again.

Bougie takeova

Yo my people something has been bothering me. Like really botherin me. When the fuck did bougie kids invade hip hop? This weekend I went to a Graff store in BK, my boy heard it just opened, and I heard there was a gallery in the back and that that book thing that my Professor was talkin about was there. Now so I was thinking finally I dun got to trek it to china town or corona queens to get the good paint. Ill right?

Not even. Me an my boy go there and not only were they mad expensive, (which graff specialty places tend to be) but i didn't feel welcome there. It was run by a white guy, which aint nothin cuss the scrap yard is run by a white guy an he cool, but this place had like a boutique feel to it they had a gallery, and sold like skater sneakers vans an shit. Not really my typa joint. Plus even tho they just opened the guy was mad shady wit me and my friend.

Now look this aint about me being pissed because the guy was being wierd ta us or nothin, it takes more then that ta get me tight. What gets me tight is this has alot to do with the crazy gentrification that happening in North Brooklyn ask anyone in WB, Bushwick or Bedstuy, and they can tell you, but the crazy shit is that these yuppies, or hipsters call them what you will, love street culture but are made super uncomfortable by street people. They culture jacking and this store is only an example of that shit.

Why is it that "real" hip hop now needs to completely disassociate to a certain extent from the street? Why is Asop Rock and Slug deep and meaningful and Joell Ortiz or Saigon "too street" even tho they drop mad knowledge? Shit Ortiz is from Greenpoint, the hood this graff store was in, and he wasn't allowed to perform at "Brooklyn Hip Hop" festival that was taking place there. It was a hipster festival for "real" hip hop and he wasn't "real" enough. I have a sneaking suspicion it has more to do with the fact that that event is a hipster thing and they don't want neighborhood kids comin out the P's and the tenements to go to their little party.

Why is it that hip hop that is marketed to the streets is so often devoid of anything worth listening to, and intelligent shit marketed to upper middle class college kids? I know its tempting to say "well people in the hood are stupid". Look I'm in college, but my brother from another mother and my long time crew member don't even have a GED but he deeper and smarter then alot of the kids i know in Baruch. I don't paint, or even associate myself with people i don't respect, if you know me you know i only fuck with street philosophers, if you don't know me now u know.

What the fuck happened to street knowledge. Its like now street rap is a fuckin stereotype of poor minorities, shit can be painful to watch. At the same time "real" shit is completely disassociated from the street. I mean Rakim Allah, The WU, Nas, and even like Mobb Deep back in the day were street but they were smart, almost mystic in thier approach to the world, and they were marketed to the street. Same could be said about the likes of Ortiz Pap and Sai. Now I'm not saying it all gotta be about the street either,Tribe is my shit but they really weren't hood like that. Problem is these Bougie elements in hip hop are pushing this notion that if its smart it cant be street and if its street it cant be smart. Thats cultural piracy, I don't got nothing against hip hop going world wide, but does that really mean that here in the heart of NY where it was born, the very children of the generation that created hip hop have in effect been gentrified out of our own culture?
Why is it that alot of the new acts that run the line of the true emcee or at least seem to, like lupe (Im not a fan but I recognize talent), or other artist like him marketed just to middle class kids and not to the streets? Why does hipster hop exist??? An MC is an MC why they gotta put a label on it that alienates the hood??

Truth is if Brooklyn babies swarmed that hip hop festival the people who claim to love our culture would have to love it in front of us. Hip hop is a way of life, my way of life but I see it becoming a hobby for these irony loving outta towners with no respect for the traditions of it in the NY context. Even in the graff world shit is split between kids raised on street bombing schooled in graff from older writers, and art school students that are completely ignorant of the culture. this blog talks more about it if people want to get the low down on the street art vs graff war this breaks it down nice. READ IT, its good you know i dun lie.

Street Art Vs Graffiti
Props to DYM for having mad balls.

So this is my beef with the hipster graff store, and the takeover of our culture in general; you wana be a part of Hip Hop thats fine. You wana earn your rep and respect from the hood, I got nothing but love for that; but if you wana trample our traditions, alienate us, and say your shit is the real shit we gunna have a problem.

I got my start writing in GP and have spent many a night up there working on my technique, and to be given funny looks by a graff store owner 10 blocks from where i first threw up my initials at age 13 is ridiculous.

That shit needs ta stop

I do wana shout out to All The Right in Corona Queens and Scrap Yard in China town for keep it its real for all the writters lookin for those crazy colors home depot just don't carry.

I wana as always shout out all my real bruthas and sistas in the 5 boroughs of death and Strong Island.
Be real my people, and hold dear ta whats yours and don't let no one take Hip Hop from us.

Peace to my Brother Mat, and the whole ASAP Crew

Peace

Blogging on Cobb 2 & 3

Chapter 2 of Till the Break of Dawn talks about the stylistic changes in Hip Hop over time. One thing really interested me, and that was the perpetual split in Hip Hop between political/Lyrical Hip Hop and party music Hip Hop. I always thought that they were distinct but in reality the book really helped me see how the best political, or lyrical Hip Hop needs to be good music, good to party too. They give the example of the message, the song white lines is another one that I think proves the point the book makes. It keeps going into music now, the best deep hip hop was deep hip hop backed by good musical production. What is Illmatic without Pete Rock or DJ Premier's production. Even if its not "dance music" Hip Hop lyricists depends on good production to not only allow for maximum impact of their words, but to make it appeal to people it has to be good musically. Also this joy in music allows for us to not only temporarily forget being poor or struggling, but also to take it on, on our own terms.



Chapter 3 was talking more about actual styles used in hip-hop and their origins. The passage I liked in this showed me something I didn't see before, the way that hip hop and R&B come from a similar origin and how in the early days hip-hop performers sang hooks, and at the same time later on R&B songs featured cameos from various MC's . I also see the links between the concept of flow in jazz and the concept of call and response in blues lyrics, and their presents in hip hop. This is something I haver seen but never really thought much about, but play a very important role in Hip Hop musically.