|
Straight Outta Compton (Priority, 1988)
/
Ghetto
Music: The Blueprint Of Hip Hop (Jive, 1989) /
Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
– Soundtrack (2005)
*
* * * *
50 Cent CDs
Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
/
The Massacre /
Guess Who's Back /
Power of the Dollar
* * * * * Books on Rap &
Hip Hop
Todd Boyd,
The
New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop
(2003) /
Sharif Responds to Todd
Boyd /
Is Hip
Hop Really Dead?
Brian Cross,
It's Not About a Salary... Rap, Race and Resistance in Los
Angeles: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles (1993)
Tricia Rose,
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
(1994)
Russell A. Porter, Spectacular
Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism
(1995)
Bakari Kitwana,
The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the
Crisis in African American Culture
(2003)
Imani
Perry,
Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (2004)
*
* * * *
Hip Hop 101 Droppin'
Knowledge,
Preserving The Culture
By Junious Ricardo Stanton
Attorney,
community activist, WHAT 1340 AM talk show host and lover of Hip
Hop, Michael Coard is moving full blast with this
semester's Hip Hop 101 course in Temple University's Pan-African
Studies Community Education Program (PASCEP) on Thursday
evenings in the Anderson Hall auditorium.
The first session started off with a lecture
and rap (pardon the pun) session by a local MC The Last Emperor
who regaled the full house with his experiences as part of a
eleven man crew who where thick as thieves who supported each
other and helped facilitate his development as a writer/MC. But
more on The Last Emperor later.
Coard originally conceived of the idea of
having a course to explain and teach the core principles and
elements of Hip Hop when he noticed there were few people of
African descent at the local venues featuring Hip Hop artists.
Not wanting Hip Hop to go the way of other genres of
African-American music, Jazz, Blues, Rhythm and Blues co-opted
and corrupted by Euro-American capitalism and benightedness,
Coard decided to offer a course about Hip Hop.
Over the last few years his course has
developed as a venue for aspiring MC's to come and try out their
material in front of a aesthetically and culturally critical
audience, learn about artistic integrity from people like former
Philly radio DJ Lady B, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Poor Righteous
Poets and The Last Emperor. Not only is Coard's grass roots
class free and open to the public, it remains true to African
culture and the spirit of creativity. In fact at one point the
banner on the promotional material about the course read,
"If you're rhyming for the loot, you are a
prostitute."
Coard is of the opinion that Hip Hop is a
continuation of an eons old tradition dating back into African
antiquity as manifested in the Hieroglyphics (Graffiti) Egyptian
martial arts and movements which were transplanted to this
hemisphere as Capoeria (break dancing), the ancient oral and
written traditions of Africa, the Egyptian Scribe and West
African Griot (MC and rapper) and of course the drum (the beat).
In his opening remarks The Last Emperor also
made the connection between the Egyptian and Olmec First World
cultures, today's African and Latino Hip Hop artists and
culture. Divulging his given name was the only thing he didn't
do. He shared his beginnings in West Philadelphia around 60th
and Market St. how he honed his skills to the point he sent a
demo tape to Dr Dre on the West Coast and was invited out to
meet with him. He shared some of the inner working of the
recording business how once he was signed by Dr. Dre and
Interscope he languished in the background with several other
well known and skilled artists as the label worked to
aggressively groom and promote Eminem the Caucasian rapper who
has since blown up and taken the industry by storm ala Benny
Goodman, Elvis Presley and the Beatles in past generations.
The Last Emperor was philosophical about the
situation, acknowledging Eminem did have skills and that a
person like Eminem was tailor made for this race and color
obsessed capitalistic system. Unlike many of the artists
promoted by and in the corporate media The Last Emperor is not
only a conscious artist/MC with his finger on the pulse of the
community whose rhymes reflect his consciousness, he is also
articulate, well read, well traveled with an enormous store of
information with an astute grasp of the geo-political,
psychological and socio-economic dynamics that shape the music
industry in general and the Hip Hop community in particular.
"I don't think I'd be where I at right
now, even though I'm not where I want to be if it hadn't been
for reading and love of learning. Out of all my crew I talked
about in my lecture, there are only two of us left. One is in
the Army I'm here all the rest are in the penitentiary, deceased
or nobody knows where they are. So if it weren't for studying
and taking education seriously no matter what I did out in the
streets, I wouldn't be here right now." He shared his
experiences good and bad with the audience who seemed genuinely
in awe of him not because he had a million dollar record deal
which he doesn't, but because he is a down to earth, socially
conscious brother with integrity and principles.
His collaborations with the Literary Lounge,
KRS-One and numerous other cutting edge artists has garnered him
a avid following. While he doesn't have a record deal he is
working on a project that he anticipates will come out in the
next few months. "I want to make something clear, a lot of these
individuals that place themselves as the faces of these large
corporations aren't even the people who are actually pulling the
strings many of the times. They are in many instances front men
for something larger and in some instances much more sinister. I
had a couple of experiences with major labels that didn't work
out like Interscope and Rawkus and once I got out of those deals
I'm pretty much a free agent now. I guess you could say I
support and promote myself."
He
explained. When asked if he was he planning to work on his own,
do his own thing he replied, "Obviously you need the
capital to get your own thing off the ground and that's what the
larger corporate entity provides. I don't have that sum to do it
like I would like to so I'm looking at other
options. Some smaller independent labels who allow me the same
artistic freedom that I would really like to have without the
larger headaches." He shared he wasn't bitter about
Eminem's success and didn't think about it until a lot of other
people started telling him he got a raw deal.
"Me being aware of how capitalism works,
I didn't see it in terms of black and white, like they just
wanted to take a white rapper and put him over the black rappers
and the black rapper had to go to the back of label and so forth
and so on. First of all Eminem has skills which is something no
other rapper of his hue prior to that had. I never saw it as a
black white thing, I saw it as a capitalism thing. What's going
to make more capital? We all know black dudes can rap all day
and night and are good at it but this is the first time a
Caucasian rapper came out that had skills and this took Carte
Blanche."
He told the audience Dr.Dre told him he would
have to wait for a few years while he (DrDre) worked on other
projects like Eminem. "Some of the other artists felt they
got dissed. I wasn't willing to allow my artistic vision to be
stifled so we (he and Dr. Dre) parted ways and it was
amicable." His free flowing presentation lasted about an
hour and fifteen minutes and the ensuing question and answer
period pushed the class over its allotted time. University
Security had to remind them to clear the room so they could
close the building. Even with that folks followed The Last
Emperor into the hallway and out of the building seeking
autographs, interviews and networking opportunities.
Michael Coard was ecstatic about this
semester's first session and the turn out. Coard like all the
instructors in PASCEP does it for free. In addition to teaching
the course, Coard who is a successful criminal attorney in
Philadelphia, goes into his own pocket to cover the expenses to
bring in artists and people in the business like Lady B, Poor
Righteous Poets, Chuck D and The Last Emperor to speak to and
interact with his class.
"The goal of this course is to get our
people to embrace our own culture." Stated Coard. "The
Last Emperor is the greatest ambassador for Hip Hop because not
only does he have lyrical skills, he can rhyme. So folks who
don't have consciousness hear this guy rhymin' and spittin' and
they are attracted to him. But then when they hear it, it's like
the worm on the hook, he brings them in with his skills and then
he starts talking about Ivan Van Sertima , the Olmec heads and
ancient Egypt. It was great.".
The class is held Thursdays from 7-9 PM in
the Anderson Hall Auditorium on the campus of Temple University
in North Philadelphia. For more information about The Last
Emperor visit his Website: thelastemperor.com or
UndergroundHipHop.com Positively Black 2/21/03 |
