Blog world what’s up! Yeah I’m no longer a virgin in the wonderful world of cyber commentary. I got some cool responses for my last blog and figured, ok..we can do that again. Enough with the ice breaking. So..I noticed this week I have for some strange reason been stumbling on to a lot of things that, if added together formed a bit of a hip hop retrospective for me. For one, I noticed Mtv’s homage to the YO! Mtv Raps years. I forget which of my Mtv channels is airing this ( there’s like 1000 different spin-off channels courtesy of Viacom) but one of them is playing past episodes from it’s initial air date all the way up to it’s last episode. After that, I noticed that on my Youtube alert, which is a nice addition to my newly designed Google home page, someone out there actually posted the pilot of a little known show called Graffiti Rock. Now..whenever I ask anyone, "Yo ’member that show Graffiti Rock?" it is usually followed by a blank puzzled expression and an abrupt "Nah man". Anyway..the show was fashioned much in the way of American Bandstand (wow..you may not remember that either) but it encompassed break dancing, music, and a slang breakdown. After that, I turn on VH1 Soul and they are playing ole school videos in their regular rotation with current vids. (If you don’t have VH1 Soul you should get it where available.) I have to say it was amazing to see the transition of hip hop in the last 30 years. One thing that stuck out was vids these days lack so much of the theatrical aesthetic that earlier video directors relied on. True, we were not using green screen then, and true..rappers budgets were no where near what major labels or even some indies dedicate towards promotions now..but this forced people to think outside of the box. Perfect example..I saw one of my all time favorite vids "So Whatcha Sayin" by EPMD. The usage of symbolism never occurred to me back when I was coming home from school and watching Video Music Box (New Yorker’s will know what I am talking about.) And then aside from that, was the emphasis on the performance of the artist. I mean Parrish Smith & The Green Eyed Bandit made you wanna go grab up a fisherman hat and do your best to mimic them. Another vid that comes to mind was Slick Rick’s "Children’s Story". The song itself was a tale told to deter youth from walking down the wrong path. It spoke of the consequences of doing something that on the surface seems to be a solution, but in the end would do you more harm than good. In order to portray what Rick was saying, the director made it a comical take on a robbery gone wrong. (I did not get the implementation of the midget, but it worked out anyway.)
Fast forward to the mid 90’s where I was treated to Onxy "Throw Your Guns". While it can be said the videos were now starting to reflect more of our environment, the theatrics were still there. There was still an emphasis on the artist performance. It felt like Sticky Fingaz was in your face telling you it’s "either your money or your life". Another one of my all time favorites by my man O’shea Jackson aka Ice Cube, "Wicked" came on. The video to this very day is an adrenaline fueled 3 mins. of twisted entertainment. It depicts Ice Cube, backed by The Red Hot Chilipeppers, in this sort of post apocalyptic L.A. while showing scenes of L.A. during the time of the L.A. riots. The effects, the cutaways, the camera angles all make you not move from in front of your screen.
Fast forward to the next millennium. The Bling became king man! In at least 3 videos I watched, the format followed suit. It was car, chick, paper followed by chick, paper, car which was not to be out done by paper, car, chick. I asked myself where are the theatrics? What happened to the performance? where was the entertainment other than things I could see any night I hang out with my peoples. And then it dawned on me..oh my God, we’ve become OURSELVES!! Was it that we craved so much to relate that we’ve taken away peoples option to actually choose their reality?
Don’t get it twisted..I love the assortment of numerous fine ass vid chicks that fuel my imagination at 2 in the morning. I love being able to see the latest whip, so I know why I enjoy capitalism. I need to be constantly reminded of the equation money = anything or one you want. All I am saying is..wow did it change! And now if you’ll excuse me I am going to imagine myself with every chick from that R. Kelly "Flirt" remix video. Give me about 20-30 mins...okay 2.
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