Opinion: The ‘Miseducation’ of Hip-Hop

By Nnamdi Lionel

Hip-Hop in Nigeria has come to be known as popular music, seen as foreign music, lewd music filled with violence and immorality. But this is far from the truth. As Hip-Hop legend K.R.S ONE put it ‘Rap is what we do, while Hip-Hop is what we live’.

The word ‘Hip-Hop’ is said to have been invented by Keith Cowboy, a rapper with Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five. He used it to mock a friend who had joined the US Army by saying that soldiers marched Hip-Hop. Also Love Burg Starski and DJ Hollywood used the term when hip-hop was still disco music. Afrika Bambatta, the founder of the Zulu Nation and one of the pioneers of Hip-Hop used the word ‘Hip-Hop’ to describe the culture.

The roots of Hip-Hop can be traced to Africa. The griots (storytellers in West Africa) were oral chanters. This was the foundation of spoken poetry which gave birth to Rap music.

However as slave trade occurred and slaves were taken from Africa to Europe and America, they went with their traditions. On plantations, African slaves would wax lyrical poetry to entertain themselves. James Brown and the neo-soul movement which aimed at promoting black music and heritage created boom-bap, one of the earliest and predominantly used sounds in Hip-Hop. Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets and Jalal Mansur Nuriddin who were spoken word poets laid the foundation for Rap Music. A Jamaican DJ Clive Campbell while performing at a block party in the Bronx in the created a sound which he called ‘Hip-Hop’.

Hip-Hop consists of some elements which include; Rapping (or Emceein), Breakdancing/B-boying, Graffiti (mural design), Beat-boxing (making music with your mouth), Ebonics (street language), DeeJaying and later Street Fashion, Street Entrepreneurship and Consciousness. Hip-Hop was actually created because the various neighbourhood gangs in urban America decided to come together to use their intricate talents to promote peace and not violence in Hip-Hop.

The evolution which Hip-Hop has undergone is divided into the following Old School, Golden Age Of Hip-Hop, New School/ Internet Auto Tune Era. Old School Hip-Hop pioneers were Afrika Bambatta whose crew Zulu Nation dropped the classic ‘Planet Rock’.

Also the first commercial hip-hop record was released during this period ‘Rappers Delight’ in 1979 by Sugar Hill Gang. The early 80’s saw Grand Master Flash, a DJ and his crew released the classic ‘The Message’ which introduced consciousness into Hip-Hop. Kurtis Blow was the star of this period. This period lasted till the late 80’s which saw Def Jam, the label which promoted Hip-Hop globally evolve. The late ’80s is credited as the golden age of Hip-hop because this period saw different styles in Hip-Hop exposing the creativity of the culture. It also influenced majority of the artists of the two other schools. Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, K.R.S ONE and Public Enemy were some of the stars of this era. The 90’s saw Rap music’s two biggest stars 2pac and the Notorious B.I.G, both of whom were later controversially murdered, thus changing the way hip-hop would later come to sound. Corporate America fuelled with cash.

After the demise of the Notorious B.I.G and 2Pac, rappers stopped being street conscious and decided to go for the money. As a result, standards were dropped, content was sacrificed. Lyricism was thrown to the doldrums. Those who were seen to be conscious rappers were relegated to the background. This also marked the beginning of the payola process which is still in practice till date, whereby labels pay on air personalities at TV and Radio Stations to play their artistes’ songs. The major labels who once signed Emcees, started to focus on mediocre half-baked artistes. Pop singers are now tagged Hip-Hop Artistes. For God sake, when did Soulja Boy, D’Banj, Banky W, Terry G and a whole lot of artistes an ignorant section of our media now tag as Hip-Hop artistes become Hip-Hop? If you want to know what Hip-Hop is all about, visit the internet and get Books and DVDs about the culture.

Albums to get include; Nas’ ‘Illmatic’, Eric B and Rakim’s ‘Paid In Full’, Wutang Clan ‘Enter The Wu 36 Chambers’, A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘The Low End Theory’, Big Daddy Kane’s ‘Long Live The Kane’, T La Rock’s ‘Lyrical King’, Talib Kweli’s ‘Quality’, and DVD’s like Hip-Hop Story 1 and 2, BEEF 1,2 and 3, Krush Groove, Modenine’s ‘Pentium Ix Mixtape’, ‘Paradigm Shift’ albums, B’Elect’s Hard Listeners and Str8Buttah’s ‘Str8 4rm Da Art’.

So don’t be misinformed. Once you say you are Hip-Hop, you must be involved in one of the element of Hip-Hop culture and believe in and support the culture. If you don’t, you are fake. On the home front groups like Underground Dwellas, GAME, Poetic Squad, S.E.X (Still Enormously Extra), Thoroughbreds, NuffNoyz, Str8Buttah, SWATROOT have been at the forefront of doing what is Real Hip-Hop Music, and heads like Solo Dee, Fleet Militant, Doc Gee, King Mac Lord formely known as DeeWeez, Paul and Mi-Fliss Akhimie, Femi Smalls, Modenine and B’Elect and Attitude for the femcees, have all been trying to promote the Real Hip-Hop.

Please people, don’t be ‘mis-educated’. Get some schooling.

Odumody Nnamdi Lionel, is a graduate of International Relations from Covenant University and a Hip- Hop Activist…