Time to Reclaim our Culture

"Hip Hop was set out in the dark. They used to do it out in the park”*

What happened to Hip-Hop? The Culture; The Love; The U-N-I-T-Y; The Message? Where are the Block Parties? What happened to the Parties where prizes were given to the best dance crews? What happened to the cyphers on the corner? Come on Man!!.What happened to all those things that made Hip-Hop the POSITIVE culture of the youth in the inner cities?

You know what happened? Rap crossed over and was repurposed for white consumption. Rap was the voice of Hip Hop. Rhythmic American Poetry was the conduit of the Hip Hop culture. It was exclusive to those of us that lived in the (neighbor) Hood. You couldn’t be a part of the culture if you didn’t live in and participate in the Community. Rap made Hip Hop a tool for coalition. Today rap is just music (I use that term so loosely). It’s a business. It’s a tool that people use to get rich and escape the “Hood”. Its not even controlled by the people who created the art. We have a bunch of lame front men with Ghost Writers grabbing the microphone with zero to say. Mumble rappers who promote every negative stereotype of minorities in the inner city. Rappers who put tattoos on their face and rhyme about gun violence from the comfort of their homes in the hills. Back in my day we used to call them Sucker MC’s. Rap was kidnapped by White executives and then perverted with the aid of Sucker Mc’s . As a result Hip Hop is on life support and may very well die when my generation dies.

We need to reclaim Rap. We need to rebuild Hip Hop and use it as a tool for Unification of the culture. Remember …

“The enemy knows, they're no fools Because everyone knows that hip-hop rules So we gotta get a grip and grab what's wrong The opposition is weak and rap is strong”**

For the Culture

-Giza

· *MC Shan “The Bridge” Down By Law. Cold Chillin’/Warner Bros. Records. 1987

· ** The Stop The Violence Movement/Ms Melodie “Self Destruction” . Self Destruction. Jive. 1988