Blogs

Lyrical PMS

Viewing Posts Tagged "Hip Hop" View All

Sistas Speak: Letters to Hip-Hop

October 16, 2007 | Tags: Hip-Hop, women in hip-hop

I'm posting this up for all my Hip-Hop chicks. I got it from my homegirl Tachelle Wilkes (over at femmixx.com).

SISTAS SPEAK: LETTERS TO HIP HOP

Women in Hip Hop are misrepresented in mainstream media. These women are a small proportion of the women who are involved in Hip Hop whether it is as an artist, an organizer, an educator, an industry executive, or a Hip Hop connoisseur. We are looking to take a proactive stance in publicizing the unheard female voices from the multiple facets of Hip Hop culture and industry. Our goal is to allow all women to share their experiences of Hip Hop. We intend to compile the letters into a book to be published by an independent press. We invite women of all aspects of Hip Hop to contribute letters.

Guidelines:

1)Please submit a 500 – 800 word letter on one of the following issues. Bring your own unique experiences on hip hop to the letter.

2) Please include your full name and stage name if you have one, an e-mail and contact number.

3) A short bio consisting of 50 words or less. At this time, we are only accepting submissions from U.S. residents.

4) Please include this release with your submission:

I (Insert Full Name Here) give the Sistas Speak Project permission to publish my work.

Issues:
1.        How can hip hop embrace motherhood, fatherhood and raising children?

2.        What has your experience been as a female hip hop artist and how do you maintain your feminity in a positive way?

3.        Who are some of your role models in hip hop? Why?

4.        What are some ways to bring back the balance of how women are represented in hip hop?

5.        How do you think relationships between men and women are portrayed in hip hop and what can be dome about it?

6.        Often times in our communities women demean each other. What is the root of it and how can women move to support each other?

7.        How do you teach young women to stand up for themselves and embrace their individuality?

8.        What's your best memory in hip hop and how has it affected you?

9.        What is it like having a love hate relationship with hip hop?

10.     How has hip hop inspired you to make a positive change in your community?

11.    What is on your mind right now concerning hip hop?

12.    What would happen if there were no women in hip hop?

13.    How do you get hip hop artists to recognize the repercussions of the lyrics and images that they put out?

Deadline: Please submit by November 30th, 2007 to Sarah Harris sarah@hiphopcongress.com or Tachelle Wilkes at Tachelle@femmixx.com

Bios:
Sarah Harris has been involved in community organizing and working with youth populations since 1999. After volunteering with PIRGs (Public Interest Research Group) in Montana and Oregon for three years, she shifted her focus to youth empowerment and education as well as community organizing through the culture of Hip Hop.   Shortly after graduating with a Bachelor's of Arts in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice in 2002, Sarah became a member of the national grassroots organization Hip Hop Congress.   In 2006, she founded the Women's Project as a program of Hip Hop Congress to expand the presence of the female perspective in Hip Hop. She is now the interim director of the Women's Project until the position is filled and will then be refocusing her energy on Hip Hop education and youth. Sarah has worked with youth of all ages and backgrounds in Portland , Oregon ; Missoula , Montana ; and Oakland and San Francisco , California in group homes and after school programs. She also has experience as a radio DJ and was a co-producer for the legendary Sunday Morning Cultural Affairs Outreach Show on the University of California college station KALX. Sarah brings musical balance to her life by playing classical and rhythm and blues on the piano. She currently lives and works in Oakland , California as an educational assistant and after school teacher at Berkeley Maynard Academy , an elementary charter school.

Tachelle "Shamash" Wilkes – Co-founder of Femmixx.com, the Home Of Female Music Producers, DJs & Emcees. Through Femmixx.com, Tachelle directed and executive produced "Lady Beat Makers Vol. 1," a documentary on female urban producers and co-founded She's My DJ Turntablist Mix & Scratch Battlle. Tachelle has also written for Vibe, The Source, Daveyd.com, industrycosign.com, Elemental, The Ave, and One World Magazines. As an artist she has opened for KRS-One and Doug E. Fresh and has been featured in media such as Scratch Magazine, Amsterdam Newspaper and on BBC Radio, WWRL Radio, ABC News and Hispanics Today on NBC. As a high school teacher and college professor, she is a believer in using hip-hop as a vehicle and healing infused education. Her high school students have performed at the United Nations Conference on Healing Through the Arts and developed Flav Teen Magazine. She holds a BA in English with a concentration in secondary education from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and an MA in American
Literature from Brooklyn College .

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

Real Hip-Hop Hustlers, Can You Do This, Son? Pt. 1

July 18, 2007 | Tags: Hip-Hop, rap, Creature, H The Great, Marvo

Whether you see it on TV, hear it on the radio or not, Hip-Hop is everywhere, even hiding in plain site. I got an opportunity to hang out in NYC (last fall) with some talented young rappers who do this successfully as a living, yet you may not even know who they are. The piece is long because it's really more for a magazine (but I had trouble getting it published in print) so I had to divide it into parts. Check out part 1 and enjoy...

Hustling is not a foreign concept to the Hip-Hop culture. Numerous references to “the hustle” and “the struggle” by various rappers can be found on vinyl, disc, and MP3s or anywhere Hip-Hop is sold. Some hustles are illegal, others are legal, but the concept surmounts simply being recorded and transcends into reality. H the Great, Marvo (formerly known as Marvalous) and Creature are living proof.
It’s a warm early-autumn day, and the temperature is a comfortable 68 degrees; a motley crew of New Yorkers and tourists mill about SoHo, traveling from one end to another, window-shopping and making purchases. Amidst the shopping and browsing is a secret world hiding in plain site, the “Hip-Hop Guys” ─ rappers, stationed throughout New York City trying to get people to stop, listen and buy their CDs.

“I see them standing outside every time I’m in the village,” says Stoney, a New York University student. “The Hip-Hop dudes are always trying to get people to buy their CDs but I usually just keep walking. I don’t see how they can do that all day.”
Some people oblige, some don’t, and others suggest they get a real job, not realizing that CD hustlers are the new entrepreneur, or as Creature says, “artistpreneur.”

“Check out my music?” H the Great offers his CD, Great Music, to a young stylish woman who continues looking straight ahead, pretending she doesn’t hear him. “Take some Brooklyn home with you,” he persists unsuccessfully. “Yo, I’m talking to you,” he calls after her firmly only half-joking, bits of his Bed-Stuy swagger surfacing.

Working what he refers to as “the day shift,” he stands in front of The Pottery Barn on the corner of Houston and Lafayette streets. Dressed in a plain white t-shirt and blue jeans, he’s been selling his CDs at this location for about an hour.

“I like to work the strip (up and down Broadway, between SoHo and NoHo). I was just at Canal Street, in front of YRB [Yellow Rat Bastard] for a little while. I was in their magazine last year.”

At this point, three passersby have ignored H the Great.

“They not being nice to me today,” he says. But he persists. For him, this is an everyday job that pays off. “The money I make from this allows me to travel, and I meet people like this. I make so many contacts doing this as opposed to just meeting people at open mics and clubs or whatever ─ They see I’m about my business.”

In addition to being featured in YRB, he appeared in a European Volkswagen commercial last year, went on a 25-city U.S. tour with other underground rappers and appeared in Lil’ Kim’s “Lighters Up” video.

“Now I can add that I’m an actor to my resume,” he says.

After more coaxing, his alluring Bed-Stuy demeanor exudes confidence, and finally, he begins to reel people in.
His first customer in that location was a twenty-something-year-old man. He was stylish in a hipster sort of way and appeared to be Middle Eastern. H the Great, who happens to be Muslim, muttered something in Arabic and the young man became increasingly more interested. Always prepared, H the Great keeps his CD player handy for situations where people want to listen to his music before making a purchase ─ this being one such case. The young man listened attentively and asked for a price. H The Great usually requests a “donation” of $10, sometimes more or less depending on the person’s generosity and aura. In this case, the man donated $5.

“Some is better than none,” H The Great says humbly, “You see how I got him though?” He laughs.
Although H the Great sells his CDs seven days a week, he is his own publicist, booker, manager, accountant and A&R rep.

“I like this because I’m my own boss. I don’t have to switch up my voice on some ‘hey how you doing’ (speaks in an extremely proper tone), I can wear what I want, I can be myself and I get to travel. You know, I can go anywhere. I just came back from Virginia yesterday. I just take CDs and pay for my way while I’m down there.”

His favorite place is New York City, however sometimes territory is an issue. The Virgin Mega Store at Union Square (on 14th Street) is a popular area where the rules of competition can include more than verbal sales pitches and persuasive bravado. The area sometimes gets cluttered, which sometimes breeds persuasion tactics for top sales shine.

“Me, personally, I don’t be on 14th Street like that ’cause them other cats don’t know how to act,” he said.
H the Great didn’t go into full detail about why he sometimes avoids 14th Street, but Marvo and Creature elaborate. They are selling their CDs on the other side of town, in the West Village. They’re working “the night shift” in front of Fat Beats (a premiere Hip-Hop music store in New York) at around 8:00. They each have their own individual projects but they sell their CDs together.
“Fourteenth Street is somebody else’s thing during the day and they have a different sales approach than we do. It’s a little bit more aggressive.”

Creature, deciding that Marvo is being too diplomatic, says, “Let’s be honest, they’re very barbaric and Neanderthal…I don’t know, people have said that they’ve been extremely aggressive and barbaric in their tactics.

He likens the unspecific measures to those sometimes used in the pursuit of the American dream.

“Who am I to say? They said America was built on barbaric tactics. So, I’m not going to say anything, but I don’t want to be associated with that kind of behavior.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

I Don't Wanna Get Over Hip-Hop!

May 02, 2007 | Tags: Hip-Hop, Illmind, Fresh Daily

Fresh Daily is a Brooklyn emcee whose video, Get Over (produced by illmind), has received over 20,000 hits on youtube. Some people have been hating, of course, but a lot of people have been feeling it. I perosnally think the song is dope and I like how the video is on some real throwback broke shit. The artist did what he had to do to make shit happen. He got a camera, some basic editing equipment and got his voice out there. Hip-Hop ain't dead ya'll, in fact there is a revival going on but you just gotta get up out the matrix. Check it out:

Fresh Daily's Myspace

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

	August 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31
« Jul

Use these links on your blogs, messageboard posts, etc.
URL
HTML
BBCode

Your Name: (Required)
Friends Email Addresses: (Comma Seperated)
Message:
Verification Code:

Use these links on your blogs, messageboard posts, etc.
URL
HTML
BBCode

Your Name: (Required)
Friends Email Addresses: (Comma Seperated)
Message:
Verification Code:

Blogs

Lyrical PMS

Sistas Speak: Letters to Hip-Hop

Share Blog Link

Real Hip-Hop Hustlers, Can You Do This, Son? Pt. 1

Share Blog Link

I Don't Wanna Get Over Hip-Hop!

Share Blog Link