Hip Hop: Bringing people together with music and experience
In class on Tuesday we focused a great deal on Grandmaster Flash. I had heard several of the songs in the selection Professor Kun played, but never altogether like this at once. The music sounded like a lot of the remixes I hear today on the radio. All the songs may have been different, but they were strung together and were connected through a constant beat that kept the flow of the music going.
Tricia Rose was also quoted in class by saying that “Hip Hop replicates and re-imagines the experiences of urban life.” Different music was strung together to create a new kind of music and in a way old experiences were strung together to create a new experience for Grandmaster Flash’s song. Part of the reason why I think people connect so well with music is because music stems from our own reality. The songwriters and artists create something that people can relate to and share their own experiences with each other. Music, while it all may be different, strings people together and each song made creates a new experience for new individuals every time a song is played.
I think this connects well with the reading One Eye Open because Jay-Z talks about how rap was made in a way that strings a beat and a bunch of different lines of lyrics together. Writing your own lines may be something that’s personal, but the music brings people together and creates a new experience.
Music is also something that is constantly evolving. Jay-Z talks a lot about how writing music is something that was constant for him. He describes in One Eye Open about his first influence from a kid at School named Slate who completely transformed through rapping. He thought to himself that he could accomplish the same thing and the words began to flow onto paper. He describes after seeing Slate, “that night I started writing rhymes in my spiral notebook. From the beginning it was easy, it was a constant flow. For days I filled page after page. Then I’d bang out a beat on a table, my bedroom window, whatever had a flat surface, and practice from the time I woke up in the morning until I went to sleep.”
Hip Hop is something that is constantly being transformed by those who create the music. It’s a constant flow of words, rhymes, rhythms, beats, and expression. It’s also something that comes from the inspiration of all different artists to make one sound or one genre that people can identify with. It’s all about the experience.