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The jury is still out on the new technological developments that allow DJs to scratch MP3’s with vinyl dubplates. Rane’s Serato DJ software is far and away the leader in space. And with endorsements from high profile DJs like Qbert and crews like the 5th Platoon, it doesn’t look like the popularity of this software will abate any time soon. In fact, every major DJ equipment manufacturer have come out with scratch software of their own. Stanton’s Final Scratch are a distant second and Native Instrument’s Traktor Scratch is quickly catching up to Serato as one of the most popular DJ software packages.
With all this new techology, lugging a crate of vinyl to the competition has become a thing of the past. No longer does a DJ have to break his or her back. All you need today is a laptop, a midi interaface that acts as both the computers sound card and passes the signal from the turntables to the computer while manipulating the platter. Some say the art of the scratch DJ has been lost. The nuances of turntablism have gone the way of the dinosaur. The true sound of vinyl hitting the needle and inadvertent errors that turn out to be new tricks, we might be losting something, while many up and coming DJs are turning out new tricks that make the old sound pale in comparison.
New technology has always permeated DJ culture. We can’t be afriad to look to new tools to carry us in the future. With every generation, while we may lose something, we build on the past and bring new ideas to the forefront that will continue to propel DJ culture for many years to come.
As the third chronological element of hip-hop, b-boying (or breakdancing for the commercial folks whom are street-impaired) has a rich history within hip-hop culture. As with the other three elements (Rap, Graffiti, DJing), b-boying was founded on the principles of skill, originality and expression. A highly difficult and acrobatic form of dance, it’s not the sort of thing you see performed at every party; well not in the USA at least.
Back in the day (late 70s and early 80s), you couldn’t go anywhere in New York City without seeing b-boys and b-girls battling; whether at a house party, a dance club, the blacktop basketball court, or even in the subway stations. B-boying was all the craze-if you weren’t breakin, poppin’ or lockin’, then you just weren’t hip-hop. Started within the base house parties of the South Bronx, b-boying quickly spread across the country and was easily the most popular form of dance. Fast forward two decades later, rappers are dominating pop culture in America and the b-boy element is all but forgotten.
Presently, as the commercialism (and negative influence) of rap continues to flood hip-hop culture, pioneering art forms such as DJing, graffiti and b-boying continue to diminish in the U.S. Abroad, however, in countries such as Germany, South Africa, Russia and especially Japan, b-boying is as popular as it was in 1985 New York City.
There seems to be a high level of respect given to the b-boy art form in foreign countries. Japanese b-boy crews have taken breakdancing to new heights; performing much more acrobatic stunts and awe-inspiring aerial moves. As with pretty much everything else created in America, the Japanese took it and made it better! How is it that the average teenage German hip-hop fan regards someone like Crazy Legs as a God of b-boying, but the average teenage so-called hip-hop fan in New York City doesn’t even know who Crazy Legs is? Afrika Bambaataa can sell out an arena in China but cant get a single booking in Manhattan. There is something seriously wrong with that.
Make no mistake, b-boying does have a strong underground existence in the States; and seems to be gaining a slow but steady level of popularity among the younger generation of hip-hop heads. However, domestic b-boys are not getting anywhere near the love and/or respect that they deserve from the city/country of the element’s origin.
On the subject of emceeing, easily the strongest/most popular element of hip-hop, there is a significant generational divide which seems to be widening y the minute. The original hip-hop generation (early 80s) are arguing that, despite the huge amounts of money generated by rap’s current emcees, the music is all but devoid of any creativity or originality. One could make a plausible argument that all that’s needed to succeed in a career of emceeing in today’s industry is to know the right people who have enough money to market the emcee to death. Whenever a person can make songs like “chicken noodle soup” and “supaman” that not only get top-billing on the radio but also top the charts, this is when it becomes quite apparent that skill, originality, and/or street credibility are NOT necessary to succeed. Its just not that hard to get your music over-marketed nowadays; gone are the days when radio DJs played records that were dope BECAUSE they were dope. Now, they play the songs that certain record companies pay them to play. And only 2 or 3 record companies own pretty much all the artists so we wind up hearing a continuous shuffle of the same songs on all the radio stations. Again, all that’s needed is marketing.
Back in the day, an emcee had to prove himself/herself in the streets first; they were judged based on their lyrics and their DJs. Today, emcees seem to have forgotten (or maybe never knew) what the word “lyric” means. Furthermore, today’s rappers don’t even use DJs anymore; a slap in the face to pioneer DJs and emcees who have paved the way for these newbies to rock.
Now, on the flipside, many of today’s hip-hop fans believe there is a justification for the way things are; they call it “evolution”. The argument is that all “old school” music needs to stay in the past and that critics of today’s rap are “haters”. Critics are simply envious of the height of success reached by today’s rappers. Pioneers and old-school rappers are bitter because they’re broke.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion/theory, but lets break it down! First, the term “evolution” denotes the “advancement” or “improvement” of something. I think its quite plausible to argue that, in terms of lyrics, creativity, and originality-the founding principles of rap-going from Kool G Rap to Young Jeezy is hardly evolutionary in ANY sense! As far as all the “Old School” talk; well do rock n’ roll fans say these sort of things about their pioneers? Have you ever spoken to a rock fan who didn’t know AND have the utmost respect for The Beatles? Yet, out of 25 teenagers asked about their knowledge of KRS-1, only 2 claimed to have maybe heard of him. This seems a bit unacceptable.
Critics or so-called “haters” of today’s rap seem to just be very irate a couple of specific facts: 1) pioneers are not receiving their due respect for an art form they created and 2) today’s folks feel that an abundance of money justifies the total dilution of a sacred art form. These points seem like more than reasonable motivation for real hip-hop enthusiasts, not haters, to be pissed off.
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