Hip-Hop/Rap Questions

• How long have you been teaching in the Music department?

2 years.

• What is your educational background?

Catholic grade school, Jesuit high school, Duke University undergrad with a bachelor's degree in music of high distinction, Brandeis University for Master's Degree. • Do you enjoy Hip-Hop/Rap? Why or why not?

I love it more than any other music in the world, because it speaks directly to me. There is no question in rap of whether or not there is "art for art's sake"; such a distinction is meaningless to someone like 2Pac.

• What one person in Hip-Hop/Rap that has inspired you the most? Why?

2Pac, because he always understood what I was going through. The fact that a Black, Californian, poor, convicted felon from L.A. can rap, "I wake up every day and ask myself / Is life worth living, should I blast myself," and I a white, Pennsylvanian, upper middle class white guy from Philly can hear it, and realize that I've subconsciously asked myself that same question every day during my 6 years of clinically-diagnosed anxiety and depression, is why I love rap.

• Do you feel Hip-Hop/Rap has a positive or negative impact on society? Explain.

It has a positive effect, mostly, although like everything, it has a downside too. It's just like democracy: depends on what uses you put it towards. It's positive effect is because it does things like this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/hip-hop-can-help-treat-depression-psychiatrists-claim-9790582.html

• What do you know about the beginnings of Hip-Hop/Rap in the United States?

It started in the late 1970s Bronx by the Black community, looking to add masters-of-ceremonies-type introductions over disco beats. Eventually, the drumbreaks of disco were divorced from disco, and turned into songs on their own. Black traditions of playing the Dozens, public mano a mano verbal showdowns, and signing, were then combined and added on top, in the manner of Jamaican vocal toasts, with its similar tradition of boasts. I think it indirectly comes from traditions of the African griot more than has been documented...basically, it's communal music, which is why rap music was made by the Black/Latino community, and why classical music and its own heady idealism is within the distinctly European tradition. Obviously, this is glossing, but this is how those communities largely function, and contributes to misunderstandings between the two.

• What topics do you see discussed in the genre? How do you feel about these topics?

For my own money, I speak about the musical parts of rap.

• What clothing styles have been associated with Hip-Hop/Rap?

Throwback/jailhouse/basketball. Not a sneaker head at all, so can't really tackle this one.

• Why do you think Hip-Hop/Rap became as popular as it is?

It became as popular as it is because it treats music like how a lot of listeners think of it: as the most important thing in the world, that gets you through the day. John Cage can write 4'33" for classical audiences, but rappers don't experiment like that — that's why MF DOOM & Aesop Rock are such outliers in the genre.

• How would you define Hip-Hop? How would you define Rap?

HIp Hop is the music of rap; rap and Hip Hop, although interchanged, are actually different. Rap is the vocal idiom most commonly spit over Hip Hop beats, although it's not necessary.

Hip hop isn't definable as a genre, but as an aesthetic. It's aesthetic is "Anything, from anywhere." That is, you can draw influences form anywhere, as long as they're dope. That's why sampling is so big in rap, and why rap is, to me, so vibrant. Classical musicians freaked out when jazz harmonies were incorporate din the early 20th century; Hip Hop musicians wouldn't have batted an eye. It's like 9th Wonder says: "If all you listen to is Hip Hop, then you're not Hip Hop at all." Samples come from jazz, classical, soul, R&B, wherever, which is why HH has stayed on top — it takes the best from other musics without losing its own identity. Rock used to do this; the Beatles White album had blues/rock/reggae/ska/psychedelic/experimental/classical. Then, the genre ossified, to the point where the Strokes cracked under the pressure of reviving "America's art form."

• How has Hip-Hop/Rap affected other genres of music?

Other genres now feel a distinct need to deal directly with the concerns of their listeners, not in artsy ways, but as everyday concerns that those artists themselves feel. Also, obviously, Justin Bieber felt like he had to rap...Same for the "Thiking Out Loud" English songwriter guy.

• What events in Hip-Hop/Rap’s history stand out to you?

Kanye interrupting Taylor, Kanye calling out George Bush, 2Pac being beaten by the cops, Notorious B.I.G. selling drugs, Jay-Z starting Rockefeller, Theodore The Grand Wizzard being yelled at his mom for playing music too loud and so inventing DJ scratching.

• In your experience, how has Hip-Hop/Rap evolved over time?

To me, rap has never changed in any important way...They got better at mixing, but other than that, rap itself hasn't questioned its own morals. Maybe the gravitation to AutoTune in late Lil Wayne, and Future/Young Thug/whoever nowadays, bespeaks more of a focus on melody, but I don't know if I'd go that far. This is because it's guiding maxim was present at the start, already, even in Bambaataa's borrowing of an African moniker to name his NYC collective (Zulu nation): "anything, from anywhere." It's just that that maxim is endlessly re-inventanle, so why change it?

• What is Hip-Hop/Rap like today?

See previous answer.

• How do you see Hip-Hop/Rap changing in the near-future?

I can't say, because I intend on making my name off it, haha!

Peace man! Hope this helps...hit me at [email protected], too. I'm also over at www.rapanalysis.com.

Peace,

Martin

/r/hiphop101 Thread