These letters are in response to the concert review found in
FNV Newsletter December 22 1997 edition...

I just couldn't help but ask you what's up with your tyrade against cursing on stage? {FNV Newsletter..} What is "real hip-hop" if performers have to alter their language to appease under age audiences? These kids in attendance most likely have Puff's album. They and their parents are well aware of the great deal of raw language on the album. I'm sure they expected what they got. Hip-hop is not (was not originally) intended to cater to the masses and spoon feed them what "the man" wants them to hear. It's about telling it like it is and having a good time while doing it. If you "wish rappers would limit their use" of the word nigga and other curses, maybe you should work for C. Delores Tucker or Tipper Gore instead of writing a newsletter covering hip-hip! Thank you for keeping us up to date on the latest info though...

Jennifer K. Krasnik

Jennifer...

My tirade against cursing on stage is due to the fact that Puff influences his young fans to behave in a similar fashion... I don't buy this 'I'm keeping it real crap..not when you encourage a whole audience to start yelling.. 'Fuck You Bitch'... The message that this so called positive individual sends out is that speaking that way is ok... When L'il Kim starts telling a multi-ethnic audience to yell 'Fuck You Nigga' and I see young white and Asian kids yelling that.. It translates into them thinking it's ok to use such an offensive term at any point in time... Had L'il Kim or Puff got the audience to yell out 'Fuck You Jews' or Fuck You Faggots'.. their careers would've been short lived... Why? Because those two communities aren't about having folks disrespect them like that...

I recall the severe penalties suffered by Cypress Hill when they came to town and their opening act tried to hype the crowd by yelling out 'What are you guys men or fags..?' The result of that little outburst was Cypress Hill being banned from all sorts of airwaves and them being forced to write a letter of apology even though it wasn't them yelling theoffensive remarks... Within the Jewish community... I can't tell you how many times artists have been called to the carpet for doing or saying things that were considered anti-semetic...Personally that's how things should be... There's no excuse for us as hip hoppers to be offensive... Puff wasn't trying to make some sort ofd political statement..when he yelled 'Fuck You Bitch'.. Nor was L'il Kim when she yelled out 'Fuck You Nigga'... nor was Lil Kim when she yelled 'Fuck You Nigga'.. It was the mark of ignorance... and to be honest I expect the best when it comes to rappers especially those who are African American... Puff should've changed up once he realized tyhere were all these young kids out in the audience... That's called being responsible.. That's called keeping it real...

Davey D


Without a doubt Fluff Daddy has helped destroy Hip Hop. He exploited his "friends'" death to bring out a new band which no one heard of until after he died and they made a nice tribute song "We'll always love Big Poppa". This might be true but you missed the point. 2. Too much useage of designer names in songs. When did Hip Hop become all about what you're wearing? (Verasce, D&G, DKNY etc...) 3. Has anyone else noticed that most of the raps you here on the radio or on TV are the same ones with maybe a different beat behind it. All I ever hear is Donnie Brasco and Cristal mentioned in every song. 4. Fake ass rappers who do not know what the hell they are rapping about. I'd rather see an artist come out and rap about what he/she knows instead of going straight for the gangsta rap. It's cool if you're not. 5. We need more original beats again! Samples are cool but not in every song and certainly not 2 or 3 used within the same song.

Soundwave8


Wassup from over here in London!, about the Jay-z situation, now this isn't just any old rumour. Blackspot from vibe magazine is a weekly correspondent to DJ 279's hip-hop radio show. He gave us news on the DL about how Jay-z bought a beat from Premier and totally dissed bad boy, Puffy and Foxy Brown. Personally I think Jay-z is dope and it was effed up how puff shook his birthday party. Anyway, Jay-z decided not to release it because of the trouble it would bring, so he destroyed the master copy. Blackspot said he would try and look around for it because someone must have it on tape, it should be floating about the underground.
On the topic of beef records, after Cormega was wronly dropped by the Firm and replaced by mediocre Nature, he made a record called "F$@! Nas and Nature", if you haven't heard it you can check it out on Hiphopsite.com. It is so slammin'.
All I've told you is true. In my opinion you should put in your next newsletter. Peace out Davey, keep it hip-hop.

Peace,
Da Therapist
(14-year old emcee)


Davey,

This issue was very informative and I really enjoyed it. I even got some new subscibers to your newsletter after forwarding it to freinds. They told me they didnt know the whole story about Ghostface or the Puffy incident/concert but after reading the newsletter they were newly informed and up to date.
Once again thanks for a phat issue and keep it up, and I dont know if you knew David Garcia from Victor of KMEL but that is very tragic loss not only for Victor but the whole community wether it be the hip-hop community or not. I am gonna tune into your program on the independent berkely station this Friday Night and see whats up with the topics that night and try to call in also.

Much Respect
Steve Mitchell
age :19
location: Napa, California


The fuck ? Why the hell did you pay 50 dollars for that concert ? they were selling front row for 55 dollars at my school . I personalluy think bad boy sucks shit and 2pac dont stop.

HSIAOE

Hsiaoe....

I didn't pay 50 bucks for the ticket.. It was given to me... However, like him or not it's important to check out these shows.. Puff's visibility impacts the way the rest of the world will perceive and interact with hip hop...

Davey D


Davey D:

I would really like to talk with you at some point. I, like many, have read your web site through and through and now after reading this piece on Puffy, it really tells me you know what's really going on in thsi hip hop/rap/make money scene and damn, it's greatly appreciated. I am trying to get a show on KUSF (my proposal was received very well, and am now waiting for a day and time) and I would like to have you on as a guest. Your perspective is amazing, unique and we need to hear a lot more of it.

I was supposed to go to the Puffy show with Beni B's hip hop coalition, but tickets didn't work out or whatever. After reading your review, I have to say it almost makes me want to cry. I've been into hip hop forever (seriously, grew up on K-DAY down in LA since I was 8) and the whole "Fuck You Bitch" thing makes me very very angry. Especially because I want to feel respect for the new female MCs but that shit is ridiculous, you would never hear MC Lyte or Queen Latifah say that bullshit. All this and you know that Lil Kim, Foxy Brown etc, are talented! They don't *need* to perpetrate this nonsense, they really don't and yet they choose to. And I just want to know what the young girls are supposed to think of themselves. Already, females are told they aint shit in all forms of life - from school, to societal attitudes to billboards etc.

Damn, that's all I can say, Davey D..........D A M N


What's up,

I found your definition of Hip-Hop page very interesting. I believe that MCing was termed rapping because in the '70's rapping basically meant talking and MCing was done in a talking type style. (which you more or less said in your article). I also think that the term MC came about because the original rappers were usually DJ's and they were the Masters of Ceremonies at the parties.

Not that you asked, but here is my definition of Hip-Hop...

Hip-Hop of course is the 4 elements or aspects or corners as it is sometimes called. The elements are B-boying, eMCeeing, graffiti art, & the root of the culture is the DeeJay.

B-boy/girl is thought to mean Boogie-boy or Break-boy which is the most popular definition which I believe was first used by Kool Herc. B-boying is more widely known as breakdancing to the general public. But B-boying is more than breakdance it includes other forms of dance as well, like popping, robot, locking, strutting, etc.
The real definition of MC is Master of Ceremony but alot of rappers use Microphone Controller or something similar. Rapping was started by DJ's that would say little rhymes over the records they were playing to get the party hyped.

Graffiti art or graffiti wrtiting started with the tag(a name written on a wall basically saying I was here). As time went on the tag became more and more elaborate. Taggers would write their names in big, multi-colored letters that often had some kind of special effects added on them. This kind of tag was called a piece which is short for masterpiece. Graffiti art is often called aerosol art because of the use of spraypaint.

DJ stands for Disc Jockey. The DJ is the root of Hip-Hop culture. The DJ created the Hip-Hop sound by mixing and sampling beats and adding scratches and tricks to the music. DJ's also started rapping as I stated earlier. DJ's often refer to themselves as turntablists. The 4 aspects I wrote about are unquestionably what is Hip-Hop. But there are other things that may or may not be Hip-Hop according to who you talk to. The following is my definition of Hip-Hop beyond the 4 aspects...

I believe that gangsta rap, Miami bass, go-go, electro-funk and breakbeat music are all forms of Hip-Hop, even though the artists may not represent Hip-Hop as a whole. And just because you listen to one of these forms of music doesn't necasarilly make you a Hip-Hopper. I don't believe house, techno, trance or whatever is Hip-Hop but I believe it evolved from Hip-Hop.

Hip-Hop is not just a black thing, it's not even a black and hispanic thing. It belongs to all people. Most early Hip-Hoppers were black, Peurto Rican and poor whites. On the west coast there were alot of Mexicans and Pacific Islanders into it. Hip-Hop started as something for the poor. It didn't take much money to be involved in it. The music was made cheaply not like the millions of dollars they put into a rap song now. I said it was for the poor but that doesn't mean that it excludes those that are more well off. Various forms of street culture are a part of Hip-Hop, they may not be Hip-Hop but they are part of the experience.

Well I'm rambling on, I really don't have a clear thought as to what to write. I can go on about Hip-Hop. But I think I'll stop at this.

Peace,
Jélo-Roc
-graffiti writer, ex-bboy and part time mc SWANK LIFE CREW ICU
jloroc@usa.net


I AM JUST WRITING TO GIVE YOU YOUR PROPS THIS VERY INFORMATIVE ARTICLE! I'M JUST SITTING HERE READING LIKE "DAMN" I ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR ARTICLES HOWEVER I CAN'T ALWAYS RELATE TO THEM CAUSE THEIR ABOUT BAY AREA RAPPERS OR OTHER RAPPERS I DON'T TO MUCH LISTEN TO. BUT THIS NEWSLETTER ABOUT PUFFY AND GHOSTFACE HAD ME GLUED TO MY COMPUTER, AND I JUST WANTED TO SAY GOOD JOB!

ms. dee


Hello!

I'm a guy from Sweden (Erik) and i am going to do some work on the history of hip hop in my Englishcourse. I am very pleased with the material I found on your page, but I want more...MORE! Do you know where I can get any?

Peace
Erik


Dear Eric

There are several articles within the website www.daveyd.com where you can get some info.. Check the articles section... Also check out the section entitled 'What is Hip Hop'... Finally there are several books worth checking out... two of them are from your native England... they are entitled.. 'Rap Attack.. African Jive To New York Hip Hop' and 'Rap Attack.. African Rap To Global Hip Hop' by David Toop... These two books are quite thorough... Another book worth peeping is called It Ain't Nothing But A Salary' which chronicles the history of west coast hip hop... I can't remember the name of the author...

Peace For Now
Davey D


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