Happy NewYear
Yes according to folks at her record label she's gay..Also she has a song on her album entitled 'Girlfriend' where she says she's gay....She does this song with Michelle N'degelio [hope spelling is correct]
Davey D
Nick.... Hip Hop is global... Yes I live here in the Bay.. and I love and actually do give support to a lot of Bay Area artists... But if I do a poll and people vote the way they do... ya gotta accept it and step up your game... If any of the above mentioned artists is doing what they need to do... why didn't people vote for them.. They voted for small time independent groups like Company Flow... As for Puffy... like'em or not he markets himself.. JT and Rappin'4Tay and all those guys are mad cool.. But like I told them and I'll say it again.. the world is much bigger then the Bay... And they have to play the game in such a way that they get their name out there..Again out of 4000 plus responses.. why didn't the Bay get a lot of votes.. With a big ass message board and over 200-250 thousand weekly hits.. why not more Bay Area mentions? It's an open forum and folks are equally able to participate.. so why not some and why others?
Davey D, Your hip-hop news does NOT tell me anything. You might as well call it RAP news instead of Hip-hop news because it does NOT explain about the culture!!! Where is the B-boyin' news, where is the graffiti news and where is the turntablists news..??? Same with The Source, Rappages, etc.. Leo Libiran Blast 1 BLAST Foundation (650)373-6207 reelmc@hotmail.com That's true... I don't cover all aspects of the culture... Only because it takes enough time to cover what I do cover... I would certainly love to cover b-boying and all that.. But I don't roam in those circles as I once did..Hence my info would be short changed.... Sorry to disappoint.. If you got some info let me know...
Davey D
Dear Davey D the orgin of hip hop is much more complex (since it is a sub culture) than you present it in your nice and neat presentation. to try and link forms of expression in the 20 th century to hundreds or thousands of years ago is silly even though it does seem the pieces fit, like trying to link egyption writtings with graffitti. Dear JugganutzYou can never deny the roots of something... Hip Hop's 4 elemenst are rooted in something that began years ago... Just because it doesn't seem to have any connection does not make it unrooted.. Jugganutz wrote: even if hip hop culture is black culture is it possible to no longer be black cultue? In this day most people involved in authentic hip hop are not black. Davey D wrote: What is authentic hip hop...? Hip Hop like any other form of Black expression is constantly evolving.. because it's rooted in the pain, suffering and subsequent expression and creativity from those who feel a need to let loose..In the 40s and 50s Black expression was bebop.. In the 60s Black expression was soul music.. In the 70s & 80s it was hip hop.. and then rap which is one of the several musical expressions within hip hop.. So now in the 90s thanks to mass marketing and videos and other forms of media.. you have kids who chosse to adapt a particular form of expression.. Oftentimes these kids look at that form of expression as art... which is ok.. But it must never be forgotten that hip hop was borne out of pain.. and oppression.. It was a contnuation of Black people's ever evolving expressions... Oftentimes that form of expression is a reaction to various social and economic conditions impacting a community's life... Hence in the 70s and 80s kids were looking for affirmation [props] so they either played sports or did hip hop.. or they went around and acted like stick up kids.. All these things got them respect...which was a form of payment.. Nowadays you can actually make money doing cewrtain 'musical things'.. With that money kids go out and buy things like fancy cars and nice gear to get affirmation or respect... Hence they've abandoned doing hip hop for the roar of the crowd and went out and tried making money... Back in the days.. people didn't do hip hop for the sake of being 'artists' or true to a culture.. Hip Hop wasn't even seen as a culture.. If Flash , Bam or anyone else could've gotten paid.. what Puffy gets paid they would've and in many instances they did...I know my crew did and so did a whole lot of other folks.. Back then in order to get paid you had to present your craft a certain way.. I remember all the old crews trying to be like some of the old superstar groups.. like Cold Crush Brother s or Flash etc.. They may not have bitten them line for line.. But they did step their game up and adhere to a particular concept or trend.. For example.. In and around '77 or '78 folks were just rapping... Kids would rap at a party for 5 hours straight.. Flash and Cold Crush and Fantastic Romantic started doing routines... and sets which didn't go indefinitely... As they got succesful in terms of getting their name out and getting props.. Other lesser known crews followed suit and started doing routines and timed sets.. That is no different then what goes on today..Folks have this romantic notion that hip hop was some magical thing and everybody was a rennassance man who was deeply into art.. No.. people were frustrated and was using hip hop as a way to either get known or ideally escape the ghetto... The movements, style and design of expression is rooted in African culture...Now today Black expression may no longer be hip hop as we have come to define it.. It maybe something else.. Or it may be emerging... We'll know as time goes by... Remember Blues was a form of Black expression..It was the hip hop of it's day.. and in fact is a forefather to modern day rap.. Nowadays more whites are into Blues then Blacks.. It doesn't mean that Blues is not African based.. It simply means that as oppression contnues to impact our communities we've found new ways to get down and claim who were are as a people.... Jugganutz wrote: it is sad to say but true, that most blacks have given up the hip hop movement for the rewards of a music contract. and what they have given up is expressing themselves with positive energy through the four elements , which is the definition of hip hop. Davey D wrote: There was a lot of positive energy surrounding hip hop.. But it was always accompanied by violence and other negative things.. I had been to too many parties where kids were shot, beaten up.. equipment stolen.. [I had that happen to my crew] etc... Going to a party in the park was not always the safest thing to do...And not everyone who pioneered hip hop came in peace.. Flash had the Casanova Crew and the Nine Crew.. Bam had Zulu Nation and Gestapo.. and those kids weren't into preserving hip hop back then.. They were straight up gangstas.. who were likely to rob you.. especially The Casanovas.. 10-15 years later folks can look back and see they had a treasure that attracted a world wide following so now everyone wants to straighten up and protect hip hop.. which is great.. But lets not have a revisionist history...
On 1/15/98, Jugganutz wrote: im back again to correct you. i respect you because you seem very educated and articulate but to even consider a question like "is hip hop dying?" is an positive indicator that you are far removed from the hip hop movement (if you were ever involved in the first place). hip hop is not dead. and if it seems dead your not involved in it. theres great things going on in hip hop now and its a shame your missing it all. Dear Jugganutz, Involved? Very much so.. My roots go back to '77, '76.. when I ran with two crews... TDK [Total Def Crew] which was based out of Co-op City in the Bronx and The Avengers Crew which was based outta Bed Stuy Brooklyn and Marble Hill/Prominade section of The Bronx... I was an emcee back in those days... I stayed involved ever since.. when I moved to Cali I begain djying.. and later started doing hip hop shows on radio.. and writing about it.. My two hundred page thesis dealt specifically with the historical aspects hip hop culture and in fact was one of the first thesis's to be written on the topic..[ 1985-86] It was something that other students from all around the country quoted from.. Later on I hosted one of the first hip hop documentaries 'Rap City Rhapsody'.... ['89] My roots go way back.. Since I was an emcee and dj I never really got into graf and break dancing.. When I ask if hip hop dying it most certainly is... It's no longer the prominent form of expression for young brothas and sistas coming up... Rap was for a while a main one.. But that's even changing... Brothas ain't break dancing and doing grafitti as a collective community.. While we can point to some folks as examples of hip hop's contnuation.. It's dead in comparison when I came up seeing everyone participate in one way or another.. It's kinda like saying...the Blues movement is still alive... No it;'s not at least not within Black America... even though there are still active Black Blues artists.. My primary concern about hip hop is how it is relationship to us as a people...[African Americans] I'm trying to follow that lead and perspective..
Much props for reppin' hip-hop on a worldwide basis, I'm just annoyed that cats from the underground didn't play a bigger part, I guess that's democracy for you, just kidding! Thankyou to all you heads that voted for Tim Westwood's radio show, he has frequent guests on the show and always links up with Funkmaster Flex for a new york hot 97 exchange with many emcees guesting. People dis him widely here(especially in hip-hop connection-also people dis his race because he's white tryin' to be black). The only criticism of Tim could be that his show has rapidly weakened this year, he has mad mix tapes with the underground but he's swinging towards the mainstream a little. He also doesn't represent British hip-hop nearly as much as he should. He even has a beef with Blackspot(from vibe magazine). To me the best hip-hop radio show has to be DJ 279's "Friday nite flava". It is only recieved in London but he plays strickly underground dope hip-hop and play lots of British hip-hop. Blackspot went straight to him as a correspondent as soon as he left westwood. He is a driving force in pushing British hip-hop to the masses, look at the sources 100th issue you'll see his name in the issue on London. He is about the four elements. Thank you for the awards, it's nice to have something like that once in a while. peace Davey D, keep it hip-hop.
"Finally we have DJ Tim Westwood .... Major props to Tim for representing hip hop to the fullest..." Tim Westwood is the only DJ in the United Kingdom to have a National Radio show, He has all the ocntacts (though is notoriously childish if someone recieves a record before him ---- he might not play it atall)..He uses a gay fake accent and chats nonsense and dick-rides artists and his studio guests, He appears not to understand any innovation in hiphop, and his vocabulary consists largely off idiotic soundbites he has heard from various records.... ie. "yeah, slammin track, all the buttaz, pure flava, baybee for dayz, for all the brothers on lock down, we on a red eye tip, nasty, oh my days, pure flava, we got it going on" In essence Tim Westwood play little UK hiphop, failing to support his own, though sometimes organises showcases of two unsigned demo tracks a night (he gets 5 hours a week)....he overplays pop records, though you do get rather nice tracks too.....he has some dope connections allowing NY and other locations mixs on his show...and he does get most artists who enter UK from america to come on air....but he does sink to shitty levels, such as in an enterprise to fil his pockets, broadcasting regularly str8 from a nightclub night he hosted, at the same time as his show...thus gaining two paycheques, whilst allowing other djs (some rnb & jungle) to take up most of the hiphop time.... I used to listen to his show every week, yet i have not listened to his show for over 8 months (well, i caught one). Just a little information....oh yeah, the wu-tang, also gave the worst performances ever..every uk concert theyve ever donw, a maximum of 4 artists have been, one time only ODB appeared for the full line-up, for 30 minutes...
peace BX-DNM
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