There are three things I want to do in today’s blog post. The first is introduce myself, since it is my first (it’s also going to be a fairly long blog post to make up for not doing one last week). The second and third both pertain to the readings we had for this week, specifically discussing the history of hip-hop (at least in New York) and Hispanic hip-hop.
So firstly, the introduction. My name is Brett Zeiler, and I’m a senior at Drury studying Criminology and Psychology (so a lot of my blogs will likely be related to those fields in some way). I’m a Taurus, I enjoy long walks on the beach…wait a second, none of this really matters. What does matter is the question most of you are probably (hopefully?) asking yourselves. “Brett, what does a suburban white guy who is the son of a doctor and a lawyer, attending a small private university, know about hip-hop?” Well, kind reader, the simple answer to your question is very little. That’s also the complicated answer, but that’s neither here nor there. I don’t actually know much about hip-hop outside of the very limited amount I have listened to in my life. However, what I’ve liked what I’ve listened to, and that’s one of the reasons I’m taking this class. I hope to learn a lot more about this genre of music I respect and enjoy. So here we go into the magical world of hip-hop blogging (that’s blogging about hip-hop, not blogging in hip-hop, although that would be neat…).
The first thing I want to mention about this week’s reading is how glad I am that there was some history in it. My knowledge of history is sketchy at best, and it only gets worse the closer to modern day that we get. So when an entire excerpt for the week was almost entirely about the history of hip-hop in New York City in the 70s I did my best to engulf it all so I could have some context to place all the information I’ll be obtaining this semester in. It was about what I expected, a story of the pain and suffering that minorities in New York City had to go through in the 70s. And while I knew that happened, and obviously has been happening for a long time, the sheer scope of it amazes me. And while some of it may have been some author bias, which I am usually pretty quick to catch, I don’t think I cared with this piece. When people have it as terribly as the minorities in NYC at that time, I’m actually ok with some stuff (possibly) being over dramatized. As far as I’m concerned, we still owe all of those people big.
The second thing I wanted to talk about today was Hispanic hip-hop. To be honest, it never really occurred to me that there was Hispanic hip-hop. I guess I always figured that it existed; I had just never heard any. And when I go back and think about it, since a fair amount of hip-hop is related back to gangs and the fact that there are just as many (just as bad) Hispanic gangs as there are black gangs it really makes sense that Hispanic hip-hop would exist. And the readings for this week really got me to thinking about the subject, and a lot of questions (warning: some rhetorical) and musings that I have on the subject. For one, it seems rough that while blacks were only fighting against/rebelling against whites, the Hispanics had to fight against the same whites AND the blacks in making their music. Were there any Hispanic rappers who had songs about having to rise up against their black oppressors? It also seems odd to me that while Hispanics were not only accepted, and in some cases glorified, in some aspects of hip-hop (break dancing/graffiti) that they had such a hard time getting into the area of music. Is music just considered the god-tier of hip-hop, with the others areas falling behind? Also, I know that they did talk about the reasons that it took so long for actual Spanish hip-hop (read: in Spanish) to take off, but I was under the impression that most hip-hop was a very personal thing. As far as I know, most hip-hop artists don’t have to deal with record labels telling them what they can or can’t play. So why couldn’t these Hispanic hip-hop artists make their own music for themselves and the people that listen?
Well, I’ve rambled on enough for one week. So tune in next time! Same bat place, same bat channel!
