richardmurray

The photo above refers to the idea of Hip Hop turning 50 in the Bronx. A museum will be erected and celebrations across the city will be made.

well in my view, what people call hip hop is merely a continuation of the Black poetic culture in the 1950s and 1960s which spoke more to black empowerment/africa that itself was born from earlier decades like langston hughes which you see in harlem's last poets. Mixed with the experimentation that black disk jockey's had started significantly earlier. And even the global exposure is merely continuation. If you look at Gospel then the Blues, then Jazz and then the Motown Sound<itself a version of rhythm and blues> you can see how each became more and more profitable in foreign shores. Hip Hop merely continued the long tradition in the music industry of the USA of exporting a style of Black music. .... For me, one of the tragedies of musical history is how it is presented by those in power more segmented than it is. Again, Rock & Roll is merely a variation of Rhythm and Blues which itself is a variation of the Blues. In the same way that Baroque/Classical/Oriental music in European Music is merely just versions of European Orchestral music. What I find changes more than music is the culture of people. And that is where the Bronx comes in. All the parts of hip hop were in harlem in the 1960s, but Harlem has a long musical tradition whereas the bronx was mostly white. So when the Black people from the south combined with the black folk from the carribean , immigration act in the 1960s who also combined with the white/mulatto/negra latinos, you created a multiphenotypical while also multicultural group of people who represented the future of NYC and regions of the USA. A plurality majority culturally is what Hip Hop allowed the USA to present to the humanity outside and it stunned the humanity outside who was used to Black music, but it was never attached to a culturally fluid identity like the hip hopers. Country music, which is merely white versions of the Blues mixed with european peasant music. or JAzz music which is secular southern Black music with metal instruments , ala the new orleans connection, are  both very popular outside the USA but are culturally more rigid. While the Hip hoppers have an everybody's welcome attitude for the most part, that connects to the USA's reality after the immigration act of the 1960s. When Jennifer Lopez a child of the Bronx in the era of hip hoppers wanted to headline a motown show. Black people booed her and the show . why? back to my point. The key to Hip Hopers isn't their music. Everything Hip Hopers did musically you can find in Black music or music by Black people in the USA before the 1970s. Phyllis Wheatley through the last poets is the poetry. The Ragtimers through to the experimental jazz is the extreme improvisation. The Blues or its derivatives: rhythm and blues and rock and roll make up the rest.  But culturally, the Hip Hoppers at their core were welcoming to all. All they wanted in return was respect. Whereas the last poets were against inviting blancos <white latinos> or white asians or white jews the Hip Hoppers welcomed all. And even that ties to the History of those whose appearance is given the text label black. Frederick Douglass to MLK jr's philosophies is embedded in Hip Hoppers aracial view. If you give the hip hopper respect, they give it to you. Content of character not color of skin.  And to that end, I wonder... but anyway, congratulations to the black folk involved.