I know this may hard for some of you to believe, but I am like Hip Hop.
I grew up in rural Maine. It was a time when glam rock ruled my small high school. It was a screechy, drug induced scene that I was never really attracted to. I found myself drawn into the British Pop world of MTV, where things at least appeared happy; even sad songs where sung in a gitchy, upbeat tempo.
Being a music lover, I was a member of the high school chorus. One year we went to Philadelphia, to perform at another school. “Is that a topless woman!” one student shrieked as our school bus struggled to wind through the narrow back streets of Philly. We weren’t in Maine anymore. Philadelphia was new and exciting, and this trip probably ignited my life-long love of traveling. It also ignited something else, my love for hip hop.
It was at a school sponsored event where I first discovered Hip Hop. A DJ played songs like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” by Will Smith and DJ jazzy Jeff and “Push It” by Salt and Pepper, music that would later dominate MTV when they, too, would embrace this new musical style. The DJ scratched records while the MC passed around a mic–students demonstrating their “skills” in verbal dexterity. It was poetry set to a rhythm. Early Hip Hop was gritty, but still tongue in cheek. It was rebellious, yet in many ways intellectual, either in message or in linguistic abilities, and in the best cases, it did both. It broke the top forty formula and strode off in its own direction. It was infectious, and I loved it.
Somewhere along the way; however, hip hop became frustrated, angry. It became gangsta rap, full of guns and drugs, hos and violence, some say, reflecting the environment that shaped the artists. Had the urban streets somehow become much harder? Had those struggling on them for so long lost hope? Hip Hop lost its joyful edge and slipped down into defensiveness until rappers where shot for the sides they took in the escalating posturing. It was a sad time, and I have to be honest, I didn’t really like that music much.
But the beautiful thing about music is that it changes, sometimes evolving slowly and sometimes taking an abrupt turn. I love hip hop again. Sometimes I still catch the refrains of gansta rap, and when I do I change the channel, skip the song, because if you pick and choose carefully you can find a new positivity in Hip Hop, and consistent with its tendency to stride off in its own direction, it has fused with other genres like the high energy, ethereal house music that I also love—a divine union.
Yes, I am like Hip Hop, on a musical, never ending journey.
