Hip-hop Hooray (All eyes on Hip-Hop)

Hip-hop hooray was a 90’s rap anthem performed by the trio Naughty by nature. The song was such a hit that every time I hear the song now, it brings back a lot of great memories of the 90’s. Back then, music was music. The group had many hits including Feel me flow, OPP, Hip-hop hooray and Jamboree, which incidentally are all now played as classic hits. Wow. Am I that old?

Well OPP was released in 1991, Hip-hop Hooray in 1993 and considering the number of years in between, the songs may be worthy classics. I have heard the songs playing as classic hits a number of times on the Hot fm Thursday evening classic hits show. Coincidentally this radio show comes before the other show hosted by Jimmy-K which I have previously discussed in the blog, “the ‘sexperts’ laughing away in the studio.

This blog is not about a radio show though, even if it has been born out of what comes out of radio. Back in the 90’s we listened to hip-hop and rap music mainly from cassette tapes and of course CD’s as they were slowly getting popular. Probably the reason why rap music rarely played on radio then was the fact that not many had the capacity of censoring the ‘N’, ‘F’ and ‘B’ words that were so profane in rap songs and still are today.

Today many radio stations do have the capacity to censor and the fact that most DJ’s are those who grew up in the era when rap music was universally growing and thus getting accepted, a lot of rap music does play on radio. In fact, Hiphop is the ‘in thing’ now. Some people do actually believe that we are about to witness the death of Rn’B which is about to be integrated into Hip-hop. Today it is not easy to distinguish between a Hip-hop artist and an Rn’B singer. Every Rn’B song has a rap verse. Of course a few songs still are purely Rn’B or even slow jams. However, even the real lives of the artist’s have been integrated. They collaborate on song all the time, and generally spend time together.

We used to know rap artists as the trouble makers always at logger heads with the law, and at times getting jail sentences and so on and so forth. Today, there are more Rn’B and Reggae artists going to jail for various offences. Still, plenty more Rn’B artists are on probation for all sorts of violations of the law. Rebelliousness and waywardness aside, Hip-hop cannot be ignored today. Hip-hop is here and it has arrived.

Look at the Zambian music scene, a quick snapshot shows the top five popular artists being three or four Hip-hop performers. A quick look at the top five local and international award winning Zambian artists will also give three or four Hip-hop artists. In terms of popularity at the moment, there aren’t any Zambian musicians more popular than Marcky II and Slap Dee. When it comes to awards, Ruff Kaida then called Ruff Kid and Zone Fam have won international awards. No one has amassed more ZMA awards than Slap Dee or Marky II. Even Marky II younger brother has now started amassing awards.

This really is the era of hip-hop. However, I personally do not want other genres to die. Especially not Rn’B. I feel there is time and situation for every kind of music genre. Personally, I don’t have a specific favourite genre of music. I indulge in almost all genres. There are situations when I feel reggae music, is what I must listen to. Other moments, I want to indulge Rn’B, Slows, electronic, Hip-hop, rave etc. Though in my younger days, I did listen to a lot of Hip-hop music. I rarely find myself listening to Hip-Hop music willingly these days, unless of course because every radio station is playing Hip-hop now. Every TV station is playing Hip-hop. Then there are the occasional moments when I am feeling frustrated and only a 2-PAC song would do me good.

While growing up, 2-PAC was the in thing then. He was a rebellious hero to most of us. We didn’t know who Che Guevara was but we did know who 2-PAC was. Full name, Tupac Shakur, his birth name was actually Lesane Parish Crooks. By age three he was renamed Tupac after the last Incan emperor, a rebel beheaded by the Spanish before thousands in Cuzco in modern-day Peru. He later went on to adopt the surname Shakur after his mother was romanticaly involved with Mutulu Sharkur, even though they never legally married.

2-Pac was one individual who divided people’s opinions. He was just never one to be ignored. You either liked him or you abhorred him. He put it in his song, “I am the nigga you love to hate.” 2-Pac was a hero to many, but to others a destructive force. He was more than a rapper, he was a poet, a political voice, a champion for women’s and human rights. However, he was jailed for sexually assorting a woman, something contrasting what he had stood for publicly and in some of his songs. In his songs he regularly talked of killing people, a total departure for someone who stands for human rights, equality and opportunities for all.

2-Pac was sued by families of two police officers who were killed young black males who said they acted after listening to some of the song of 2-Pac where he instructed them to kill police officers because the police worked for the purpose of disadvantaging young black men.

Born 17^th June, 1971 2-Pac would have been 44 on 17^th June 2015, but he died barely three month after just his 25^th birthday on Friday September 13^th 1996. When I look back today I realized he died very young. Extremely young yet he left a mark of influence. Influence that has gone even after his death. His songs became even more popular after his death. Some people still believe that he actually never died but faked his death.

Since 2-Pac died, Hip-hop has evolved from thug style gangsta, to bling style gangsta. It is now more about who has the most money and things like that. There is a lot of nudity in hip hop videos than ever before. In his own words, 2-Pac actually admitted that the song ‘How do you want it’ was his most racy music video he had done, because of the collaboration with JODECI.

But some things have never changed. Hip-hop artists are still delinquent. The ‘F’, ‘N’ and ‘B’ words are still widely used. The culture of Hip-hop though more tolerable these days remains a destructive one. For all that happens to global music culture, other genres must not die. In the late 90’s South African music culture adopted their own form of music culture and genre they called Kwaito. Kwaito has since almost disappeared from the radio and TV music channels. The replacement is conveniently South African Hip-hop.

It is my hope that this is just a phase of the Hip-hop craze, and that all other musical genres will survive this craze. I know we adored 2-Pac and enjoyed his poetic genius on the microphone as well as the gangsta lifestyle he lived. But looking back today the truth is that he was just a young man failing to distinguish between show-biz and real life.

He was a destructive force whose talent eventually led him to tragedy. He may have been of destructive character, but one thing remains is that he touched many hearts positively and negatively. Those of us who enjoyed his music can remember 2-Pac on his would be 44^th birthday and seek to draw lessons from his life. Lessons which generations to come can try to live by. He gave us music which made us question, made us angry, made us merry, made us conscious, he made us feel insecure and many other emotional roller coasters he provided us with.

The adaptation of Walter Benjamin’s ‘the destructive character’ may not be too far from the life of 2PAC. He states; “The destructive character is always cheerful. The destructive character does not think of the future. He sees nothing permanent, he always positions himself at the cross roads because he sees ways everywhere.”