catapult magazine

I am by no means an expert on or participant in hip hop culture, but a few months ago my wife called me away from brushing my teeth to see a most amazing performance on Conan O’Brian’s show. It was Bone Crusher. The guy seemed to be laying his whole soul on the line. It was so refreshing after seeing 50 Cent’s passionless performance on Saturday Night Live a few nights before.

A recent Father’s Day edition of Chicago’s “Rolling Out” magazine featured the fatherly advice of Bone to the hip hop community concerning the way to beat media stereotypes about slacker fathers in the African-American community: “The media definitely is going to over exaggerate [negative images] because it’s black folk. That’s just real. Black men are definitely slacking in areas, but a lot of black men aren’t. So, it’s just a situation where those that are doing well, we have to commend them and those who aren’t, we have to help them get to the point where we can commend them. That is what it is all about…It is not a situation where we should be pointing the finger and say, ‘Yo man, you need to be doing that and that.’ You got to show them how to be a father. They may have never been around a man to know how to be a father.” Bone Crusher displays his fatherhood proudly in the magazine with pictures of him and his 5 kids and talk of the importance of giving children opportunities to grow by sending them to camp, ballet and karate classes. Hip hop needs to be reminded of its fathers, as The Roots’ newest album indicates, if it is to sustain what has made it great in the first place.

So maybe this would be a good place to mention some of the great hip hop fathers that some of the *cino listeners have discovered (D.C. Talk does not count, unless you’re talking about the early stuff—“God is doing it, yo who’s doing it?”) Who are some of the hopefuls in hip hop of today and yesterday? Let’s see some lists.

Bone Crusher is moving up the MTV ranks pretty quickly. Maybe people are tiring of the cool side of Hip Hop. Even Busta is cooling off.

Missy Elliot is a Hip Hop mother. Her musical and video productions are both violently and joyfuly playful. And she’s not afraid to reveal the dark side of Hip Hop sex culture.

The Roots are also a great hip hop band. Anyone heard their latest album, Phrenology? They’re really pulling some of the funk back into hip hop.

Hey, why does it seem like the whole “indie” vs. “pop” distinction of rock’n’roll doesn’t apply in hip hop? Or does it? It seems like a distinction between “sell-out rap” and “rap as art” doesn’t really exist in the hip hop world (as it does between a Matchbox 20 type band and, say, Hot Hot Heat). Is this just a radio marketing thing, you think?

That division does exist but certainly not to the extent that it does in rock. I know the Roots took a lot of criticism from some hip hop artists for playing with Jay-Z on his Unplugged album. But they said they liked his music, so it’s a line that they took it upon themselves to cross. It would seem like the divide is mostly between the big pimpin acts and the more rootsy old school stuff.

Yeah, Jay-Z is definitely one shining example of a sell-out, but I like most of his music. OK, maybe what I’m noticing is that really great rap artists like The Roots and NAS also sell lots and lots of records and get the support of the (“everyday”) people, and that doesn’t seem to be the case as much in great rock’n’roll, not since the early nineties, anyway (again, I’m mostly talking about radio play and billboard charts).

Jay-Z recently said in an interview that he didn’t get into hip hop to be a rapper, he got into hip hop to be a CEO. This seems to be an increasingly common goal among artists. Ja Rule has admitted that a group of rappers including himself are having a race to see who makes 100 million dollars first.

Its too bad that the competition has shifted so much from ‘who can rock the audience the hardest’ to ‘who can make the most money’.

A friend of mine from the hip hop group, Expansion Team, often complains that the MTV hip hop isn’t representing the true spirit of hip hop. It angers him to see a culture he feels so close to become so distorted to the eyes of the general public.

WOW….. I was surprised to see this message in here… finding the CINO site for the first time… was very interested in what was going on with the messageboards… to find out there’s actually a topic about hiphop going on here … and not just the average conversation at that… pardon my amazement… :)

Anyway…. regarding the first post about hiphop acts…. there are a ton of them… the quality level is improving in some areas while dwindling in others… I’d be very interested in your feedback on a publication that my wife and I publish called FEED magazine http://www.feedstop.com – the print version is available in Barnes & Noble, Hastings and a number of other locations including Christian bookstores… it’s a Christian Hip Hop magazine distributed by Ingram Periodicals… if you have an interest in positive hiphop and the reach into our culture…. hiphop is definitely growing more and more in it’s impact of the world and culture in general… I don’t want to talk alot about the mag… I’m just very interest to see the opinions and thoughts expressed here…. if anyone has time to stop and check out the mag and give some feedback I’d really appreciate it… you can email me anytime at nsudds@feedstop.com

for some hiphop groups to check out… I’d recommend Mark J’s new album…. you can find him at http://www.dasouth.com or in stores… Mars ILL will be coming out with a new one in September as well http://www.marsill.com … there are a ton…. check out our new issue’s cover (website for the new issue will be up soon….the print version is in stores now… it features a unique design featuring pictures of many known and unknown gospel hiphop artists… )….

look forward to talking with some of you more…. gotta jet for now

Peace,

Arkitekt

The website looks good. I like the food theme. I’ll look for the magazine. Hey, if you haven’t heard about it, you might be interested in representing your magazine at the Urban Youth Conference in Kalamazoo coming up the weekend of August 15? My wife and I were thinking about attending, but aren’t sure if we can, yet. But it seems like a good thing.

I’m really glad to see other Christians interested and involved in what’s going on in Hip Hop. I think it’s THE most exciting movement in music to happen since rock’n’roll. Judging from the last twenty years, Hip Hop’s emergence is as big as the invention of jazz, maybe bigger. And definitely as influential as the Blues. If you haven’t looked at Joel Zuidhof’s review of “Yes, Yes, Ya’ll” yet, (http://www.cultureisnotoptional.com/issues/article.cfm?issue=21&article=205), you might be interested in it.

And in response to the problem of CEO rappers, I’m reminded of the demise of Limp Bizkit. Chicago radio stations are inviting people to share expletives live on the radio to respond to Mr. Limp’s dissing of Chicago. If Durst dissed a whole city, that’s a poor business move. In fact, it seems like running a business only to run a business is also a very bad business move. Do you know what I’m saying? The founder of Wendy’s wanted to make better burgers and offer good service first, and such a plan happens to make good business as well. But a competition to make more money than anybody else is a bad BUSINESS move, (if Bill Gates operated under such a principle, he would have given up years ago) not just a bad music-career move.

Hey Grant…

Thanks for the feedback… please let me know what you think when you grab a copy… and thanks for the link to the article … I’ll definitely check it out… do you have a link to the website for that Urban Youth Conference in Kalamazoo… not sure if I can make it but definitely interested in finding out more – let me know please! :) I’m working on the new website today so possibly check back tomorrow or later tonight for the updated version with the new issue info…. then you’ll know what you’re looking for on the shelf… or of course I guess you could just ask at B&N … whichever you prefer… where are you located? I’m actually on the road fulltime right now… but visiting some family back in Canada where we are originally from.

Hope to talk more soon…

Peace,

Arkitekt