Changing Face

Almost every time I log into Facebook I get upset.  I don’t know exactly what it is that gets me every time but it happens.  I know I see people that are the same as when I knew them a decade ago.  I know I see people typing dumb and feigning an ignorance that I know isn’t come by honestly.  The ignorance piece gets me.  Why do upper middle and middle class white people talk so ghetto when they spent their entire youth in private schools?

Hip Hop.  Hip Hop is not Rap.  Hip Hop is a culture that seems destined to be misinterpreted by every white man alive… almost.  Hip Hop is not ignorance.  Hip Hop is not Pop.  Why is that concept so hard to grasp?  Why is Hip Hop seemingly synonymous with stupidity?

Warping words is fine, in fact it should be encouraged in most artistic circumstances.  Poets have been playing with structure and like sounding words and pronunciation for as long as their were words to play with but I have never seen a tool so abused and diluted as I do today.

You like Hip Hop?  Great.  You want to make Hip Hop music?  Grand!  Don’t fit yourself into a mold.  This goes for any art form.  Don’t change yourself to the art change the art to you.  Don’t talk like everyone else.  Don’t be just another, be better then that by being yourself.  By modeling yourself after others that have come before you you cheapen your own message.  Those that came first are admired for portraying to people their perception on the world and that should be the goal of any artist no matter the medium.

‘I want to be the next…’ are the most dangerous words to the honesty and integrity of the artistic community today.  It’s a shame so many people use them.