SXSW / Hip Hop / Reality

(Pictured here is Rebel Diaz of the Bronx by way of Chicago and Chile. They started a hip hop cultural center in one of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in the country. True grinder!!)

Man, it’s been quite a couple of weeks. We had the Show Your Reel Awards last Tuesday at GSD&M Idea City and, I’m psyched about all of the bright new talent we have unearthed. I also had the pleasure of participating in a SXSW panel led by hip hop pioneer Davey D at the Carver Museum. We spoke on how to Grind and Hustle in a Recession (not the exact title, but you get the gist). I was blown away at how Davey D weaved the concepts of hip hop as a community building culture and economic empowerment.

For better or worse, hip hop has been commoditized.  Mainstream companies are looking for mass audiences and hip hop culture defines much of what is popular today. So, hip hop is utilized more in style rather than in substance. It is perceived by many as a source of degradation – full of misogyny and materialism. Now, there are indeed destructive elements to the culture that should be challenged and addressed. However, hip hop as I see it played out on the grass roots level, is truly about empowerment. It is a movement that has profoundly changed the world.

Having a music background, I am often struck by the similarities between today’s young rappers and that of blues and r&b players when those genres were coming into the mainstream. Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and the like had their problems with the law and yet they helped develop a legacy that has become universal. They were followed up by more innovators like Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, whose styles were very rooted in the blues form but they brought it to new levels. It’s just like European masters did. They used the folk melodies of their time to create extended forms like the Sonata.

I say this to acknowledge that there is really nothing new happening out there today. History is repeating. Instead, I’m looking for the people of our generation that are going to take hip hop culture to the next level. Who is going to take us from the era of hip hop minstrelsy to true cultural and economic empowerment? I believe that I’ve met some of those folks in the past few days and this gives me hope.

So, it’s back on the grind!