What is hip hop spirutality? How is art a way to convey spirit? Some people say that art is what keeps us human, that one's humnanity is tied to one's art. A society without art is missing a vital aspect of its exisitence.
The essay needs to be 3-4 pages long. Find 2-3 articles which look at this topic to substantiate your views. Post your essay response here. Cite your sources at the end of the essay. The film we watched was called: Soundz of Spirit.
The essay is due tomorrow 11/19, by 11 PM. Respond to another classmate's essay by Friday, Nov. 21.
Note; Don't go crazy with the citations. Use only what you need to prove your point. The direct citation is used when another voice says it better than you can paraphrase it or say it yourself, it also breaks up the text.
The Angry Black White Boy is extended through next Sunday, Nov. 30 (I think. Visit www.theintersection.org)
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Kimberly Peterson
Professor Sabir
English 1B
19 November 2008
How do we know what is real, when we cannot see it? Just because we can’t see something, does it mean that it does not exist? I have faith, and faith is the defining line in believing in something when you can not see it. Faith is the existence of the mind, body, and soul. This is spiritually. It is the combination of feelings, or a chemistry that happens that you get when you combine feelings of the mind, body, and soul. This feeling could be found in the life of hip hop. Hip hop as a culture, creates a release from the every day struggles, tyrannical situations that we may face day to day, and even a belief system that we live by. Jeff Chang, an American literary hip-hop interstice, interviews several heavy influences on the hip hop movement, DJ Kool Herc from the works of Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop describes that “…hip hop says ‘Come as you are.‘… It‘s about you and me connecting to one to one.. It has given young people a way to understand their world, whether they are from the suburbs or the city or wherever.” It is used to reunite us spiritually together on earth. The main topics that I will be discussing in which I feel like hip hop is spiritually to me is the concept of the mind, body; soul reunited, how the culture is found all over the world, and how it is used as one’s self expression as an art form, musically and bodily.
Besides the “mind, body, and soul” being very cliché because you could find this catch phrase on buses, and in soap commercials, it is the very thing that we breathe, feel, and live in. The mind, body, and soul allows you to connect to things on altered levels, it allows you to be human. Its full of emotions, and never judges you for who you are, it just is what it is. You can listen to the music, recite the lyrics, and dance to it at the same time. Songs are discovered to be mood altering music. Music gets to people on a subliminal level whether we think about it or not since it does alter our moods, a bad day could turn into a good day, or your spirits could be lifted. Beat, and rhythm could make you be hypnotized, but a voice is stronger because the words have meanings and images attached to them.
Jeff Chang, describes from another novel, Total Chaos, “Ultimately, the notion of literary hip-hop aesthetics begs the question of form versus content. Can a novel whose plot has nothing to do with hip-hop culture-one that takes place a hundred years before [an artist]…take up the aesthetic and political concerns of the culture and thus be lit hop?” (Mansbach 95). Adam Mansbach, a hip hop literalist tells us that whenever you produce a song, piece of visual artwork, or dance, the images or words can tell a story, but the form and ambience always stays the same. Aesthetics of any culture have become somewhat of a religion, because everyone can identify the type of music or dance, and distinguish the genre. You can tell that it is classical music when it comes on the radio because it was someone story in the 1700’s. It was a different time then, when technology wasn’t around, and the piano was for everyone to listen to, and some able to master. Aside from that, music and particularity hip hop is about the celebration of the free spirit, hip hop everywhere says the same. Music could be in another tongue, but they are talk about the same politics that we are. Hip hop is based from the same thing, from being oppressed and using the four elements as outlets, and they eventually get the same message across, they are telling your story to you. You are able to close your eyes to step into another mans shoes when you listen to music.
Self expression is ones image, expressed through different views. The creation of hip hop, just an America alone help people to get off the streets from selling drugs, being homeless, because of their undeniable talent. From there on, these rappers became the American dream, self made millions and Entrepreneurs. For instance, LLCool J used to be a rapper, and now he is directing movies, and as for Sean Combs (P Diddy) he has his own clothing line, and television show.. The people who helped emerge hip hop had other talents that they probably never new existed because they finally had an opportunity to see if they were there. This self expression of creative freedom, also known as hip hop has led to positive attitudes, and hope in communities.
In conclusion, the spirit of hip hop has a heart beat, that constantly goes on to rhythm of our breathes. The spirit has no color, no specific culture. It is the free spirit that I was talking about earlier, and once you have that, everything else falls into place. It does not have to be actually seen to know that it exists. You know that it exists because of the positive nature that becomes of the environment around it.
Works Cited
Chang, Jeff. (2005). Cant Stop Wont Stop. New York: Picador.
Chang, Jeff. (2006). Total Chaos. New York: Basic Books.
responce to Kimberly
Kim, your introduction is amongst one of the best i'v ever read. i love how it flows. I wish i could copy ur essay. just kiddin. if i could i'd copy "I have faith". lol. great job
Faraj Fayad
thats the line id copy
Although life has its ups and downs, a persons spirit is what realy keeps them alive and going. But what is spirituality, and how does it relate to hip-hop? Many people believe that spirituality is more than physical objects, people, places, and instead it’s a feeling that you get. It could be anything from inspiration, love, joy, or peacefullness. In the hip-hop culture, many people are struggling to make a living, and without their spirits, some people never would be able to make it in the real world.
There are two ways of looking at things in the world: there is a materalistic approach, and a spiritual approach. We can use some rich people as an example of a materalistic approach. Rich people in our world today are greedy, and find happiness through the things that they buy. They may buy big houses, fancy cars, and live a great life, but they are all taking a materialistic approach to living. While other rich people may use their money to help others, find themselves, travel and meet people, while taking a spiritual route to find their own happiness, and also possibly the happiness of others.
Everyone thinks they know what the hip-hop community may be like, and the first thing that comes to their mind might be “the hood” or poor neighborhoods, and that people are sitting around doing nothing with their lives, but here is where spirituality plays its biggest role. Spirituality keeps people living their lives, and even though they might not have the best life, spirituality keeps people from doing crazy things. Spirituality plays a big role in hip hop in that it lets people achieve things they might have never thought were possible. Hip-hop as a movement has changed many people’s lives, and has also given the people hope, which has then powered their own lives.
Many people in the hip-hop community have gone from having nothing, to having everything, and spirituality helped with it. According to Spirituality for Dummies, “Spirituality says that even if you think you're limited and small, it simply isn't so. You're greater and more powerful than you have ever imagined.” (Meaning) Spiritulity is pushing people to do whatever is possible, and to take a little something, and make it into everything. Rappers for example take their lives, and write them in a way to tell stories in a three minute song. They write, make beats, and start to realize that they can do something with their lives.
However, spirituality isn’t always used in a positive way. Some people may take the idea of become rich, and use this idea in other ways. They might steal cars, become drug dealers, or even start their own prostitution business and/or brothel. Spirituality can be seen and used in many different ways, but it’s the idea behind spirituality that makes people keep on living, and to not give up.
Spirituality is what powers the hip-hop community. Everything from dancing, to rapping, to graffiti, spirituality is everyhwere and all around us.
Faraj FayadEnglish 1BWanda Sabir Hip-Hop Spirituality Every person has a spirit whether they believe they do or not. Some don't believe in having a spirit because it may not connect to their religious or nonreligious beliefs, but having a spirit is partly having a conscious. Knowing right from wrong, and having faith in good happenings, whether it's towards themselves or others. Don't get the wrong idea, a spirit could be subconscious and be active without use of any physical or even mental activity. It is an incorporeal part of a person that separates the soul from the rest of the body. Hip-hop as an intellectual genre, embodies a spiritual belief. Hip-hop spirituality is the conscious part to music. It is what lets an artist imagine a picture when writing a rhyme. KRS-ONE a hip-hop artist, featured on Joslyn Rose Lyons's documentary film "Soundz of Spirit", said, " if you could speak,see, and hear without use of your mouth, eyes, and ears, you prove the existence of your spirit" (Remixing.com). spirituality allows the real side of hip-hop to occur, the side that lets emcees recite facts and deep rhymes. Have you ever heard the term "from the soul". When rapping, emcees use the term to specify that their music is meaningful and from the heart. For this reason hip-hop has become considered different from rap. Rappers talk about illegal things, and generally make music to get publicity, in other words, rap music gets played in clubs and radios. Hip-hop is more of the uplifting type, the kind of music you listen to in a quiet room and benefit from. In "Hip-hop Lives," one of KRS-ONE's songs, he talks about hip-hop and shares his perspectives on it. He says, "Hip and Hop is more than the music/Hip is the knowledge Hop is the movement/Hip and Hop is intelligent movement/...," (MetroLyrics.com). Through metaphors and similes an tangible genre becomes revealed as hip-hop, with tones and rhythms that unconsciously move the body. It must be the spirit that connects to this music. Hip-hop is mostly seen as a culture which includes emceeing, DJing, Break Dancing, and Graffiti writing, but that's only part of it. The four elements listed are the tangible components of hip-hop. To understand the meaning of hip-hop, one must feel the transcendent parts to this art. Have you ever noticed or experienced when listening to music your body automatically starts to move with the Art conveys the spirit in a special way. Mostly when a graffiti artist paints a mural or a B-boy/ B-girl break dances, it is to rest their minds and let the soul control the body, letting you do what you love and unintentionally chose to do. being into hip-hop is an extra curricular activity, yet many believe they didn't chose hip-hop it chose them.
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