Thursday, April 29, 2010

Reference from class (Jalen Testerman on Ellen)



That kind of physicality is not supposed to exist in a 5/6 year old kid. The video below, a different kind of physicality, but captivating nonetheless.

From Jaimie Hoppert

I found this on CNN today and thought you (all) might be interested in seeing it. It is a piece about street art all over the world. Shows it is still relevant today.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/28/street.art.graffiti.ireport/index.html?hpt=Mid

*Can't seem to make this into a link, so just copy and paste into your browser!

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Chapter 9

1982, Rapture in Reagan’s America
by: Bethany Hoover and Jennifer Mowls-Hutkowski

As America became increasingly conservative with the election of President Ronald Reagan, hip-hop became even more unifying, especially in terms of the nightclub, which became a “communal sacred space” (168). Ruza Blue, later dubbed Kool Lady Blue, from London became an integral player in the diffusion of hip-hop across socioeconomic and racial lines. She started hosting her “Wheels of Steel” show at Negril, but later moved the show to a larger venue: a former roller rink that became the legendary night club Roxy. A screening of the Sex Pistols’ “Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle” helped to popularize the hip-hop form and movement amongst the punk rock community. Additionally, Afrika Bambattaa’s 1981 album “Jazzy Sensation” with the track “Planet Rock” became “hip hop’s universal invitation, a hypnotic vision of a world under one groove, beyond race, poverty, sociology, and geography.” The hip-hop culture, stricken by recession, had problems. “The Message”, a down tempo track capturing the “crash” when the dancing stopped, was “another boost for the rapper over the D.J [and] the crew itself became a dramatic casualty of rap’s realignment toward copyrights, trademarks, executives, agents, lawyers, and worldwide audiences” (178). Also, media attention, the anti-graffiti campaign, and new “bombers” created problems for graffiti artists. Artists had trouble finding space and Cap One, a new tag group, broke the rule “you didn’t go over somebody” and so the “…structure of respect collapsed and graffiti’s code of conduct unraveled” (182). The film “Wild Style” was the only piece of this time that “adequately conveys the communal thrill of merging the tide, riding with the lightning” (187).

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Chapter 8

Zulus on a time bomb : hip-hop meets the rockers downtown
by: Katherine Fenstemaker and Stephanie Carpenter

This chapter was more about the evolution of hip hop as a culture in the Bronx. Henry Chalfant played a large role in bringing this culture to the public through his photojournalism. He took pictures of the graffiti art and then put the photos on display in a gallery. Crowds came from everywhere. This chapter also talked about Fred who became a part of the FAB 5 and worked with Lee Quinones who was the most famous graffiti artist in town. The FAB understood that this movement was becoming a culture because it now had a dance (bboying), a music (rapping/DJing), and it now had a visual art (graffiti).

In 1973 the United Graffiti Artists was created and they started to make money by selling graffiti on canvases. These sold for as much as $10,000. It was cool because each graffiti artist had their own style and focus. Graffiti was brought overseas when Fred and Lee went to Italy with this art.

Henry Chalfant became the manager of the Rock Steady crew and had them perform a staged battle at one of his gallery shows. Everyone started to talk about the new style of dance known as bboying and were linking it together with graffiti. It showed the public how these gangs were dancing instead of fighting.

He eventually made a movie “Style Wars” which was a documentary of graffiti and bboying. It was popular on both the east and west coast, but some citizens were angry because they felt that it was promoting vandalism.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Chapter 7




The World is Ours: The Survival and Transformation of Bronx Style
by: Erica Bleiweiss, Leigh Fouts, Erin Watrous

By the late 1970s, many individuals in the Bronx started to see a dramatic change in hip hop music and culture. Newer technology such as records became a hit with emerging hip hop artists. Many individuals including Grandmaster Flash opposed the idea of mainstreaming hip-hop. Before this change occurred, hip-hop culture revolved around dancing and the DJ. Impromptu dance battles would often take place in high school gymnasiums, parks, and during other social gatherings. Dance battles began to fade when hip-hop focused more on written lyrics and the MC instead of dancing and the DJ. With the scripted lyrics, hip-hop evolved to sound more like pop music. “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang, which was played on the radio, began this transformation and introduced the world to the culture that was formerly contained in the Bronx. Even though former hip-hop artists opposed the idea of recording their music, the success of the Sugar Hill Gang transformed the hip-hop scene overnight. Realizing the potential success of this technique, rappers began producing money-making records.

During this time, graffiti became an increasing problem in the Bronx. The New York City mayor declared a War on Graffiti. Graffiti was no longer seen as an art form, but rather became a political issue as well as a punishable crime. The city created an anti-graffiti program in which they profiled the typical graffiti artist. This profile was used to target potential suspects to put an end to graffiti. In the long run, this program proved to be ineffective.

In a different part of New York City, Crazy Legs was determined to bring together b-boys from the surrounding areas and revive dance as an integral part of hip-hop. The re-emergence of b-boys led to the creation of new dance moves such as freezing and windmills.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Chapter 6



Furious Styles: The Evolution of Style in the Seven-Mile World
by: Rachel Scholtz, Kathleen Secor, Kimberly Conley

The seven-mile world had its center in Crotonoa Park (Bronx, NY) and extended to create a seven mile radius around this park. Crazy Legs described hip-hop’s four elements as: DJing, MCing, B-boying, and graffiti. Joseph Saddler, later named Grandmaster Flash, became known as a DJ because of his style. He focused on showmanship, such as scratching with his elbows and flipping around. He later added MCs to pump up the crowd because no one would listen to just the music without words. Soon he became more liked than Kool Herc and Bambaataa. B-boying was originally created by kids too young to get into clubs, but then spread out of homes into the streets. It soon became part of gang life and was a mixture of martial arts and dance made to intimidate other gangs. Gangs would compete for dominance in an area with movements that mimicked fighting and stabbing. Graffiti was seen as a “way of gaining status in a society where to own property is to have identity”. Fame was the goal because it equaled wealth, therefore the more risky a target, the more fame someone got for tagging it. This was one of the first movements to break out of the seven-mile world by moving along train lines. Because it spread so quickly it was mostly desegregated. It became so prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s that new graffiti had to be done over someone else’s graffiti. Quantity became more important than quality. The reasoning behind graffiti was to defy a hostile world and create a name for yourself.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Chapter 5



Soul Salvation: The Mystery and Faith of Afrika Bambaataa
by: Jenna Stein and Jaimie Horning

Afrika Bambaataa was born in Manhattan to parents of Jamaican and Barbadian descent. He was drawn into the gang life as many young boys were during this era in the Bronx, joining them as young as 9. He first joined the P.O.W.E.R. gang (People’s Organization for War and Energetic Revolutionaries), and then became a Black Spade. In this gang, he started to build a reputation as an individual who had the power to build relationships with people in other gangs, and the president of the Black Spades quickly made Bambaataa a warlord, who was responsible for building the ranks and expanding the turf of the gang. It quickly grew to one of the city’s largest. Many gangs in the South Bronx joined together in a peace treaty in 1971, which inspired Bambatta to search for a way out of gang life. DJ Kool Herc offered Bambaataa a way forward by allowing him to apprentice under former Black Spade DJs on his way to becoming an independent DJ. Bambatta had a unique style that was symbolic of his peace-making philosophy. He mixed just about everything into his music, and became known as the most renowned programmer in the Bronx. During this time, he formed the Bronx River Organization as an alternative to the Spades.

Throughout his life, and particularly from a trip overseas and the move “Zulu,” Bambatta had been inspired by Africans and their ability to unite and work towards a common goal. Renaming the Bronx River Organization to the Universal Zulu Organization, he had a vision to grow the organization into the “brown” or Puerto Rican population and gangs whose territory was on the other side of the Bronx river. They had reached a high point of violence amongst themselves, and with other gangs. He invited them to come to one of his parties to expand his peace movement with the promise of a “good time.” The Universal Zulu Nation organization grew more structured and had a ten point platform of beliefs in place, and quickly proliferated the Bronx with the motto of “Peace, Love, Unity and having fun.” It was intentionally NOT a political organization, but instead encouraged its members to live by a fundamental code of conduct and Zulu “way of life,” which included being open minded, teaching each other truth, respect others, and to be at peace with self and others.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

You're a Jerk

Always a new dance with a new song with a new generation with a new groove.....

Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Chapter 4

Soul Salvation: The Mystery and Faith of Afrika Bambaataa

Afrika Bambaataa was born in Manhattan to parents of Jamaican and Barbadian descent. He was drawn into the gang life as many young boys were during this era in the Bronx, joining them as young as 9. He first joined the P.O.W.E.R. gang (People’s Organization for War and Energetic Revolutionaries), and then became a Black Spade. In this gang, he started to build a reputation as an individual who had the power to build relationships with people in other gangs, and the president of the Black Spades quickly made Bambaataa a warlord, who was responsible for building the ranks and expanding the turf of the gang. It quickly grew to one of the city’s largest. Many gangs in the South Bronx joined together in a peace treaty in 1971, which inspired Bambatta to search for a way out of gang life. DJ Kool Herc offered Bambaataa a way forward by allowing him to apprentice under former Black Spade DJs on his way to becoming an independent DJ. Bambatta had a unique style that was symbolic of his peace-making philosophy. He mixed just about everything into his music, and became known as the most renowned programmer in the Bronx. During this time, he formed the Bronx River Organization as an alternative to the Spades.

Throughout his life, and particularly from a trip overseas and the move “Zulu,” Bambatta had been inspired by Africans and their ability to unite and work towards a common goal. Renaming the Bronx River Organization to the Universal Zulu Organization, he had a vision to grow the organization into the “brown” or Puerto Rican population and gangs whose territory was on the other side of the Bronx river. They had reached a high point of violence amongst themselves, and with other gangs. He invited them to come to one of his parties to expand his peace movement with the promise of a “good time.” The Universal Zulu Nation organization grew more structured and had a ten point platform of beliefs in place, and quickly proliferated the Bronx with the motto of “Peace, Love, Unity and having fun.” It was intentionally NOT a political organization, but instead encouraged its members to live by a fundamental code of conduct and Zulu “way of life,” which included being open minded, teaching each other truth, respect others, and to be at peace with self and others.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Locking Vocabulary

By request....a list of the locking vocabulary

The lock
Wrist Rolls
Uncle Sam Points
Claps and Slaps
Scooby Doo
Stop n' Go
Don Campbell Lockwalk
Kick the Bucket

Remember Locking is a singular technique and not the same things as Popping. The style originated on the West Coast by Don Campbell. In terms of expression, this style of dance is animated, exaggerated, joyful, witty, and playful. Usually it is accompanied by Funk music, a mixture of soul and R&B genres, with complex and syncopated rhythms. The video below is a wonderfully rigorous example of Locking, both in rhythm and in physical precision. Check it out!

Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Chapter 3

Blood and Fire, with Occasional Music

by: Ellen Eichner and Iriny Faltas

This chapter focused on gang activity in the Bronx in the early 1970s. The Black Panthers originally governed the area in the 1960s, but after the assassinations of King and Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover decided this organization was a threat and had them put in jail. It was the Panthers who had provided a social organizational structure and necessary social services to the area when the city government did not, and without them, there was a gaping hole in the Bronx. Youth street gangs filled this void. Gangs originally started to protect members from junkies and provide some social services, but these conflicts were usually mediated through violence. Gangs started to turn against one another- one gang would violently killing members of another for simply wearing colors on their turf. One of the most prominent gangs was the Ghetto Brothers, formed by the Melendezes, Charlie Suarez, and Cornell Benjamin aka “Black Benjie”, who had a unique role as a peace counselor. The conflict came to a head when “Black Benjie” was murdered while proposing peace to conflicting gangs. In light of his death, The Ghetto Brothers called a meeting of the gangs and signed a peace treaty. Although the publicity of the treaty led to a police crackdown, the treaty turned gangs into something positive- music. The Ghetto Brothers lead the way as they began to create and produce their own music influenced by their Puerto Rican roots, which paved the way for the creation of hip-hop.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Funk defined

For fun. James Brown dancing. With personality. Some previews of locking. But in general a wonderfully entertaining clip with animated dancing and a good lookin outfit.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop: Chapter 2

Sipple Out Deh: Jamaica's Roots Generation and the Cultural Turn

by Josh and Michael

The chapter begins with an explanation of Jamaican culture and its influence on music – especially the interaction of Rastafarianism and Reggae music. Rastafarianism generated a relatively new social and political movement that pitted two parties against each other. These political parties battled in more underground ways that straight campaigns and elections. Jamaican gangs were actually formed surrounding political views and music was an integral medium of change. Musicians were forerunners for political views and often experienced physical, violent persecution for supporting certain movements. Dance parties were rallies as certain songs summoned followers of certain campaigns together. The DUB was accidentally invented when someone forgot to dub the vocals to a track, creating a new movement of music. Dubs themselves became political expressions as ‘side B’ versions of politically charged songs. These rallies and concerts became centers of political violence. Even the CIA is rumored to have been involved through supplying arms to the gangs of the conservative party. However, opposite party members, while in jail, began conversing and a movement to end the peace began. Bob Marley became a forerunner for this movement and hosted a concert tour, ‘One Love Peace’ in order to promote this. Eventually the violence subsided, but from all of this ‘rebellion’ and ‘revolution’ a new genre a movement of music was inspired, reggae, that swam across the ocean and engendered its own touch into the soon-to-be-born Hip-Hop movement.