Straight From the Horses Mouth

Home page vs. Forum

Where did you look, and why did you decide to look where you looked. What were some of the advantages and disadvantages to looking the place you did?
I used the internet to search for information about Common. Because Common is a famous rapper, especially in the inner city communities, I figured it would be very easy to find information about him on the internet. Initially, I typed “Common” in the search bar at Google.com. The first website to come up was Common’s Home Page. I choose to visit Common’s Home Page because it contains the most valid and current information relating to the life Common, his music, and his thoughts and feelings. The only problem with using Common’s Home Page is that is it mostly likely biased. It is probably biased because he is the owner of the page and he can edit the page to say whatever he wants.

http://www.common-music.com/default.aspx

Another website I used was a website for blogs called a forum. This website is called “Real Talk NY.” It is basically a site where someone poses a question or a statement about something, this website is specifically hip hop, and asks the readers to respond to the question or make comments. This website is great because not only can I see what other people think about the song, in addition, I can find new interpretations. Another advantage to this website is I can view “truth telling” both ways without having to change my frame of mind. Some people are fans and can relate to the song, therefore the can tell how the song is correct and true. On the other hand, some people are not fans and can tell where the fallacies or falsehoods may lie in the song. Some disadvantages of this website are that the people writing the responses may not be credible or they may also be biased. They may not like Common the rapper, therefore they may automatically misjudge and hate everything he does. On the contrary, the could be a huge fan and praise everything he does.

http://realtalkny.rawkus.com/2007/06/topic/topic/videos/throwback-common-i-used-to-love-her/

Spectacular Venaculars

Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism

This book explains how hip-hop is viewed as a "postmodern successor” to African American culture. For example, hip hop was influenced by many different elements of African American culture such as jazz. It examines the role that hip-hop plays in the African American experience. By using many political and rhetorical terms, the book demonstrates that hip-hop is a form of rebellion by historical standards. This book seems like it would be very interesting for me because it describes hip-hop in a different way than I have ever seen.

This book seems to use theory and practices of other postmodern movements in comparison to hip-hop, which is why it is seen as a "rebellion." Seeing as how the author, Dr. Russell A. Potter, is a white man it is easy to see why he, a professor at Rhode Island College, would describe hip-hop in such a rhetorical tone. For most fans of hip-hop, this book would not be very viable. Because the book is coming from a white man who seems to have no personal interest in hip-hop, only its rhetorical elements, I think most hip-hop fans would resound with a unanimous "it’s not that serious." However, I allow myself to view this book with a different perspective. I read the book as if hip-hop were not apart of my upbringing nor my current life, and see it as an unidentifiable entity.

The only reason this author is qualified to write a book about hip-hop is because he is a Doctor of English Language and Linguistics, History and culture of the Canadian Arctic, Victorian visual culture, Media Studies.

"This better my lucky star" - Dizzee Rascal

I remember the first time I heard about Dizzee Rascal about four years ago. He was mentioned on a MTV "Artist to Look Out For" Special. As the first couple images of him flashes on the screen, I thought "another typical black dude rapping...wahoo." But then I heard a snippet of him rapping and he was obviously not another typical rapper. He had the most unique accent. Then the narrator of the program proclaimed that he was from London. I thought "how queer!" a rappper from London! When I pictured London, I pictured the Queen, Big Ben and cold weather, but never a hip social scene with rappers. Naive, I was.

Now, Dylan Mills, also known as Dizzee Rascal has taken the world by storm! Although Dizzee had a hard up-bringing, detained for stealing cars and being expelled from secondary schools, he was very talented. He began MCing on the radio and at parties at fifteen. In 2004, Dizzee Rascal made an international endorsement deal with the brand Eckō Red and designed his own shoe with Nike in 2005.

Not only has Dizzee crossed over in terms of location and business skills, he crossed over genres. Dizzee worked with artist Beck on a remix of the song "Hell Yes."