Chang Ch 7 and KRS One readings in Vibe & JoHH
wow... after the group project and the WebCT chat rooms and the quizzes, I feel like the Chang book is the last thing in the world I want to spend time talking about! If I haven't rehashed 3/4 of the sections of the chang reading in some form of assessment or another, then I don't know what...
The KRS One reading was interesting... I remember that I used to be really confused about KRS One, I thought he was a member of the band Sublime for the longest time because as their lead singer Brad Nowell sings (during a jam at the end of one of their albums my friends used to listen to all the time), "And I know... yeah I know because of KRS-One..." (That's the closest thing to an amusing KRS-One story I have!)
Anyhow, it was pretty cool to read about KRS One and how he was incorporating these ideals about pursuit of "knowledge", or our favorite "fifth element" of hip-hop, into the mores we had talked about in class-- the political skepticism and the insistence of pride (I guess I'm trying to say the competitive nature of hip hop, the importance of being the best)...
I wonder if street smart and popular image are inherently contrary to spiritual truths and more cross-cultural kinds of wisdom... it seems like "conscious hip-hop" is only given free reign to extend so far as vague political critiques but it's not allowed to go deeply into issues (Dru talked in class about younger generations not knowing Chuck D and how one young guy said he didn't want to "listen to that black power shit...") or take knowledge and consciousness into self-reflective modes and self-awareness (Like the discussion we had yesterday about Common's latest album being "smiley all the time"...)
Anyhow, rather than right off KRS One as hypocritical, why not do something more daring and insightful and actually hold a pop icon accountable for the things he says... how does someone named after Krishna (footnote: "Krishna of the Krishna religion"? Man the Vibe book is not edited by scholars.... how about "Krishna of the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism"?) who uses the self proclaimed epithet "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone" bash college education (of which he has never experienced) and a medium as diverse as the written word, claiming that books are all lies?
I think maybe there's something here, something we might be able to make sense out of in one way or another, when conscious rappers are advocating not reading, not going to school... is it more to preserve their own coolness, that they aren't seeing everything as "smiley all the time"? I kind of think of this as a weak sense of character, if that's really what's happenning... if KRS One is not willing to go against the flow and speak his truth that people need some form of education, some form of scholarship to improve their own lives (and I don't necessarily mean getting a masters degree and working for a corporation) then how "conscious" is his message?
The KRS One reading was interesting... I remember that I used to be really confused about KRS One, I thought he was a member of the band Sublime for the longest time because as their lead singer Brad Nowell sings (during a jam at the end of one of their albums my friends used to listen to all the time), "And I know... yeah I know because of KRS-One..." (That's the closest thing to an amusing KRS-One story I have!)
Anyhow, it was pretty cool to read about KRS One and how he was incorporating these ideals about pursuit of "knowledge", or our favorite "fifth element" of hip-hop, into the mores we had talked about in class-- the political skepticism and the insistence of pride (I guess I'm trying to say the competitive nature of hip hop, the importance of being the best)...
I wonder if street smart and popular image are inherently contrary to spiritual truths and more cross-cultural kinds of wisdom... it seems like "conscious hip-hop" is only given free reign to extend so far as vague political critiques but it's not allowed to go deeply into issues (Dru talked in class about younger generations not knowing Chuck D and how one young guy said he didn't want to "listen to that black power shit...") or take knowledge and consciousness into self-reflective modes and self-awareness (Like the discussion we had yesterday about Common's latest album being "smiley all the time"...)
Anyhow, rather than right off KRS One as hypocritical, why not do something more daring and insightful and actually hold a pop icon accountable for the things he says... how does someone named after Krishna (footnote: "Krishna of the Krishna religion"? Man the Vibe book is not edited by scholars.... how about "Krishna of the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism"?) who uses the self proclaimed epithet "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone" bash college education (of which he has never experienced) and a medium as diverse as the written word, claiming that books are all lies?
I think maybe there's something here, something we might be able to make sense out of in one way or another, when conscious rappers are advocating not reading, not going to school... is it more to preserve their own coolness, that they aren't seeing everything as "smiley all the time"? I kind of think of this as a weak sense of character, if that's really what's happenning... if KRS One is not willing to go against the flow and speak his truth that people need some form of education, some form of scholarship to improve their own lives (and I don't necessarily mean getting a masters degree and working for a corporation) then how "conscious" is his message?
posted by Unknown at 9:52 PM
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