Top 10 Things to Be Thankful in Hip-Hop

July 26th, 2011 | By Edwin

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and I hope that everyone has a safe holiday with their families (as safe as you can get with the amount of food that some people are eating!) I thought that it would be fitting to list ten things that I am thankful for about hip-hop.

1) I am thankful for music that anyone can relate to, and has such a huge range of passion and creativity. The same can be said for any genre of music, but hip-hop is one that I connected with.

2) I am thankful for artists that make music for the love of making music. I’m sure Brother Ali did not release his new album for fame or glory.

3) In an industry where a complete lack of skill and originality can result in big profits, I’m thankful that many artists are taking huge risks with their art.

4) I am thankful that producers are now getting a lot of attention – you have to thank Timbaland and Kanye West for that. They are influencing a new generation of RZAs, Pete Rocks, and DJ Premiers.

5) I am thankful for the Internet – it fuels the vibrant underground scene and allows for massive distribution of mixtapes.

6) Speaking of mixtapes, I’m thankful for mixtapes helping artists increase visibility and getting their product directly to the streets.

7) I am thankful for the iPod and the Digital Revolution – instead of everyone consuming the same mass produced megahits, we can enjoy increasingly niche bites of what we really want.

8) I am thankful for the increasing mainstream coverage that hip-hop is getting – I was surprised at seeing the universal accolades for Only Built for Cuban Linx…II

9) I am thankful for the Internet blogging community and their intelligent, hard-hitting coverage of the hip-hop world.

10) I am thankful for all my readers!

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Introducing the Octopus

July 26th, 2011 | By Edwin

What a strange title for a new blog. The Hip Hop Octopus. What is this guy all about anyway?

At first, I hated rap music.

I grew up in the late 1980s in a small town in North East LA, called Highland Park. It was a community of Asian immigrants, African Americans, and Latinos, and my only experiences with hip hop was from the street. Sometimes, it seemed to leaking out of the concrete – car systems booming like King Kong was locked in the trunk, graffiti on chipped brick walls, and the wails of police sirens as they chased speeding Fords down the freeway. What fueled my music preferences at that time was chronic childhood insomnia – I scoured the radio for anything that would prevent me from depressingly wandering around in the dark. It was so bad at times that I began to get a sinking feeling when the sun went down because it meant that I would spend the night feeling alone.

Picture of a lonely car courtesy of agira929.

The perfect beast to combat this was incidentally… KOST 103.5. If you are in LA, you know that this is a radio station that specializes in contemporary adult love songs and “soft rock” at night – a sure recipe for disaster on the elementary school playground. At first, I only listened to Elton John and Céline Dion just because they were a soothing way to fall asleep, but I would be lying if I said  I didn’t begin to appreciate their music on some subconscious level.

Sleep was bliss. If Candle in the Wind can grant me that bliss, than I can dig it.

Part II to follow.

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Welcome to my Hip Hop Blog!

July 26th, 2011 | By Edwin

Hip Hop Blog: Analysis and Insight

Welcome to the Hip-Hop Octopus! Check periodically for new updates and analysis about hip hop / rap music. I will try to cover both underground and mainstream hip-hop news and music, and also seek to dispel some myths, reveals new truths, or help foster intelligent and open discussion about anything that pertains to hip hop as well. Hopefully, you’ll find something new here that you can’t find anywhere else, and I won’t follow the traditional hip-hop blog which just links to endless music videos and mixtapes (although those can be very awesome – no hate here :D) – please enjoy and feel free to comment! For those who like my amateur writings, you may connect to me or share my content with the buttons below. I also am very open to guest posts, guest reviews, or ideas for new blog posts.

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Introducing the Octopus Continued

July 26th, 2011 | By Edwin

In middle school, 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. were the rage. Big didn’t describe them (well, it described B.I.G., who looked like he ate a little too many flapjacks).  I didn’t hear much about them besides the fact that all my friends kept reciting rap lyrics and arguing about who was supreme (2Pac won nearly all the time since I lived on the West Coast). When 2Pac was shot and killed, I vividly remember that day in the playground – the subdued buzz, the surprised exclamations of “did you hear what happened?” and the feeling that a great loss has taken place. This event, coupled with the general disdain of soft rock in the playground, piqued my interest.

2Pac, the oldest of souls. Photo by Art-KO of Flickr fame.

As high school approached, I fully threw myself into hip hop with 2Pac as my guide. The more I found out about him, the more I thought he could do no wrong as I navigated the urban waters. Everything about him was magnetic – his life story, his dedication to the arts and to telling the story of the weak and ignored, and his lifelong dream to spark a revolution in the streets. Surprisingly, even his poetry turned out to be remarkably well polished. 2Pac was an easy to digest gateway to the rap world.

Rap music turned out to be an acquired taste, much like wine, coffee, or beer – at first listen, it seemed shallow, overly focused on “gangsterisms,” and full of bad messages and language. Only after repeated listens, often late at night and while looking up the written lyrics, can one start to see the poetry, strong positive messages, and emotional attachment the artist had to their songs (and that is just scratching the surface). 2Pac remains one of the best examples of someone whom you can feel emotion in every bar. Relating my very ordinary and mundane life to these strong, powerful lyrics became surprisingly easy.

College, like it is supposed to, opened my eyes even further. To be continued in a future post.

To my dear readers: does anybody else out there have an artist that they felt introduced them (or catapulted, violently)  to a new genre of music?

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