What is hip hop?

I had very little exposure to hip hop growing up behind the orange curtain of the OC until I moved to east Africa in college. Kids in Nairobi were listening to commercial hip hop in bars and clubs and I frequently heard Tupac in villages in Uganda (I heard a lot of Britney Spears too). A few years later when I moved to DC, I was fairly familiar with the west coast classics but didn't really know what hip hop was all about until I met my husband in 2003. He listened to hip hop 24/7 and I became a huge fan of Gang Starr, Outkast, Eminem, Biggy, Missy Elliot, Atmosphere, The Coup and others. I understood that it was poetry but the good stuff sounds good too, like the 2nd track on Deltron 3030. While in DC, crunk dominated hip hop and I had a blast bumping and grinding in dark basement clubs, sweaty southern style.

As the years went on, I began to think more deeply about hip hop and what it means for the African American community and the rest of us. For example, Bill Maher on his show asked Russell Simmons about the negative influence of gangster rap on the African American community and Stephen Cobert asked Nas a similar question a few weeks ago. Both rappers denied its negative impact and replied with the same answer - I'm not going to be positive if I don't see things positive. I understand the argument, but certainly much of commercial hip hop promotes violence, sexism, and glorifies the life of a gangster. People who promote selling crack and destroying their own community should be ashamed, not selling records. The importance of telling the countless stories of tragedy in inner cities is critical and necessary for our society to grow. It is vital to expose the isolated white majority to police violence and social problems that they are unaware of, but there is a big difference between an intelligent rapper like Nas and an a-hole like Master P. Why don't the consumers of hip hop music have higher standards? In addition, it seems that the top singles each year include songs by Jay-Z, P-Ditty, 50 Cent, ect., just talking about how rich they are...so boring. So many of the most popular rappers are one dimensional. Like all communities, people have different perspectives and not everyone in the ghetto sees everything negative. Why aren't positive rappers more popular (like Pigeon John)? One dimensional negative rappers have dominated hip hop for too long.

I have a lot of respect for positive rappers, political rappers like the Coup and Public Enemy, and rappers that have musical genius like Outkast. I think hip hop is a powerful art form that people use to express themselves and should not be limited to inner city black males. Many female rappers have talked about how hard it is for women to survive in the industry. Eminem proved that he has more skills than anyone out there and there are a lot of poor white people that have serious social problems. No matter how much his stories make me sick, he is talking about some very important realities of this country (you really have to listen to all his songs to get what he is talking about).

Last weekend I was in a San Francisco club watching some local hip hoppers rhyme on stage and a girl inspired me to write this blog. She was very ordinary looking with blond hair to her shoulders dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. She was rapping about things that interested her like the Food Network and TLC channel. I was so amused because I love the Food Network channel. As hip hop becomes more mainstream, it is evolving and diversifying. I hate people who say hip hop has to be "hard" or "gangster." Hip Hop is an art form about expressing yourself and the hip hop community should embrace anyone who can do it well.

Danica Patrick Rules!

A few weeks ago, I discovered an aspect of American culture I had never experienced before- car racing. I never realized how popular car racing is nationally and on the grassroots level. My uncle races a classic corvette, which goes at least 140 mph. He goes to tracks throughout the southwest and races a few times a year against other people in his class. The event is not open to the public and made up of the drivers that belong to local clubs with their friends and families. I went one weekend and it way much more exciting than I expected. They also had IndyCars and other stock cars. According to NASCAR's website, NASCAR is the most spectated sport in America. (If is isn't, it is the fastest growing spectated sport.) More Fortune 500 companies participate in NASCAR than any other sport and NASCAR races are broadcast in more than 150 countries in more than 30 languages.

Interestingly, car racing first sparked my interested when Kornheiser and Wilbon on PTI were debating over the infamous Danica shove of Dan Wheldon last year. She is feisty, super sexy, and a damn good at driving cars fast! Patrick was named the Rookie of the Year for both the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and the 2005 IndyCar Series season. With her win in the 2008 Indy Japan 300, Patrick became the first woman to win a major open-wheel closed course race. Danica Patrick began go-karting in 1992 (10 years old) at Sugar River Raceway and went on to win several national championships. She moved to England at the age of 16 in order to advance her racing career. Focusing primarily on road racing, Patrick raced in several developmental open-wheel series while in Europe, including Formula Ford and Formula Vauxhall. Patrick earned a second-place finish in England's extremely competitive Formula Ford Festival, the highest-ever finish by either a woman or an American in the event. In 2002, Danica returned to the US and had several impressive finishes since 2005. Her fellow males drivers have been critical of her over the years, but I doubt she gives a shit. I love seeing a woman succeed in a male dominated sport. Danica you rule!!!

Laguna Love

If anyone in the world asked me where I'm from, I would say California before America or Orange County. California was named by the Spanish after a novel about a wild island ruled by half naked Amazonian women. It must have been the first thing that the horny sailors could think of when they first saw California's breath taking shoreline. I remember in California history class, that 80% of native California tribes were peaceful hunter gatherers. It made me wonder if people who live in paradise develop slower than people in cold societies who have to struggle over scarce resources. Regardless, I'm proud to be Californian and would support succession if anyone was courageous to spearhead such a revolution. I love California not only because our economy kicks ass (we are the 7th largest economy in the world that produces more products than any other state including many agriculture and dairy products). But the best part of California is our diverse environment and people. California supposedly has more Native Americans than any other state and prior to the Gold Rush we had more Native Americans than all other states combined (damn...we were even highly populated back then). We also have the highest Armenian population outside of Armenia, Los Angeles has the largest Mexican population outside of Mexico, and San Francisco has the largest Chinese population outside of Asia.

Anyways...the California coastline is still amazing and my favorite area is Laguna Beach. The rolling hills and deep canyon is a majestic green in spring with houses built in the sides of mountains that seem like works of art. If you've never been there, it kinda reminds me of the Cote d'Azul race on Gran Turismo 4. The charming downtown is filled with upscale galleries, boutique shops, and a Whole Foods market. Many people are beautiful and happy. People here are almost as friendly as Minnesota except in a hip surfer way. For example, I can't go to the grocery store without at least two people asking if I need help finding something. It seems like Laguna gets more sunny days than most places and countless beautiful sunsets that dip into the horizon. At times it is fogged in all day and before sunset the sky clears slightly and vibrant colors light up the clouds. There is lots of fun in the sun, such as, what seems like a continual car show with people zooming around town in their new Ferraris, Porches, Lotuses, and Bentleys. This place is also a biker magnet with the classic rock dive bar downtown town always placed with Harleys out front. I recently found out that there is live reggae music every night of the week in this small town at various bars and it was the capital of LSD in the 60's. Laguna Beach is a paradox in someways because the hippies are now rich and try to keep their ideals with their hybrid cars, but can not deny their decadence. The snobs are taking over, but thankfully artists and Europeans still bring culture to this seaside village. I cherish the moments when I walk down the cute board walk on main beach or the side walk along the cliffs north of main beach. Laguna has several peaceful and serene coves and look-outs where you can get away from the tourists. Although Laguna has its share of ignorant, annoying people, there are few places in the world as beautiful as Laguna. It is hard to experience Laguna without falling in love.

JabbaWockeeZ

I witness the hottest thing I have seen on TV in years the other night – finale for American’s Best Dance Crew. If you want to instill nationalism in today’s youth and fight their disenchantment, just promote shows like American’s Best Dance Crew. America is a mix of many cultures and the people from each geographical region have various characteristics. I have been exposed to people from each area. I lived in DC, which is a mix of north and south. My husband is from the mid-west and I’m from the West – WESTSIDE!!! The final episode was a battle between all crews from each region of the country.

The first dance was the Westside, made up of crews from San Diego, Hollywood, and the OC. They were the most diverse group with many Asian, black, white, female, and male dancers. Their dance was slower, slick, smooth, and funky, like Snoop Dogg’s voice. Their moves were tighter and crisper than any other dance crew with very intricate choreography. The west is always the most creative and uses visual effects by clever positioning. During their dance, they pretended to drive a low rider with hydraulics bouncing to the beat and they ended with everyone doing their own b-boy stance flashing west-side symbols. They were by far the hippest crew.

The next dance was the South and they showed everyone why they call it the Dirty South. They danced to Lil’ John and they danced low (I mean they looked like there were sitting in low chairs). They showed how someone is supposed to dance to crunk: slow and powerful, hitting every beat hard. They did a lot of stomping and the girls would roll their hips with their legs spread to the audience. The South had the best female dancers and their large, strong, shiny thighs were hard to miss. They had the most explosive intense energy. Towards the end of the dance, a guy does a flip and the girls bend over and touch their toes (like the songs says) facing their butts to the audience and shaking them while walking backwards and the boys pretended to play them with drum sticks. I was just in awe at first, but the dance really summed up what I had seen in dance clubs in DC for a while. People in DC do those moves every weekend in the club. The South has a gritty sexuality that is unmatched by any other region and loosely resembles some Bantu African style of dances. This was my favorite dance of the night.

The third dance was the Northeast, represented by crews from Boston and Jersey. They were very clean-cut looking dancing to LL Cool J. Their stunts were great as usual. One guy ran up stairs of people and did a flip off the top; however, their dancing was unoriginal and moves imprecise. They ended with busting out the campaign glasses. (Ending on northeast snobbery – how perfect!) The dancing was about as weak as the hip hop from the region.

The last dance was from the Midwest and they always exceed expectations. There was a male crew on skates from Indiana and a female crew from Chicago dancing to Pop Lock and Drop It. They were matched perfectly with complex choreography. They started and ended the dance with one crew holding the other up like puppets. They all dressed like wholesome kids. They danced so good it was hard to tell if they were all on skates or if no one was on skates. They did some cool break dancing and popped it a lot. They were like the nice white guys next door hitting on the sweet naughty girl in pigtails.

Rightly so, at the end of the episode, Randy Jackson crowned (with hip hop baseball caps) the JabbaWockeeZ the best dance crew in America. Their dances blew me away each week and they had a style that no one has seen before. Randy says they are the future of hip hop but I don’t know if anyone else can do what they do. For the semi-finals they worked with a mixer to compose their own music with a dance in the Jaba-style. The song starts with applause and a black man preaching. They clap like mimes and one guy pretends to be a microphone while the other pretends to give a speech. Then they dance slowly in formation locking to the violin beats. They danced completely in unison with sharpness and did beautiful moves with fluttering fingers and then a low hip hop beat pounded. Everyone jumped into their own b-boy stance and their leader started doing the most amazing break dancing I’ve ever seen. You have to check this at the link below. The song ended with the sound of rain and their fingers trickling down and they pointed to the sky to remember their crew member that died at the beginning of the show. The reason I’m writing this is because the JabbaWockeeZ are not just dancers, but they are illusionists. They wear white masks and gloves concealing their identity so create a pure interpretation of the music. They have positioning that deceives the eye. They had this one stance where it looked like an 8 foot guy was levitating in the air, by having three guys on their knees in front with the top half of one body and the lower half of another sticking out on each side a foot from the ground. They also used props as wheels for a car made of JabbaWockeeZ and bounced like a low rider. They're like Cirque du Soleil meets the streets. They have created an amazing cultural phenomenon among our youth that should not be ignored. This is the Broadway of the hip hop youth, which is now being brought to mainstream America.

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1583319&vid=217727

Journey to 10,000 BC

I was watching Journey to 10,000 BC on the History Channel last night and discovered that camels are from North America and migrated cross Alaska to Asia. According to Wikipedia, “fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of modern camels evolved in North America during the Palaeogene period.” The Palaeogene period was 42 million years when “mammals evolved from relatively small, simple forms into a plethora of diverse animals in the wake of the mass extinction that ended the preceding Cretaceous Period”. Apparently in North America, the hunter gatherers at the time had the same cognitive abilities that we do today and lived among giant sloths the size of cars, mammoths (the largest mammals since dinosaurs), saber tooth lions, and bears that were twice as big as grizzles. More importantly, they were able to survive a mini-ice age in which 80% of animals went extinct. In the most populous area around Chesapeake Bay (DC area), there was an extremely windy sand storm for about a 1000 years as a result of a melting ice cap. I’m thankful for shows like Journey to 10,000 BC because they remind us the challenges our ancestors overcame to make us who we are today and note interesting facts like the beloved camel being from North America. Some cultures place great importance on learning about their ancestors and Americans have a lot to learn from them. The American educational system teaches children very little about North American ancient history if they cover it at all. Our perception of life would be different if we were continually reminded what our planet and ancestors have been through.