Rocksteady
2000-08-01 01:11:29
Shouts to everyone who went to the Rocksteady joints... this weekend was insane... From what i hear it wasn't as good as previous years, but the shit was live. My mello Precise won the Eastern ITF's (International Turntable Federation Battle) and my mello Spryte got robbed from his win. So Precise will be representing Chi in Cali. Very nice. They had quite a bit to say during breakfast afterwards regarding the judges not letting Spryte move forward. You'll see if you buy the tape.What else, um... Escorted 3 lovely ladies around town all weekend. 3 Amazingly gorgeous latinas.. one of which is a good friend of mine from a while back. It's a trip how much an ego and largeheadedness builds when you have 3 beautiful women walking with you everywhere you go. You get a lot of dirty looks and a lot of stares. And a lot of phone numbers. But besides the ego trip.. which was hard to ignore, I had a great time with my girl from home. She's one of the few i'd be willing to drop everything for. Some know what i mean by this. The others, oh well...
This weekend made me think a lot about the culture that brought me up. The true hip hop. I don't even like the word anymore. It's been so desecrated within the past few years. I'm part of a group.. not officially... the group's not even official: Hip hoppers who HATE hip hop. If you have never bboyed, graffed, turned tables, or emceed in any shape or form (including poetry, beat boxing, popping and locking, production, etc, etc) and consider yourself a contributing member to the hip hop community, then YOU are the part of hip hop who I don't like. Don't take it personal. It's not your fault. It's the limelight... and the loot... and all the other shit that killed rock also... I'm not saying you shouldn't like it or anything, just don't try to tell a contributing member that you are worthy of respect WITHIN the culture. I mean, I like Christmas music and festivites, but that sure as hell don't make me a Christian.
So i got to thinking of all the shit that so many people don't know... Like everyone who doesn't know that Michael Jackson bit the moonwalk off of poppers and lockers and claimed it as his own, or that Big Bank Hank stole Rappers Delight from Grand Master Caz and made the first hip hop record ever without crediting him. Even though he could never come up with a rhyme of his own. And small things like the fact that "break dancing," which is actually BREAKING or BBOYING, NEVER died but just fell out of the movies and the public eye. And for anyone who thinks Any CD you bought at Tower records is underground... It's not.. No really. It's not. If it was at Tower or Virgin or on ANY radio station (besides college radio) for that matter, then there had been a marketing budget. Which means it is.. repeat after me.. "C O M M E R C I A L" There you gooo...
Finally, I'd like to send a big FUCK YOU to the guy who was hitting on my boy's friend (a bgirl from Toronto who had been sitting with him attentively) and ended up starting a fight about who's more hip hop. What? What do you mean who's more hip hop? Who cares? And who the fuck are you? And why are you boxing kids from chicago because you got turned down by one of their women? And why were you bleeding everywhere after my boy whooped your punk ass? Doesn't it bother you that he was half your size?
Unfortunately, I wasn't there. Fortunately, one of my boys got it all on tape and we watched and laughed at you for hours. You sure looked funny with my boy's foot in your mouth. And the girl? She went home with my boy that night.
Now, I'm sure he won't read this. But that SLIGHT chance that he would, makes it ALL worth while.
Well.. I've had about 3 hours of sleep since Thurday... I must be off..
Go buy Criminal Minded and some MC SHan tapes. While you're at it, grab a couple Easy Rock, Rocksteady, ITF Battle, DMC Battle, Video Graff, Wild Style and Style Wars tapes and watch them a few hundred times each. If you like what you see, try it out. All of it. Then give me a call... And let's talk about what you did. Until then... Keep listening with you eyes and ears with your mouth closed. you might notice all the love that flows through...
By the way.. big props to all the people who came from around the world. Not one fight or even a bad look from anyone throughout the whole event. (My boy's fight was in Union Square - far from the events).. Just hugs and networking...
Peace and Love...