celebrating 50 years of cursing, racism, and vulgarity

From: add1dda@aol.com <add1dda@aol.com>
To: NPR <reply-fe8e1c787066027975-64697_html-424104674-6425781-23004@nl.npr.org>
Sent: saturday, august 5, 2023 at 02:45:16p.m. edt

celebrating 50 years of hip-hop

on saturday, august 5, 2023 at 07:01:24 a.m. edt, npr <email@nl.npr.org> wrote:

plus, how local rap scenes reinvented the genre.

[N.S.: "reinvented" what? How do you reinvent a big, fat zero?]

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by Suzanne Nuyen
august 5, 2023

"good morning. we're celebrating hip-hop's 50th birthday in this special edition of the up first newsletter. subscribe to the npr music newsletter for more hip-hop coverage this week.

by Sheldon Pearce, npr music editor

"this month, the music world [sic] is commemorating a major anniversary. it's been 50 years since some teenagers threw a party at an apartment building in the south bronx — a party now recognized as the birth of hip-hop [Better known as "rap," or crap.]. at npr music, we have been celebrating this milestone all summer.



Jackie Lay & Connie Hanzhang Jin/npr

"there are so many ways of marking hip-hop's growth into a globally dominant cultural export, but we decided to keep our eyes and ears trained on the local scenes that have helped the genre reinvent itself and push past its limits over and over again. not just the oft-told stories of icons that emerged from new york, los angeles and atlanta, but scenes that developed their own distinct flavors and identities in miami, boston, St. Louis and detroit too. "when you look at a city's rap scene through a magnifying glass, you see the many people who helped make it, but also its history. Zandria F. Robinson's pocket history of memphis hip-hop ties the early history of memphis rap to delta blues musicians who traveled from mississippi upriver to tennessee. [N.S.: There are no such ties.] Later artists, with their sights on the future of the genre, mined that music to create something indebted to those roots, but of its own moment; you can see the full spectrum of creativity spread out across time." [N.S.: Cursing has no connection to any musical traditions.] "we've got lots more coverage of hip-hop's 50th anniversary on the way, including a look at where hip-hop is headed. You'll find all of it collected here.

"more hip-hop history"

Joelle Avelino for npr

"the American south is an essential part of hip-hop. but that hasn't always been the case — rappers from the region have often been dismissed. npr music's project, the south got something to say: a celebration of southern rap, features 130 songs and albums that celebrate the south's role as a creative center of the genre.

"dive into a different year in hip-hop history each week with kexp's Larry Mizell Jr. on 50 years of hip-hop. Hear personal reflections, iconic tracks and conversations around the genesis of the culture. "on louder than a riot, hosts Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael confront power from every angle. season 1 traced how the criminal justice system and mass incarceration are intertwined with hip-hop. season 2, which came out this year, examines how misogynoir — the specific racist [N.S.: but we're talking about black males!] misogyny against black women — is embedded into hip-hop culture. "npr's fresh air has featured interviews with some of the greatest names in hip-hop history. [N.S.: What on Earth does it mean to be some of the greatest names in hip-hop history? Is thatr like being some of the greatest names in the history of organized crime?] check out all of the conversations in the archive, from David Bianculli's interview with Wu-Tang Clan's rza to Terry Gross's conversation with queen Latifah. "hip-hop's not just fun to listen to — it can save lives. [The worship of racist murderers can save lives? In what parallel universe?] in 2005, dr. Olajide Williams teamed up with Doug E. Fresh, the 'original human beat box,' to create a hit song [sic] that would also teach kids how to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. they later founded hip hop public health, an organization dedicated to using music and culture to help underserved [sic] communities. [N.S.: "underserved communities." That's a euphemism for blacks. It's garbage because: 1. As good James Q. Wilson once wrote, you can't speak of aggregates of blacks as "communities," because no group of people dominated by so many pathologies can form communities, and 2. black aggregates aren't "underserved," they're overserved. They make no economic contribution to society, but instead suck billions out of White pockets per year. For instance, in black-dominated public schools, twice as much White taxpayer dollars are spent on the average student than are spent on the average White public school student.Thus, black aggregates are overserved, while White communities are underserved--actually most Whites, except for rich criminals, are completely unserved.] "cultural critic Kiana Fitzgerald is looking back at the albums that changed the game. listen to her discuss how Eric B. Rakim's debut in 1987 marked a seismic shift in the complexity [ha, ha, ha!] of rap."


"npr's tiny desk has been no stranger to hip-hop superstars. you can binge [sic] all of them here and listen to tiny desk senior producer Bobby Carter discuss his favorite performances on all things considered.

"these are some performances that live rent-free in my head:

🎵 megan thee stallion's tiny desk was the first time she performed with a live band in public. it's required viewing for your hot girl summer.

🎵 "wtf is a tiny desk and no!" has any tweet led to a more iconic performance than juvenile's? ["iconic." There's that word.]

🎵 up until common's performance in 2016, tiny desk had never been performed anywhere other than the iconic [sic] desk. but when the white house calls, you jump on the opportunity." [N.S.: "The white house" referred to the illegally elected John Doe calling himself "Barack Obama." If the sentence were about President Trump, the "the white house" would have been part of a put-down. It's just like after Rudy Giuliani beat racist, black socialist David Dinkins in the 1993 nyc election, a racist, black new york times operative gleefully reported a black supremacist referring to former mayor Dinkins as "the mayor," while derisively speaking of mayor Giuliani as "Rudy." The resourceful Giuliani turned such racist disrespect into an asset: "Vote for Rudy."]

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this newsletter was edited by Carol Ritchie.