Hip Hop – INDIE ROCK CAFE

Hip-hop artist and rapper Jay-Z, along with Beyonce, attended Jelly NYC’s free Grizzly Bear show at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn Sunday night. But it is what Jay-Z told MTV after the show that has people talking.

In a video-taped interview, Jay-Z said he hopes that the “inspiring” nature of “the indie rock movement” will “push” rap and hip-hop artists to become more creative and take risks.

The following is Jay-Z’s full quote to MTV today:

“[Grizzly Bear is] an incredible band. The thing I want to say to everyone – I hope this happens because it will push rap, it will push hip-hop to go even further – what the indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring. It felt like us in the beginning. These concerts, they’re not on the radio, no one hears about them, and there’s 12,000 people in attendance. And the music that they’re making and the connection they’re making to people is really inspiring. So I hope that they have a run where they push hip-hop back a little bit, so it will force hip-hop to fight to make better music. Because it can happen. Because that’s what rap did to rock.”

Jay-Z just gave one of the best definitions of what “indie rock” is all about nowadays, and touched on another aspect of what helps define indie rock – taking risks, experimenting with new sounds, mixing genres, incorporating various musical styles and having fun in the process.

Jay-Z said his love of different forms of music is the reason his “second Blueprint” was “so all over the place.” The world famous rapper also commented on how people are regularly surprised to see him at indie rock shows. See a video of Jay-Z’s quote broadcast on MTV this afternoon.

The comments Jay-Z made got me thinking about when Run DMC teamed up with Aerosmith to produce the legendary video remix of “Walk This Way.” As a result of that video that premiered on MTV in 1986, millions of music lovers in both the rock and rap music markets came to appreciate musical styles they may have previously not enjoyed, thought wasn’t cool to enjoy, or simply were not exposed to in a way that talked to them, so to speak.

When the idea of re-recording the song was originally presented to Run and DMC by Jam Master Jay, the guys had no idea who Aerosmith was and didn’t want any part of the project. Nevertheless, it is that video, and the album it appeared on, that catapulted the rappers to international fame and resurrected the career of Aerosmith.

Wikipedia’s official entry supports this connection, and is perhaps, in part, what Jay-Z was alluding to: “The 1986 version of the song is often credited as helping break rap into mainstream popular music as it was the first rap song to hit the Top 5 in The Billboard Hot 100, and the remake demonstrated how elements of rap music can be part of rock and pop songs.”

Kayne West is another hip hop/rap artist who is known to enjoy indie rock music. In fact, last February, West’s endorsement of Floridian band Blind Man’s Colour played a part in the band being signed to a record deal. West had seen a review of BMC on Indie Rock Cafe and linked it from his personal blog, Kayne University.

Check out some great photos of Grizzly Bear, Jay-Z and Beyonce from Brooklyn Vegan.

On this special day, it seems fitting to pay tribute to a man who raised awareness of the modern-day injustices of racism and bigotry. While he definitely was not a saint by any means, his impact was enormous.

Tupac Shakur was not simply one of the best rappers of his time, but a spokesman and a participating member of an oppressed, angry and disaffected youth. Much of his music was rejected by critics as ‘gangsta rap’, and rightfully so, but a good chunk of his music, in songs like “Letter to the President” and “Changes,” brought the plight of the black community to a new generation in a format they could relate to. And, he made people think.

“Changes” – Tupac Shakur

Moreover, part of Tupac’s genius was that he made his music, and more importantly his words, accessible to a much larger audience that included millions of white youth. He rapped about the struggles of blacks in America in modern times, from police brutality and institutional racism to the explosion of gangs, guns and drugs on the streets of the nation’s cities.

Tupac did not only speak out against racism by whites, but he also called on blacks to make change because ‘the old way wasn’t working.’

We gotta make a change
it’s time for us as a people to start making some changes
let’s change the way we eat let’s change the way we live
and let’s change the way we treat each other
you see the old way wasn’t working
so it’s on us to do what we gotta do to survive

Tupac was very much an activist rapper and he received plenty of push back, ridicule and dismissal from many young black men and fellow rappers at the time. And Tupac seemed to play a line between the philosophies of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This may have broadened his appeal to a larger audience, but either way, people listened to Tupac, and people did make changes because of his influence, that lasts to this day. If Tupac Shakur were still alive, he would have been 37 years old. He was shot in Las Vegas in 1996 by a drive-by shooter and died six days later.

For the most part, Tupac never would have believed there would be a black president in his lifetime, had he lived. But that is what is so great about today. It plays right into the amazing progress we have made in a short time. For all the problems, there are triumphs happening all of the time. Yet for still too many black youth, these triumphs, even the triumph of a black president, are still faraway things in their daily lives.

Also in the song “Changes”, Tupac saw the reality of a black president as “heaven sent” because it did not seem possible then, or in many ways, even two years ago when Obama set out on what many thought was an impossible dream.

and although it seems heaven sent
we ain’t ready to see a black president
it ain’t a secret don’t conceal the fact
the penitentiary’s packed and it’s filled with blacks

Tupac, in his own legendary way, deserves some of the credit for helping make this day, January 20, 2009 happen because he was such an influential voice with a powerful message of social change. He helped further the discussion in a way that brought many whites and blacks together in mind, at least, and helped inch us all a little bit closer to the fulfillment of the American ideal – that all men are created equal and born with the unalienable right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Today, we are a lot closer to fulfilling that promise – there’s still a way to go – and it feels damn good.

And let us not forget that while we celebrate a historic leap forward in American experiment, we face troubled, if not dire, times. President Barack Obama did not win the presidency so America could ‘feel good’ about itself for its crimes and other injustices against blacks, he won because he is remarkably skilled in all of the ways that have the potential to reveal a great leader.

He won because he is the embodiment of the American Dream, the idea that no matter how different we may be we have common values that are consistent with the hopes of our forefathers. He won because he made his case about a new era for America, one in which most of us crave, in which we will get back on the right course and charter a new path into the future that could truly fulfill the promise of America, and to a larger extent, the world. And at the same time we need to save a planet in peril, save an entire economy from collapse and figure out a new agenda for two wars.

“Letter to the President” – Tupac Shakur (this song has a whole new meaning today)

After at least six years of misery, mischief, mismanagement and ‘mistakes’ that have put America in a fragile situation, most people are ready to do away with old formulas and ideas that do not work and do things different. That is part of the equation that fueled Obama’s amazing journey to the presidency.

If anyone can manage these multiple crisis’, many people obviously feel President Obama can, of course with our help. Getting through adversity seems to be a common thread in his life, so it looks like we’ve got a good shot at getting it right – hopefully sooner than later.

Category: Hip Hop

After Grizzly Bear’s Brooklyn Show, Jay-Z Says He Hopes The ‘Indie Rock Movement’ Will Inspire Rap and Hip-Hop Artists

Tupac Alluded to Obama’s Inaugural As ‘Heaven Sent’