Old School Scholar

Thanks to the blog at Write4Gold for this info, we got great but old news for all of Graff-dom! The infamous book that inspired and gave birth to Graff Writers around the world, Subway Art, can be read online! As a matter of fact you can read it right here at the bottom of this article! Subway Art has been available on Issuu.com by member CedricB since February 2008, but you can never stop sharing the love!

We have quite a few prestigious competitions, battles and tournaments worldwide for Hip Hop. For B-Boys we have the grandest tournament, Battle of the Year. For DJ turntablism there is the hard earned DMC World DJ Championships, and for MCs there were many that have come and gone like the historic New Music Seminar. Today, we now have the million dollar prize up for grabs at the brand new World Series of Hip Hop in Atlanta, Georgia, September 27, 2008.

I am not a big advocate of tagging unless you got a mural and skills to back it up. I believe a tag should be a writer’s signature to his works, but that is just my view point. I guess it is because I see too many taggers hating on another man’s piece when it is dope.

A few days ago, I wrote about Graff Crews, and how they function and execute. I also expressed how a solid crew is born after time when members find their roles by their strengths eliminating weaknesses. What you are about to view is a 7 minute, jungle track laden, video slideshow that is friggin’ lovely!

It is the call of the wild style, and traditionally Graff Writers will hook up in crews like a pack of wolves roaming the night. A crew is exactly like any other team or company focusing on a common goal to get the job done. They choose their pieces, pick their target, establish the plan, agree to the tasks, enter, execute, bomb, and finally exit like vapor.

I have been noticing a disturbing trend with rappers making the move from the stage to the big screen. Since there are people who are deaf to hearing what is true school Hip Hop music, it can also be said about those same people being blind to what is truly happening with rappers going Hollywood.

You got to love the social expose YouTube provides as a medium for people to open up themselves to the world. Especially for Hip Hop culture. I lurk on it every couple of days to find who is posting the latest dopeness in the world of Graff Writing!

Now it’s time to build your name out there. It will take you and your DJ’s efforts to complete the rest on your own. That step would be to go live and practice in front of a small audience for your development.

You know, most up and coming rappers today believe getting their rhyme skills any type of attention is to enter a local MC battle, exhibit their presence online (i.e. YouTube or MySpace), or get on multiple mix tapes and hope a talent scout would discover them. These are all well proven buzz tactics that can get you noticed, but there is one problem to these forms of promotion. It ain’t live! It’s Memorex!

As Hip Hop continues to thrive and influence today’s mainstream pop culture after three decades of growth, the world-famous Rock Steady Crew is on the verge of their 31st Anniversary. The historic four-day celebration kicks off in New York City beginning Thursday, July 24 with the legendary Celebrity Benefit Basketball Challenge, and will wrap on Sunday, July 27 with the Outdoor Concert in Newark, New Jersey as an official event at the Third Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival.