Old School Scholar

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.

Fresh on YouTube, care of ThudRumble.com, we have turntablists QBert and Rafik having fun with Scratch Drumming. The two infamous DJs wreck shop by “doing an old school trick where they alternate between each other at the ends of each measure.” Simply said, these pros are doing what they always do in their zone when rocking the beats. This video was shot while chillin’ between takes of the new upcoming DVD Scratchlopedia Breaktannica.

For those not familiar, minstrel shows were theatrical skits that portrayed African Americans as cartoonish stereotypes. You know; lazy, uneducated, inarticulate, watermelon, fried chicken, yada yada yada. The characters were either played by Caucasian or Black actors in black face. White audiences in the 1800’s to early 1900’s were greatly entertained by them. Mainstream America [...]

I love Hip Hop. I love everything about what makes it so profound in my life and how I am always a part of it. It is a culture born from above average people whom ingeniously created to make a better aesthetic life out of limited resources. It is revolutionary. It never asked for permission to be seen or heard while inspiring the uninspired, and it neither apologized for its liberty being felt.

What is Hip Hop? There are a lot of different answers, depending on who you ask. Before I give my definition, let me start with what isn’t Hip Hop: Gangstas, Pimps, Hustlers, Drug Dealers. Basically, all the negative stigmas of urban life glorified in today’s rap music. It’s downright insulting to call the rap (or crap) music of the last few years Hip Hop. The early foundations of Hip Hop culture were built on the desire to escape the dreary existence of street life.