The Golden Age of Hip Hop on the Silver Screen This Month's Issue

Home , Deeply Rooted, Hip Hop Is Dead, Nature (rapper), The Documentary, The Get Down

Issue 137 March 2017

A NEWSLETTER OF THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

The Golden Age of Hip Hop on the Silver Screen

O WEN CLARK

Hip hop is dead. I can’t exactly recall the Illmatic. I’m possibly stretching the truth point at which I frst heard this phrase, for the sake of my ‘rep’; I defnitely possess This Month’s Issue but it seems to be etched in my earliest several of Shaquille O’Neil’s critically- memories of acquainting myself with rap lauded singles in my old CD rack, so who music, and all of its accompanying baggage. can say which came frst, but let’s just say Undoubtedly, journalistic decries of the I started listening around the time that The Golden Age death of entire genres of music, sports, those black and white ‘parental advisory’ or really anything entertainment related, stickers started appearing on CDs—great of Hip Pop 1 have become tiresome clichés. Jazz is dead; job Tipper Gore, you really deterred our O WEN CLARK boxing is dead; this writer’s short-lived interest. Tis isn’t some sort of brag; had career is dead—frankly these assertions my sister not attended Abbeydale Grange, are as banal as they are dubious. However, Shefeld’s version of Dangerous Minds, the only upshot of such a declaration is I might have been listening to the same that it ofen elicits a thoughtful discourse Spice Girls CDs as my peers, but I think Culture Corner as to how we reached this supposed nadir, it led me to buy into the idea that post- “Truth” in Painting and the state of things to come. gangsta rap music just wasn’t worth my 5 Let me just say from the outset, if time. B ERNIE L ANGS you’re looking for a detailed analysis on Flash-forward to the present, rap is the current state of hip hop music, you certainly alive and well. Summer sixteen can stop reading. I’m far from an expert (the summer, not the album) was about on the subject, and in all honesty, I detest the time I realized that the genre is to NYC Dialect the critic culture that currently dominates some extent semi-unrecognizable from New York-ese: Lesson 5 internet journalism. However, like many the rap I know and love. Tat August, 7 others, I share an afnity for rap, and my former roommate/current friend A ILEEN MARSHALL see it as having a fairly unique origin and I attended a Lil Dicky show in and evolution that will always fascinate Manhattan. For those of you that don’t me. If I may be so bold, I will say that know, Lil Dicky is a technically fawless, my introduction to rap music probably comedy-focused rapper, whose ingenious occurred before the standard age of the parodies efectively spell out all of rap’s Life on a Roll nerdy, white, middle-class demographic shortcomings. Te venue reeked of weed Encountering Maya that I belong to. I was nine or ten when and was populated almost exclusively 8 I purchased my frst rap album, It Was by teenagers (the most frightening Q IO NG WANG Written—Nas’s sophomore studio ofering, and follow up to the highly acclaimed CONTINUED TO P.2*

CONTINUED TO P.2 * 1 The Get Down’s Shaolin Fantastic learns the ropes from Grand Master Flash.

* CONTINUED FROM P.1 winded introduction and briefy review some of these excellent oferings. Editorial Board demographic). Lil Dicky preceded EDITORIAL BOARD Lil Yachty (why are rappers always Hip Hop Evolution diminutive?), who at the time I hadn’t even Originally airing on HBO, and Jim Keller heard of—but that man, with his braids currently streaming on both HBO and Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor so bright, managed to whip the crowd of Netfix, this four-part documentary Chew-Li Soh vape-high/Bud Light-drunk teenyboppers follows Canadian rapper Shadrach Associate Editor into a frenzied state. I stood back, terrifed, Kabango (stage name Shad) on a musical but also intrigued. Te next day, I perused pilgrimage to discover hip hop’s origins Yvette Chin, Lil Yachty’s tracks on Spotify, from the in the crime-stricken streets of 1970s Editorial Assistant safety of my living room, and came to South Bronx, and trace key developments Qiong Wang the realization that his particular style throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, as the Copy Editor, Webmaster, Public Relations Manager of drawling, atonal, syncopated rap- genre took new and exciting directions, talking, in essence exemplifed the current and garnered mainstream success. Shad Juliette Wipf movement in hip hop that somehow takes us on a fascinating journey, revealing Copy Editor, Webmaster, Distribution emerged right under my nose. remarkable insights that are accompanied Lisa Hang Accepting that you’re no longer by a plethora of interviews with key fgures Copy Editor ‘down with the kids’ can be a tough pill in the rap community, both past and to swallow. But for me it came at a time present. Johannes Buheitel when I happened to notice an uptick in the Te show explores crucial Copy Editor appearance of documentaries/dramatic innovations in hip hop, beginning with Owen Clark portrayals exploring the early origins and the founder himself, DJ Kool Herc, and his Copy Editor, Distribution development of hip hop music. Tis might ‘merry-go-round’ idea of using side-by- be a slightly tangential straw at which side turntables playing the same (or similar) Alice Marino I’m grasping at, but this speaks to me as record, in order to elongate rhythmic drum Copy Editor, Distribution a collective acceptance, that rap has in a beats in soul and funk tracks—known Thiago Carvalho way, come full circle. Maybe not in the as break beats—at legendary parties in Copy Editor true sense of that phrase, but what I mean the recreation room of the Bronx project Aileen Marshall is we’ve reached the point where we can he called home. Herc would punctuate sit back (‘with a Buddha sack’) and wax these breaks with rhyming slang phrases, Copy Editor lyrical about the earlier days of the music, normally delivered through an Echoplex Nan Pang & Guadalupe Astorga with a sense of nostalgia that only comes delay, and thus hip hop was born. We see Designers with frm, mainstream, establishment; and how some of the originating icons built on some current, unfamiliar deviation from the methods of others to fnesse early hip selections.rockefeller.edu our perceived norm. So with that muddled [email protected] sentiment in mind, I will end this long- CONTINUED TO P.3* 2 * CONTINUED FROM P.2 of teenagers as they navigate the burning period footage to solidify pertinent scenes. Bronx of the late 1970s—struggling to steer One of the reasons why I call hop—Grand Master Flash’s ingenious clear of the street gangs, rising crime, and New York home is its riveting history, technique for identifying the precise political corruption that blighted the city, particularly the 70s and 80s, where soaring location of break beats; Melle Mel’s use of while establishing a hip hop crew mighty crime rates and near-bankruptcy led parts rap to bring awareness to the social strife enough to topple the throne of Grand of the city to resemble a dystopian war experienced in the woefully deprived Master Flash. Although co-creator Baz zone. I’ve read books on the subject, and communities of inner city America, in the Luhrmann’s trademark style of production watched myriad YouTub e videos cataloging timeless classic Te Message; Run-DMC’s provides a brightly colored, comic book the widespread arson that leveled the at the time startling decision to drop the feel; the show weaves a captivating Bronx in particular (where my mother instrumental samples and rap purely over narrative—perfectly illuminating the key grew up in the 40s and 50s), but until now beats; Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin’s developments of the 70s hip hop scene I’ve had to make do with Te Warriors as savvy entrepreneurial strategy that turned described in Hip Hop Evolution, with a the closest thing to a historical portrayal rap into a multi-million dollar business, dramatic spin. We’re treated to scenes like of this captivating period. Te Get Down and took hip hop center stage with acts like Grandmaster Flash sending his protégé flls an obvious void, and manages to tie LL Cool J and Te Beastie Boys. Te fnal Shaolin Fantastic, on a dangerous race multiple developments together such as episode explores the genres infltration against Te Savage Warlord street gang, to grafti artistry, disco music, breakdancing, into West Coast circles, and how the crack retrieve a rare copy of a record to sample and Ed Koch’s mayoral campaign, over six epidemic, police brutality, and rising gang (which was a huge part of gaining an edge hour-long episodes, while maintaining a warfare on the streets of LA engendered for early DJs). We see the inside of one of compelling story. the gangsta rap that came to dominate the DJ Cool Herc’s aforementioned parties 90s. (also depicted in Vinyl), in a hunt for a Time Is Illmatic Tere’s a thought-provoking scene mystery bootlegger—a key feature of the Tis was always going to be a in the short-lived and divisive HBO drama dissemination of early hip hop tracks; and winner for me. In my humblest of humble Vinyl, in which we see a presumed DJ Cool we get a glimpse of what life was like for opinions, I can say without any shadow Herc—honing his craf by spinning funk kids whose playgrounds were the burnt of a doubt that Nas’s 1994 debut album records side by side to create break loops— down tenement buildings and abandoned Illmatic is the greatest rap album of all maligned by the elders and their calls to lots around the South Bronx’s Charlotte time. Tis record is to hip hop, what Miles ‘let the record play man!’ Tis perfectly Street. Davis’s Kind of Blue is to jazz, somehow illustrates the salient message of Hip Hop Te show does a great job of using managing to efectively distill the beauty Evolution, that these developments were fctional portrayals to educate viewers of all that preceded it, while blazing a new not simply step-by-step progressions on about key events that changed the course and exciting path. Te intro on the albums a clear-cut path, but truly imaginative of hip hop, such as Grand Master Flash frst musical track, NY State of Mind, still innovations that exceeded against all odds. handing Shaolin Fantastic nothing more gives me chills. With its triplet swing-style Tere’s also a theme here that pervades than a purple crayon to impart the lesson rhythm on drums; the crescendo of the throughout Vinyl, of betting on the wrong of creating break loops (see if you can blues scale-derived rif played on upright horse—whether it be record company fgure it out). However, the standout bass; and the piano, peppering the bass execs or the general public. When Hip highlight is the depiction of the 1977 New line with an ofeat altered chord—the Hop Evolution details Run DMC’s 1986 York blackout, when an electrical fault track lays a groove deeply rooted in jazz, collaboration with Aerosmith on Walk caused the entire city to lose power for an that sets the scene for Nas’s hilariously Tis Way, we’re reminded that throughout entire night and day, during a brutal July self-depreciating ‘I don’t even know how its early history, hip hop was ofen scofed heat wave. While this event will forever to start this,’ prior to dropping one of at as a passing fad that would never be remembered as a shocking display of the greatest verses in the history of rap. materialize into mainstream success. For a carnage—where mass looting and rioting Spoiler alert—Time Is Illmatic ends with hip hop group to collaborate with a larger saw some 1,600 stores damaged, with Nas spitting this verse to headphone than life rock band was actually a huge deal over 1,000 fres, leading to almost 4,000 monitors in the studio, contextualizing at the time. What’s even more remarkable arrests—it served as a crucial facilitator its brilliance. While I haven’t always been is that some twenty years on, it’s actually in the development of hip hop, where so opinionated on the matter, I think the hip hop that is unquestionably the more stolen DJ equipment tripled the number fact that twenty-fve years afer its debut, dominant mainstream genre, and rock is of functional hip hop crews overnight. Te holding the title of the only rap album that unfortunately falling by the way side. blackout was of course covered in Hip Hop I periodically come back to time and time Evolution, but gaining some perspective again, without skipping a single track, is Te Get Down on what it was actually like to live testament to its preeminence. Although Te Get Down was through, gives the show a touch of magical Time is Illmatic (which viewers can produced completely independently of realism, reminiscent of another Netfix watch via streaming on Amazon Prime) Hip Hop Evolution, in many ways it serves original, Narcos, in which as a viewer expertly intertwines Nas’s early life as the perfect companion piece. Tis six- you’re frequently brought to disbelief, growing up on the streets of Queensbridge part Netfix-original drama, which takes questioning whether these seemingly (in America’s largest public housing its name from the slang term for those bizarre events actually happened. Te gold dust-like break beats, follows a group producers also do a great job of splicing in CONTINUED TO P.4 * 3 * CONTINUED FROM P.3 like Ahmad Jamal, in contrast to others and the forced labor that came with it— that rely heavily on samples from very the trials and tribulations encountered in project) with the production of Illmatic— well established famous songs (*cough* navigating a system that’s designed to keep weaving a complex story of personal strife Kanye *cough*). Serving as a sort of you down. that sowed the seeds for a precocious internal control, It Aint Hard to Tell, which I think this documentary and the 21-year-old Nas to produce this iconic samples Michael Jackson’s Human Nature, album itself serves as an interesting follow masterpiece. For me, what sets the album is probably Illmatic’s corniest track. up to Hip Hop Evolution and Te Get apart from other classics is the coupling Other highlights include an Down, since you’ll notice Nas’s frequent of musicality—jazz-derived rhythmic examination of another fawless track, nods to the old guard (also coincidentally, grooves that permeate through every One Love, with words from its producer Nas introduces each episode of Te Get track; with deeply poetic storytelling—a Q-Tip. Here we delve into the tragedy of Down with a tailor-made rap). Lines like tradition frmly rooted in the country blues a generation of young black males lost ‘A smooth criminal on beat breaks’ or ’I music of the early 20th century, of which to the mounting mass incarceration that reminisce on park jams, my man was shot Nas has unquestionably mastered. With pervaded the latter half of the 20th century, for his sheep coat’, as well as ‘back in 83 I this in mind, it’s particularly interesting to and continues to this day. One Love is was an MC sparkin, but I was too scared explore Nas’s relationship with his father, defnitely a stand out track on the album, to grab the mics in the parks and, kick a Mississippi-born jazz musician (who in which Nas’s rap takes the form of a letter my little raps’—are all brought to life with actually makes a cameo playing cornet to a friend in prison, exploring both the the knowledge of how early hip hop took on the outro of the album’s third track), horrors faced behind bars, and the void shape during Nas’s childhood. At times in and to see an in-depth examination of the that’s lef on the streets—exemplifed the album the instruments will even drop production of these tracks. I kind of see by the line ‘plus, congratulations, you out for a couple of lines, allowing Nas to myself as a slightly better looking version know you got a son//I heard he looks rap solely over beat breaks, merging the of Ryan Gosling’s Seb in the flm La La like ya, why don’t your lady write ya?’ old with the new—an audacious feat for a Land—I genuinely hold the opinion that Tis message is arguably even more 21-year-old newcomer. You might be able if you don’t at least somewhat appreciate relevant now than it was then, with the to tell at this point that I’m struggling to jazz and blues music, then you don’t industrial prison complex at an all-time resist the urge to digress into a song by deserve to listen to rap or rock. Tus, I high, perfectly illuminated in the recent song review of Illmatic, so I’ll cap this of feel somewhat validated by this aspect of Netfix documentary 13TH. Again there’s with words from the man himself—‘Sip the documentary. It also really highlights an interesting precedent to this, wherein the Dom P, and watch this document-ary how important instrumentation is to the early blues music would ofen center till you’re charged.’ Ok I rejigged it a little, album, with Nas sampling jazz legends around the hardships of the penitentiary but you get the message.

4 Culture Corner “Truth” in Painting

B ERNIE L ANGS

Bernard Berenson Jacques Derrida Meyer Schapiro

Getting to a ‘core essence’ in a mystic or observes this as a retinal sensation and that the grow as a theorist and critic and chose to be revelatory sense can be as elusive as tracing tactile sense stems from childhood revelations a connoisseur rather than an art historian or the path of an electron or photon, famously and joy in the discovery of the physical aspect philosopher of art, which indeed Berenson described as both particle and wave. Te arts of the sense of touch. did regret. Schapiro describes the theory of can be utilized as a conduit to higher states Alison Brown describes in her essay ‘tactile values’ in painting as a “strange appeal of consciousness. In music, the drone of an Bernard Berenson and ‘Tactile Values’ in to physiology” and that Berenson used these Indian sitar or a choral work by Mozart can Florence the evolution of Berenson’s theory, ideas “with no deepening sense, as personal carry the mind of the listener to abstract and noting that Berenson saw his ideas more clichés imposed on any sort of problem.” blissful states. In the 19th century, Walter Pater akin to psychology rather than philosophy, Around the time I read Schapiro’s redefned the approach to the study of art in and that he had been heavily infuenced at book, I was trying to incorporate the study history and art history itself in his book of Harvard by his professor, William James, and of art history in cultural context using the essays, Te Renaissance. When writing about his writings on psychological aesthetics. methodical approach of Professors Schapiro the Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione, he What I took from reading Berenson’s and Panofsky, and others combined with the noted “All art constantly aspires towards the book over two decades ago, was the idea of the bullet train to higher states I’d created in my condition of music” and later asserts that the shortcut ofered by paintings to heightened mind around Berenson’s ideas. mind’s impressions are “in continual fux.” states of the sublime, which leaves the door About ten years ago, I chanced to read Pater states that a passion for the arts has “the open to many kinds of revelation, including, Te Truth in Painting by French philosopher greatest potential for staving of the sense of yet far beyond, the psychological. In the Jacques Derrida. Derrida’s writings are transience, because in the arts the perceptions mid-1990s, I purchased a book of collected uncommonly difcult and convoluted, and of highly sensitive minds are already ordered.” essays by Meyer Schapiro, who at the time he is both praised and derided as the main Bernard Berenson presents his theory was Professor Emeritus of Art History at force behind the philosophical school of of how and why painting grabs hold of the Columbia University. I’d read Schapiro’s book Deconstruction. When reading Derrida, I’m viewer, in his book Te Italian Painters of of selected papers on late Antiquity, early always struck by his underlying humor, and the Renaissance, a compiled series of essays Christian and Medieval art that had impressed when I really believe I’m catching the gist of written from 1894 to 1907, and reissued in me in its scientifc, sleuthing, and exhaustive his purposively obtuse arguments, it’s a source 1952. Berenson’s famous ideas on the ‘tactile’ examination of art, much along the lines of the of sublime understanding. process of how paintings bring the viewer to a awe-inspiring and groundbreaking approach Derrida’s approach is akin to a circling heightened state starts with his observation of of Princeton’s Erwin Panofsky. Te 1990s war party, each on his own horse surrounding what form does in paintings: “It lends a higher collection includes the essay, Mr. Berenson’s one solitary covered wagon, where all riders coefcient of reality to the object represented, Values from 1961, boasting cutting gems have their own notion of what may be hidden with the consequent of accelerated psychical of prose such as his analysis of Berenson’s in that wagon, and whatever it is may have an processes, and the exhilarating sense of conversion from Judaism to Christianity. increased capacity in the observer.” He Schapiro notes that Berenson failed to CONTINUED TO P.6 * 5 * CONTINUED FROM P.5

‘ultimate’ end to it. But as we circle, it becomes clear that there’s a good chance that there is absolutely nothing inside the wagon (or perhaps Schrödinger’s cat!) and also that we’re never truly going to get a clear look at it. But by moving closer and closer and sharing all angles of viewing, we’ll perhaps fnd the ghost or essence of the core. One of the essays in Truth in Painting is Derrida’s work Restitutions of the truth in pointing [pointure]. Gianluca Spinato in his essay, Philosophy of Art: Martin Heidegger and Meyer Schapiro, argues that “Jacques Derrida’s well-known discussion of the confict between the faculties in question locates Heidegger on the side of the ‘truth’ of art and fnds Schapiro on the side of historical and dialectical, even materialist accuracy. Te resulting ‘haul’, discussing Van Gogh, Restitution continues on is a specialist. Painting, and even Van Gogh, as Derrida names it at the end of his own to jab at Professor Schapiro and his approach to is, so to speak, his thing, he wants to keep it, evaluation of Schapiro’s original assessment, studying art, including the questioning of one he wants it returned…Tey owe the truth ‘is a meagre one for the picture police, for this of his most famous essays in his book on late in painting, the truth of painting and even discourse of order and propriety/property in Antiquity and early Christian art. Restitution painting as truth, or even as the truth of truth.” painting’.” included an unexpected view of Schapiro In complete contradiction to my Derrida examines, in his playfully that both Heidegger and Derrida bring circling wagon deconstructive metaphor, maddening manner, approaches to down on him, seemingly implying that their Derrida describes examining the problem understanding Vincent Van Gogh’s famous philosophical query into the underlying truths from a stationary standpoint. It reminded painting Old Shoes with Laces, as well as other in Van Gogh and in painting, are something me of a lecture I attended many years ago by paintings by the artist of peasant boots. Two akin to abstract notions defned by the then-Director of the Metropolitan Museum signifcant quotes begin the exposition, the ancient Greeks, and ignored and beyond the of Art, Philippe de Montebello. He discussed frst by Cezanne that “I owe you the truth in comprehension of an art historian. Schapiro’s that to get the full power of a painting, one painting, and I will tell it you” and Van Gogh’s criticism of Heidegger is made to look like an has to look at it for a very long time. He own words, “But truth is so dear to me, and attempt at grabbing back the paintings to his punctuated this point with a funny anecdote so is the seeking to make true, that indeed, I feld of study and away from the other school. of how, while visiting the Frick Collection, he believe I would still rather be a cobbler than a Derrida writes of “A symbolic correspondence, stared so long at a painting that the security musician with colors.” an accord, a harmonic. In this communication staf grew concerned and a guard approached Afer a long discourse on shoes, peppered between two illustrious professors who have him demanding to know what he was doing. with doubts of whether they can even be called both of them a communication to make on ‘a It reminds me to keep looking, keep looking “a pair” and other unsubstantiated “givens” in famous picture by Van Gogh’—one of the two long and hard.

Quotable Quote

”It is quite certain that science cannot progress properly except by the fullest internationalism”

A.V. Hill (Nature, 1933) Archibald Vivian Hill in 1922 6 Lesson 5 New York City Dialect New York-ese A ILEEN MARSHALL

Yo! Welcome to lesson fve in our series If you want to get around in on the New York City dialect. I hope the city, don’t pay any attention to wawk you’ve been practicing. By now you should signals. be able to hold a light conversation in New Bus exhaust usually makes me York-ese, and order a bagel with a schmear. cawf. To review last month’s lesson, a number My mother tawt me never to of words in the city dialect have an touch the handrails in the subway. elongated A sound, sounding like “aw.” Our vocabulary words were tawk, thawt Tis month’s lesson: and dawg. Here are some more examples of them used in a sentence. Native New Yorkers ofen drop the H in Don’t sit next to that guy tawkin’ words that start with that letter. Te two to himself. most common instances of this are huge I thawt he was a tourist askin’ and human. Keep practicing by listening to for directions, but he was a bum askin’ for Here are some examples of words using the locals conversing. Hang out at your change. dropped H words used in a sentence. Click neighborhood pizza joint. Te two You can make money in your on the links to hear the pronunciation. traditional establishments in this spare time as a dawg walker. Dat demonstration on 57th neighborhood are Sutton Pizza, on First Street is really goin’ to be ‘uge. Avenue and 63rd Street, and Pizza Park, Other examples of the elongated A are It’s been good to see New Yorkers also on First Avenue, at 66th Street. Tune walk, cough and taught. Here are some stand up for ‘uman rights. in next month for a test of your newly examples of these words used in a sentence. acquired language skills.

7 Life on a Roll

QIONG WANG

This was my first visit to Mexico, and my first visit to the Yucatán peninsula, which must be a magical land. Despite a plan for every detail on the trip, things started to fall apart the moment I landed. However, all the adventures became so worthwhile when I finally saw the ancient Mayan civilization. Here is a peek at the great Chichén Itzá, the breezy Tulum ruins, and the magnificent Governor’s Palace at Uxmal.