JEALOUS RELATIVES? Some thoughts on the Black Music Diaspora

Hip Hop and diasporic jealousy:

Are you a hip hop fan? That's my question for today, and it's a loaded question. 

              Hip-Hop is a stand-alone genre of music influenced by the slick-talking AMERICAN R&B DJs of the 1950s and onward, combined with house-moving grooves selected by younger DJs of the 

early 70s, who discovered (ON THEIR own) "breaks", heavy instrumental portions of records 

from any genre, but mainly soul and funk. The first nationally released hip-hop single was 

an interpolated funk loop. Somehow, over the years, OUR origin story has been modified, 

rewritten, and reinterpreted by outsiders trying to understand how something so dope can 

come from people so "uncultured" and "ghetto". They perpetuate myths about a Jamaican Sound 

System influence, and Kool Herc has stated himself: "We didn't play Jamaican music, nobody 

would hear it." If the man himself stated Jamaica had nothing to do with our music, why do 

people keep perpetuating the myth? People can't believe the oppressed descendants of slaves 

could create a world-changing phenomenon despite being surrounded by soul-crushing poverty 

combined with its' twin: Institutional Racism. Lil' ol' us made big ol y'all want to dress, 

act, and speak in our street slang. At the same time, over time (let me fast forward a 

little bit), these "offshoot" cultures have so much undercover hate in them it's pathetic:

UK grime rappers claiming to be evolved past us, despite not getting much attention outside 

of white blogs in the states.

Corporate sponsored Canadian actors being pushed to the limelight because of a bitten 

Houston aesthetic, bastardized and "smoothed out on the R&B tip" (sounds familiar, ha). 

Some of us even take part in this, not understanding what's behind it. People from 

countries with a 3rd and 4th hand black cultural expression attempting to RIVAL instead of representing their small piece of our large whole. Grime is still rap. Dubstep is still reggae influenced, and reggae (drumroll) is still an offshoot of American R&B. Even "toasting" came from us first.

 No matter how you twist the origin story, we are the progenitors. 

Respect the architect...like Blueprint says. 

To some, it's just music, a collection of sounds. Or an image, the way you dress and carry 

yourself. To me, and many others, it's a culture and it's expressed in every part of our 

being. Respect it or be considered and treated like the guest you are.