This is the thread where I out myself.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Hi. My name is Viva, and I used to Breakdance.

(pause for snickers and giggles to die down..)

That’s central to my story, but not the point of it, so we’ll just move on…

The opening line of this marvelous interview by our own newbie claypool4prez made me nostalgic and a bit sad. http://www.ballerstatus.com/article/features/2008/02/3996/

“There are some that say that hip-hop is dead, others that say it's lost its soul. Perhaps it's just merely lost its sense of purpose.”


These are the ORIGINAL lyrics to the second verse of one of the best Social Justice songs of the Genre. You’ll notice in the video posted below, that the words* had to be changed for the movie. Please try to ignore the funny clothes.… :blush:


…
A newspaper burns in the sand, and the headlines say ‘Man destroys Man!'

Extra! Extra! Read all the bad news on the war for peace that everybody would lose

The rise and fall, the last great empire, the sound of the whole world caught on fire

The ruthless struggle, the desperate gamble

The game that left the whole world in shambles

The cheats, the lies, the alibis

And the foolish attempt to conquer the skies

Lost in space, and what is it worth, huh?

The president just forgot about Earth

Spending multi billions, and maybe even trillions

The cost of weapons ran into zillions

There's gold in the street, and diamonds under feet

And the children in Africa don't even eat

Flies on their faces, they're living like mice

And the houses even make the ghetto look nice, Huh!

The water tastes funny, it's forever too sunny

And they work all month and don't make no money

A fight for power, a nuclear shower

And people shout out in the darkest hour

Of sights unseen and voices unheard

And finally the bomb gets the last word

Christians killed Muslims, and Germans killed Jews

And everybody's bodies are used and abused, Huh!

Minds are poisoned and souls are polluted

Superiority complex is deep rooted

Leeches and lice's, and people got prices

Egomaniacs control the self-righteous

Nothing is sacred and nothing is pure

So the revelation of death is our cure

*Hitler and Caesar, Custer and Reagan

Napoleon, Castro, Mussolini and Begin

Ghengis Khan and the Shah of Iran

Mixed with the blood of the weaker man

The peoples in terror, the leaders made the error

And now they can't even look in the mirror

‘Cause we gotta suffer while things get rougher

And that's the reason why we got to get tougher

To learn from the past and work for the future

And don't be a slave to no computer

‘Cause the Children of Man inherits the land

And the future of the world is in your hands

So just throw your hands in the air

And wave ‘em like you just don't care

And if you believe that you're the future

Scream it out and say ‘Oh yeah!' (‘Oh yeah!')

‘Oh yeah!' (‘Oh yeah!')

Raah!

Grandmaster Melle Mel and The Furious Five, final scene at the concert for Ramone.
video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhkOPNRV8Pk


GMFlash and the Ffive are the OG's of Hip Hop, they coined the term shortly before they were signed to Enjoy Records in 1978. Their album “The Message” would make me cry if I listened too hard to the lyrics.
Poverty, War, Crime, Politicians and Corporations. Love and Justice, Equality and Hope.
What hooked this quiet farmgirl-transplanted-to-the-city on Hip Hop was this message. That, and watching my hot new boyfriend demolish a guy on the floor of the local Chucky Cheese... but I digress..

We’ve been fighting this fight for a long time, and we’ll continue fighting it for the foreseeable future. But we’ll fight it together.

I’m off now to search the internet tubes for samples of the new stuff (Hip Hop will never die!) so this concludes my little confession… Thank god no pictures remain of this embarrassing chapter in my past. If any of you ever bring it up in the future, I will deny it. The records have already been changed to show I was at a Prep School back East at the time.




For your-way-back-take-me-back pleasure… a few more of the best…

Stop the Violence
lyrics - http://www.lyrics007.com/Boogie%20Down%20Productions%20Lyrics/Stop%20the%20Violence%20Lyrics.html
video - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5681689234178315463&q=Stop+The+Violence+boogie+down&total=6&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

White lines
lyrics - http://www.lyrics007.com/Grandmaster%20Melle%20Mel%20Lyrics/White%20Lines%20Lyrics.html
video -http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=693895026834349082&q=white+lines+grand+master+flash&total=83&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9

The Message
lyrics - http://www.lyricsfreak.com/g/grandmaster+flash/the+message_20062225.html
video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6e9G-ump3Y

New York New York
lyrics - http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/New-York-New-York-lyrics-Grandmaster-Flash/FDDF107A5F11D7BC48256D8000286625
listen - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8098782780543266993&q=new+york+rap+grandmaster&total=26&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

[parasim]

1. Raah!

No, Hip Hop will never die!

Thanks, Viva. I used to breakdance too (athough not very well). No shame in that.

Thanks for sharing that. I swear, back then the only one sayin' anything meaningful was Grandmaster Melle Mel and nobody was listening.

Thanks for reminding me. That was awesome!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. I wasn't any good either...

I got a D for effort.

:rofl:

[Mnemosyne]

2. Powerful words, Viva, powerful. n/t

[EFerrari]

3. How great are you.

I knew it!

:woohoo::woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[ET Awful]

4. A blast from the 90s

The Coup - "Dig It" from "Killy My Landlord"' LP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsUDGxdeICw

Presto, read the Communist Manifesto
Guerillas in the Mist, a Guevara named Ernesto, so
What a brother with a afro know?
Yo, go and flow for the mack and be the hoe
so grow cause the lynchin brothers might get hung
Better rip through em from the tip of my mouth/Mao, say/Tse-Tung/tongue
Deficit (money spent) catch the glint
of my nine as they cut welfare twenty-five percen
And I dissent, as I clench and raise my fist
(We did away with, that) so you could get with this
Here's a twist cause we'll overthrow like Kwame N'Krumah
Spread around the wealth as if it were a, vicious rumor
Pam, cuts a record like a surgeon cuts a tumor from a brain
We're all cooped up so feel the pain
from four hundred years of exploitation
Anesthesia provided by your local TV station
Patience is not a virtue (I ain't waitin)
Turn this shit over like Bush did a boatload of Haitians


How now Brown Cow I'm down with the Mau Mau
Clown downtown tried to put us in the dog pound
like H. Rap Brown with the situation
(Won't get no callouses) cause I'm spittin dialectical analysis
So how is this, we never had no Funk
until you found out that turned a revolutionary hump
(Chump!) Bump you over like dominoes, rat
(E-Roc: So free Geronimo Gi Jaga Pratt!)
Lyrics hear it fear it can't get near it
got a sample didn't clear it
Point Blank says,Fuck five-oh" That's the spirit
Cheer it, spat out, the fat that I consumed
Knew that I was doomed since my date of birth
to be the wretched of the earth, never had a Dream that was American
(They vote electric chair is fair again) Despair again
(But that ain't nuthin new) Told the streets were paved with gold
Whoever paved that shit got minimum wage too!

"Can you understand the metaphor in this phrase?"

(E-Roc: Gunned us, stunned us) exploited and they hung us
I'd like to take a moment to say, "Fuck Columbus"
(Millions off my back) the black on black crisis is a myth
The crack that did the damage (was the one from the whip)
The record skip, the record skip, the record ship *SCRATCH*
The record skips, cause my voice is kinda scratchy
from yelling, "Oh shit" when five-oh comes to harass me
They never pass me, no one to go and tail bro
(E-Roc: Trying to kill the movement with the new CoIntelPro)
Leaders they killed, if I said it, it would threaten em
They only see my back because I'm three steps ahead of em
We're not fallin in the slot you slated
(E-Roc: We realize that our power's nickel-plated)
Masses move as well as asses do, class is through
Our time is over, past it's due
(And you still wanna know) the origin of the flow
OAKLAND CALIFORNIA NINE-FOUR-SIX-ONE-OH

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. I prefer old school...

back when it was still raw and there was more fashion imagination...




:rofl:

[ET Awful]

9. That movie had nothing to do with old school or hip-hop, it was pure exploitation.

No better than all the "Steppin'" movies that are coming out now, and no better than any other movie made to exploit a current trend.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. World War III

so old, there is no audio or video to be found on the tubes...

Chorus:
Life is a Game of Business
and in the end we sight (swear to god)
the new and old are bought and sold
and everybody thinks they're right

War is a game of business
a game we shouldn't play (swear to god)
cause men with guns killed all our sons
they blew us all away

They Called it
World (Paranoina!)
War (it's Almost Over)
3 (Cause Nobody Hears what the People Say)

Realistcally the Bombs are ready
Technically, Nuclear by name
Capability of total Destruction
Radioactive death and flame
there is talk of a firey doom
prophesied since the dawn of time
in a world of bloodshed, mass confusion,
killer diseases, Pollution and Crime
Man is in Conflict with nature
and that is why there's so much sin
mother nature's delicate balance will fix it so nobody wins

in World (Catastrofic)
War (Reaganomic)
3 (and nobody hears what the people say)

World (it's Atomic)
War (catastrofic)
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

A thousand miles away from home
a mortally wounded soldier dies
and on the blood stained battlefield
his life flashes before his eyes
before he dies the man saw jesus
and jesus christ took his hand
and on the soldier's dying breath
the good lord took him to the promised land

cause there's.. No (people living)
More (People Dying)
Pain (Everybody Disappeared)

Chorus:

Breakdown, Pain

1984, See the world at war
your darkest fears of reality are knockin' down your door
drones and mutations, Clones and deviations
and there's no one that can escape the nuclear revelation

Because
Chorus:

the silver moon, the midnight stars, jupiter collides with mars
and out of the darkness spirits roar
to cast revenge on the earth once more
the leaders of the world are hypnotized
by wizards, dark and in disguise
brought to earth by an evil hand
to devour souls in a brand new land
they let the leader think that war brings peace
and out come the one with the mark of the beast
there's evil behind closed doors
in the year of 1984

Chorus:

long ago and all too soon
2 different wars fought on the moon
one put (creators?) on it first
then we blew futher in the universe
both of these were nuclear wars
breaking universal laws
then falling stars and meteorites
dropped to earth by day and night
twisters, earthquakes, hurricanes
volcanos, drops and torrential rain
then one day, the UFO's
came to see the whole world explode
we will pay the ultimate price
and a lesson is to be learned
when we play with nuclear fire
everybody's gonna get burned

Chorus:

Pain! Pain! (so let the music play on)

Between the boundaries of time and space
was the planet earth and the human race
a world alive and centuries old
with veins of diamonds, silver and gold
snow capped mountains over looked the land
and the deep blue sea made love with the sand
full grown strands of evergreen hair
kissed the sky with a breath of air
where exotic fish once swam in the sea
and the eagles soared in the sky so free
but the foolish clan that walked the land
was the creature, that they called man
they're cannibalistic, paranoid fools
tricking each other with games and rules
training their men to kill and fight
moving and stearing their mechanized might
only thought that man had in mind
was to conquer the world and the rest of mankind
and with the thought that they were right
they gave you permission to take a man's life
the ones you killed fought just as hard
then you even had the nerve to pray to god
but god don't wanna hear all your mess
when you ain't the one that he laid to rest
the devil's children with no disgrace
crushed and killed the human race
while they got rich off the games and war
what in the hell were you fighting for
a silly ass metal, a stupid parade
for all those innocent people you slaid
and after that, you couldn't even get a job
cause fighting that war made you a slob
a seargeant and major, a corporal, Lieutenant
titles and positions were all invented
you, and me, and all this mess
are just a bunch of pieces in a game of chess
it's all the same, a third world war
a blood thirsty massacre just like before
it's genocide, three billion tears
feeding on a war every twenty years
then one day we heard the sound
of the whole damn world tumbling down
just one big boom, and what do you know
the world is a ghetto, high and low
crumbling buildings all around
man's creation burned to the ground
chaos, panic, fear and pain
days of radioactive rain
grotesque figures burned alive
miraculously seem to survive
everything of reality is the science fiction on TV
mutant dog and sabertoothed rats
eat men with guns and baseball bats
the dead won't die, the (rudie?) won't cry
and everybody's asking the question "why"
until swarms of millions walk from the city
and thousands more went underground below
with their head held down in their own pity
wondering where, they do not know
cause in this game we had a chance
but we blew it for cheap thrills and romance
maybe one day we'll get another play
but until then remember what i say

Chorus:

[blogslut]

7. Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five spoiled me for all time

I mean, come on. Has any hip hop group/artist ever topped them?