The Phisics of Hip Hop

"It ain't about keeping it real, it's about keeping right"

Dj Kool Herc

To say that the Hip Hop culture was born in America is right. To say that it is an American culture is wrong. The concept of the Universal Spirit of Hip Hop promoted by the Zulu Nation starts from this assumption. That is, the spores of the culture spread around the globe, infecting and contaminating it, and then come together in one great source from which it can renew his process of diffusion. The Hip Hop as the Earth: a great mother who donates her belly to fertilize new life. The mechanisms governing the evolution of culture are complex, and the boundaries between what is inside or outside the "context" are hazy, dense and viscous products. Yet the machinery of evolution, of this Great Sun, has a solid core. From here we start to talk about "Physics of Hip Hop." Back to the Big Bang, rewind the analog tape and re-mastered it into the present.

If we recognize that Hip Hop has a hardcore and it was grafted multiplying like a virus across the globe starting with the teenagers of Bronx in the 70s, we are already well advanced. Then let's jump now, or rather at the turn of the years 2000 and 90s. The b-boying timidly back into the limelight thanks to two related factors: the promotion of a variety of contest (or bboy battles) that are disseminated on the Internet or via DVD. Born a new generation (mine) , partially linked with that of the 80s and 90s, but takes a solitary exploration beyond the boundaries of the discipline. The result is the increase of the technical possibilities of dance and the climb to the top of the international battle from countries unknown until a few years ago (South Korea, Japan and Eastern Europe to finish). The United States meanwhile reiterated the importance of the costitutive principles of b-boying (Foundation), influencing the aesthetics between the 2005-2007 and renewaling his position as a reference point on the world stage. Unfortunately, the lesson about "foundation" is accepted by many as a series of steps "fashionable", and after a first moment of success, foundation are now considered wrongly "off-range" by neophytes. In reality, the americans have tried to revive the "fundamental" to educate the new generations on cultural and artistic basis. Although on the commercial and visual side, it was a real operation of neo-colonialism of b-boying on a global scale, and the failure of it, is indicative of a trend of "counter-culture inside Hip Hop."
The counter-culture movements (that Hip Hop itself can enroll in the course of history) were born within a macro-culture reference (eg. Western, or European), promoting a lifestyle and principles tend to destabilize it. I believe that today's Hip Hop, at least nominally, has assumed the role of a real institution, creating in itself, upon general ambiguity of people, some internal movement of counter-culture. An example of all, is the recent spread of so-called Flexible style, whose practitioners are reflected in the punk or emo lifestyle rather than in Hip Hop, but claim that they belong in the scene of b-boying.
The most audacious acts of counter-culture, however, occur silently. They infect the cultural principles (from which derives the philosophical ones) that characterized the lifestyle of the b-boy and b-girl of the first three generations (70s-90s). Through ignorance of historical knowledge and the lack of connection to earlier generations, this new-generation against hip hop, from scratch, looking forward to the future and his gait burns bridges with the past. They do not recognize themselves in the past, because in the past they have only the image and not the track. As in the period of "fashion foundation" (2005-2007) we tend to look only at the outward appearance (the tecniques) and not realize that it (outside) is just the starting point to get to the content (the so called "inside"), the hardcore.

Our task is to unveil this deception.

If instead of reading a book, watch the movie that inspired, you're doing a double fault. First, the writing is linguistically more informative than audiovisual. Second, what you see is not a reality, but a transposition (ie interpretation) of it. Generation to generation, loss after loss, waste on difference, the kernel of Hip Hop is likely to crumble. The misunderstanding generates retroactively wrong interpretation of the principles foundation. The son believes he can judge his own mother from a photo album that shows. Without asking anyone who has taken and selected those pictures, he delves into a fantasy story in which he becomes the director: and here is his fault. The Counter-Culture Hip Hop, I think, starts from a misunderstanding fantasy.
The ghost appears on the network, between the comments of the br-boying videos. The b-boy, or what purports to be, it is now a "columnist for breakdancing". He is like "Gomer Pyle" (Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket) with his eyes already in the afterlife, who shot himself in the mouth sitting in the toilet, after killing the sergeant. Like that movie, the psychosis of the most ignorant of the soldiers comes from revenge of his fellow soldiers and not against the treatment, hard but fair, of the authority. In countries where cypher's battle are rare (like Italy), the web is populated by "Gomer Pyle" which pricked, without realizing it, the cardinal principle of discipline: mutual respect from direct confrontation. The b-boying is an aggressive expression, "hard but fair", which bases its peacefull right on battling. That's right: it is when you talk instead of fight, that trigger violence. The web has made public a private moment of our lifestyle: criticism and fierce exchange of words took place between two or more b-boy just before or during a challenge. At the end, the words were zero, everyone went home with his own idea, it was no use talking "after". Today ask yourself: would we have the same guts to say those things, with that tone, in the face of the b-boy concerned, and ready for the battle? If so, why do not we? Why can not we live this divergence of views as a time of growth, of respect, of real Hip Hop? Why leave offensive comments on thw web (speak publicly) and continue to mind our own (dancing in private)?
This "world wide web", as other practices, seriously go against the "Physics of Hip Hop."

So, here we are: second translation into english. I hope you enjoy and start posting comment and reflections about it. I've wrote this article one year ago and I think is still up-to-date. Before any kind of polemic: no, I don't say that flexible style is not hip hop. I say that "flexible-emo-metal-fad" is not Hip Hop. If you do flexible style on hip hop way (like Benji or Thesis) I think you really risk to be one of the best innovator b-boys in the world. Check this out!