Hip-hop

Today I thought I'd get into another genre of influence for me. Hip-hop. I've listened to rap and hip-hop since the late 80's. My first rap album was one of the all-time classics...NWA's Straight Outta Compton. Man we loved that album. From there we moved on to Geto Boyz, DJ Quik, and Too Short. The hip-hop came in with...who else...De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest.

Anyway, a while ago a friend of mine told me about a new guy named Lupe Fiasco. He's a skater turned rapper and he writes primarily with a purpose. He can tell a story with the best of them, like in his song "The Cool" he lays out the story of a former drug dealer who was shot and killed and then wakes up in his casket and has to dig his way out. With lines like "...working like a...hmm....reverse archeologist, except his buried treasure was sunshine" he goes through the first person experience of this dead gangster. I thought this was an interesting idea for a song, and one that would be hard to pull off. If I tried to do something like that I'd get laughed off the stage.

My favorite song of his is called "American Terrorist". Its kind of a chonicle of the many terrorist activities that Americans are responsible for which most of us forget about. The way I see it, this song shouldn't be taken as a bash on America, but there are some dark spots in our history that shouldn't be forgotten. From the treatment of Native Americans, to slavery, to domestic terrorism. I think these things should be kept in mind when looking outside the country at the rest of the world. These represent valuable lessons in the treatment of other people and the understanding of other cultures. Have a listen and try and pick out all the things he's talking about in the song. There's a lot in there.

	Lupe Fiasco - American Terrorist
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Dude, I saw this guy live at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver this past summer F-ing awesome. I highly recommend checking out his concert schedule and hitting that up if you get the opportunity.

Peace within, peace without...J...