Hip Hop

The queen is still in her cabin somewhere, but here's the thought for today.


You look out the window and you see kids equipped in retro NBA jerseys, Air Force Ones, and the "bling bling" around their necks, in their ears, and around their wrists. You turn on the radio and there is Ludacris, Lil Jon, or Eminem with their publicly acclaimed misogynistic beats. You turn on the television and there they are again. You see the resemblance between the kids outside your window and Ying Yang twins' clothing. The whole time you were thinking. Two words.

Hip hop.

Sure, everyone has a say in what hip hop really is.50 and the G-Unit thinks it's all chains and bullets, Mos Def says it's all in the people and the love of God, and all Nelly cares about are his goddamn shoes. You see the reflection between the kids' idea of hip hop outside your window when the big ass chromes roll down the street of Brooklyn on MTV.

Then the image of the kids' parents come to mind. Them working their 8 hour days, 6 days a week, 51.5 weeks a year, 45 years in all. They saved every penny so the house is filled with heat, the plates are filled with food, and the welfare check remains unnecessary. They squeeze out their last bit of energy every night to smile for their children and hand them their allowances. Then the sound kicks in.

Bling, bling, bling bling bling bling.

What all these messages tend to forget is, hip hop isn't chains. It isn't people, it isn't clothes, it isn't the way you carry yourself, and it sure isn't the way you live. There's another word for that, and it's called life. Hip hop is a genre of music, simple as that.

But is it really?

Without hip hop would life be of any meaning for some people? Would 50's chain mean prosperity? Would Em's hate rhymes mean freedom of expression? Would Nelly's shoes mean fashion?

Heeeeeell no.

So hip hop isn't life. But what it does is it takes all that meaningless voids out of all our daily routines. It takes the pointlessness out of our 45 year working marathon. The kids outside your window isn't hip hop. But hip hop makes the parents' blood, sweat and tears. It gives us reason. It gives life meaning.

Hip hop defines the meaning of life.

For some, and for all.

-DJ Hillman-