Why I love Hip Hop

And why is Hip Hop a relevant cultural force for everyone?

(Doodle by Kayla, a friend of mine not yet on Steemit)

Well let me give you some context before I launch into this. I first started getting into Hip Hop and rap when I was about 12-13 years old, a young lad living in a small town in New Zealand called Blenheim. A friend of mine called Lloyd started introducing me to groups like A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5, and Hieroglyphics.

Something about these artists really resonated with me, and I started listening to more and more, going backwards to artists like Grandmaster Flash, and Run DMC to name a few. Around that time Eminem was blowing up like crazy, and he had a movie come out as well. This launched a new dialogue for me, and I am guessing many others. About how Hip Hop was not just for African Americans - it was a way of being that anyone could get into, even pale coloured people.

It's interesting how immediately I have brought race into this post, almost without realising it. In truth this is something that I do want to talk about, because it ties in to why Hip Hop is so important. It seems like racial relations, and social dynamics is intimately ingrained into the birth of Hip Hop. I don't come from America, and I don't claim to have any special insight into this - but what I feel and what I GET from Rap in its essence is the feeling of Freedom, and demanding freedom.

"I am being oppressed, and I choose not to be oppressed, I don't accept this and I never will"

So if you have some level of perception and awareness into the world we currently live in. It's economic slavery, it's late stage capitalism grinding to a halt and people starting to say "hey, I don't want to waste my life like this, this isn't why I came to earth" Do we individually have enough fire to say enough is enough, and use the fire to forge a new life that doesn't compromise for historical constraints?

On a deep internal level, we can also apply the freedom dialogue to the interaction of our own unbound beingness, and the limitations and judgements of the mind. If you are ferocious enough in your desire to be free of minds constraints, then I don't doubt that you will get there. A yogi named Sadhguru once said that "if you are very intense, then you will naturally become meditative". It's totally true, we have a general fear of being over the top in any way - even in the quiet pursuit of freedom.

So that's what initially drew me to Hip Hop, it had a feeling of wanting to be free, and as a young man I really resonated with that feeling. It's different now though, with more than a decade having passed, and a spiritual awakening during that time.

Now I can see that music is a universal language which is incredibly powerful. The reason that it is powerful is because it can transmit and infinitely multiply a feeling or an essence to anyone or everyone who hears it (if we are open to it). I have honestly quietly wept to myself listening to some Low Fi instrumentals that had just the right sample, and they sent out to me that exact frequency of being totally free and totally filled with music and love.

Hip Hop is a tool for transformation, just like mantras are a tool of the yogic sciences to bring about a breakthrough in consciousness.

The thing that excites me the most about Hip Hop is where the exploration of consciousness, and the essence of the hip hop rebel/breakthrough archetype are intermingling. I see this with some of my favourite artists like Milo (aka Scallops Hotel) and Deca.

I have dabbled in rapping myself, and it is an amazing process to go through. Can you be ok with being really bad for a while but persisting? Can you be ok freestyling into the unknown? It requires a lot of trust. It requires being a beautiful flow state, it requires connecting in to something bigger than yourself. So rap is a spiritual practice, for me it's channelling and there's no two ways about it.

I can see that this article is getting longer an longer, so that seems like enough for now.

Much Love and Peace
PhillyC