Roots of Hip Hop

Hip-Hop History

The aspects of Hip-Hop, the roots can be found back in the 1970's block parties in the Bronx, New York. The four elements of Hip-Hop soon came to be as, Dee-Jaying, MCing, Rapping, and Breakdancing. The roots of Hip Hop music can be traced back from music systems in Jamaica in the early 80's. as for the actual term "Hip Hop", it actually came from the song "rappers delight" by the sugar hill gang. I am sure we have all heard the phrase “i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogieto the rhythm of the boogie, the beat”. The Hip Hop movement is traced back to New York in the 80s. A man from Jamaica, a DJ who went by Kool Here brought his style from Queens New York to the Bronx and tried to intertwine that with instrumental, and percussion of the day’s popular song, since the pieces were so short he could mix them together over and over making the rhythm endless. Rap became so popular because of the fact that it was so cheap to do it. You didn’t have to buy an instrument to rhyme, you didn’t have to take lessons, and it was a verbal skill that could be practiced at anytime. It also became very popular because the fact that it was so challenging. The only real requirement was to be original and with the ease and popularity of Hip Hop you would find many artists starting to emerge. Artists would challenge each other creating what was known as battles. People who would rap and DJ’s went hand and hand because the pair went flawlessly together so you would also have a lot different Dj showing their beats with rap artists. With the era came the slang that went with it the birth of the slang came form when Dj’s would acknowledge people in the audience when at a party. Artists like Kool over an instrumental break would yell 'Yo this is Kool Herc in the joint-ski saying my mellow-ski Marky D is in the house’ the style became very popular and soon became a normal thing setting the trend for the Dj’s of our age.

Current Event 06/07/08

Salmonella Outbreak Update.

Recently the Salmonella outbreak with tomatoes in the U.S. has been wreaking havoc among the 12 States that have been affected. And New Mexico now has requested all resturaunts in their state to temporarily stop selling food that contain tomatoes. So the reason why I'm talking about this now is because recently we've been working in non-profit organizations with indicting america, etc. One group in our class was talking about indicting the FDA about the inefficiency of their system. This just further proves my classmate's point. I don't understand,... wait no i understand. The lack of reform must certainly follow with complete negligence of important issues coming from Bush and his administration. I honestly hope that people in America make the right choice and make Obama president and hopefully reforms in all aspects follow to repair the whole mess of doo-doo that used to be called America. =(



More info on the topic---> http://thepacker.com/icms/_dtaa2/content/wrapper.asp?alink=2008-92553-66.asp&stype=topstory&fb=

Book Report: Animals In Translation

Grandin, Temple. Animals In Translation. Scribner, New York. Harcourt Books: 2005

I ended up choosing Animals In Translation because it was one of the books that was supposed to be read over the summer for my english class, but I never got around to read it and I decided that now was a good time. The book doesnt take place in any particular time but is about the recent history of autism and how animals think the way people with autism think.

The book is mainly about Temple Grandin and how she has helped various people that work with animals whether it be farms or for meat products, or veterinary care help better treat and raise animals using her handicap/benefit of autism which helps her think like an animal would.

Temple Grandin, who is the the writer of the story as well as the main character is a very interesting person. The book giving the reader what she is thinking is completely from the norm. Her with autism gives a focus to a lot of precise detail and not the bigger picture in a sense that would be normal to an average person. Using autism, she finds out that many animals that seem to behave poorly or is very aggressive is mainly because of the environment and misunderstanding of animals from other people.

I overall liked the book because it was a compelling story that was a first time for me. One downside though was that for some parts of the book it was INCREDIBLY slow and boring to get through but in the end it was understandable, and this book really reminds me of the previous book I read, "Thinking Big" by Ben Carson just because of the insight the author provides throughout his own book and Temple Grandin seems to do that to some degree in her book as well.

Temple Grandin is a Ph.D. animal scientist and is reknown for being a gifted scientist in her field as well as designing one third of all live stock handling facilities in America and has even designed her own method for animal well-being. She wrote one other book that is a direct autobiography of her and her life with Autism titled "Thinking in Pictures".