Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Art of a Freestyle: A thought

I wonder what will happen in the future, as technology grows and evolves. The art form will have to evolve with it. Will the freestyle slowly phase out? The “off the dome,” part of it and become off the phone? The allure of it will slowly fade away and become a long lost art form. Which is a big part of the culture. I have no problems with this “pre-written,” freestyle or free verse. My question is why do it?Where is it? I know talking about something like this may seem like a rant. Which is what I do not want this to be like. My question is, where and when did freestyles change. Some of my readers are like what do you mean? If you think about how many times have you heard a freestyle and loved it? Now re-listen to it, and think about the flow. Now to the untrained ear its no different. Yet, there are many who Black Berry Freestyle or (BBF). Some examples of artists who I have noticed who do this consist of Lil Wayne, Joe Budden, and more.

My favorite happened to be battle rappers who used their skills to the extreme. When you battle your mind has to be quick and sharp. You can tell a veteran from a rookie in the battle world. By the way they react and respond to what their opponent says. I stated before, “pre written freestyles,” are even present in the battle world. Trust me, I have seen it before, I was doing a battle, final round and the I was battling was nice, until his style changed. His verse dynamics changed and it did not seem right. The battle went on, and oh by the way (I called him on it in a verse, ha!) Needless to say I lost the battle, don’t you just love hip hop politics...anyway. Once this happened it made me rethink how battles are past and present.

No matter if you believe it or not, written freestyles are being passed off as non-written freestyles. It is becoming the new “it",” thing to do now a days. Prime example, Black Entertainment Television (I use that term loosely). Who remembers the tv show “The Basement,” Many of the artists who appeared on the show actually previewed the beat they were going to freestyle to. So it gave them time to prepare for what they were about to rhyme about. Which goes against what the show and the basic skills of the art form are about. Going further, some of those freestyles, became real verses for other songs that many people recite now.

I wonder what will happen in the future, as technology grows and evolves. The art form will have to evolve with it. Will the freestyle slowly phase out? The “off the dome,” part of it and become off the phone? The allure of it will slowly fade away and become a long lost art form. Which is a big part of the culture. I have no problems with this “pre-written,” freestyle or free verse. My question is why do it?

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Social Networking Politics: Social Commentary

It’s funny how our generation is about injustice, and fighting for equality.  As much as it is funny, it is really sad. We care about politics only when it gets “twitter,” or “tumblr,” famous. The people who decide that “man this is something important,  my best friend, cousin, brother should know about this case.” If a case doesn’t make a social network I would strongly say  85% of our generation would not  know heads or tails of current events. Those people would be deaf to new policies, proposals and laws. Now to some they will argue, “ Chris, that’s how social networks work. They spread the word and make more people aware, sparking them to delve deeper into the issue. “ This is true, I am not going to deny that. Yet, where are the socially conscious ones at when it does not hit those networks. Where are those socially charged people at? Clearly they are talking recklessly throughout their days. Not knowing what’s going on, how they’re falling behind in the news stories that don’t make the major news networks. Yet, ask them when some big social experiment is…they know where it is. Which to me is a shame, if we spent half as much time caring about the events that actually change our daily lives than to who is having a new baby or an album leaking, those changes we “fight for,” would be happening a little more sooner than later.  The values and things we deem important have changed. For a generation that wants change, we sure do go out for it…

 

 

Don’t we?

Thursday, September 01, 2011

A much needed update

Whats up world...this is Sway...wait..scratch that. Its ya boy Crispy. Its been a while since I have even touched up on this thing. Life has been crazy, I haven't forgotten about the blog. I have been working a lot new job. Applying for this internship ...hopefully I get at least one of the two I applied for. No internet at the moment so I am taking the blog to the phone a lot more updates will be coming soon.