Monday, August 18, 2014

What Is The True Essence of Hip Hop?

According to KRS One,
22. Love alone takes credit for the creation and further development of Hip Hop because before we even knew we were Hip Hop, GOD-the Love that saved us from corruption, had already ordained us as such and set us free in the World with power.
23. What a great gift! What a great Love! What a GREAT GOD! But how soon did we forget after we had eaten and were satisfied, how hungry we were just a moment ago. How quick did we forget our own strategies to our own success. We ate the fruit but never replanted the seed. We drove the car but never looked at the gas tank meter.
24. Know this. GOD's Love (Hip Hop) is like a car that many people found with a full take of gas topped off and ready to go; a gift freely given to all who would hop in. Now that we have driven this car for over 30 years through all kinds of terrain time has come to repair and replenish our beloved vehicle so that it may last another 30 years. However, now that everyone has gotten where they intended to go using the vehicle, there seems to be little motivation toward the upkeep of the vehicle itself, the cause of everyone's good fortune.
25.GOD's Love (Hip Hop) is like a banquet laid out before hungry people. Many people today are eating well but they are not the chefs of their own meals. They eat but they do not really know where the food comes from or even how it was prepared. They themselves were never truly hungry or homeless or even had to prepare their own food for themselves, they just sat down and started eating at an already laid-out table. Therefore, the life-lessons learned from being hungry and homeless which accompanied the skills of the chef are absent from the copied presentations of the imitator, and any success found during this state of ignorance is indeed short-lived.
26. This is how many today treat GOD and Hip Hop. They seek the hand and not the face. They seek the luxury but not the culture, the food but not the appetite, the house but not the home, the medicine but not the health, the bed but not the rest. They would rather use GOD/Hip Hop than live GOD/Hip Hop.
27. But such are acts of desperation, and such behaviors are expected of a people that have been traumatized as we have been. Hip Hop saved us and made us not only rich, but important and respected worldwide. How then can we forget GOD--the Love that protected us and raised us up? How can we forget about Hip Hop--the craft that feeds us and gives us identity?
28. However, in my time (your past) many have already forgotten the Love of GOD. Desperate and impoverished and suddenly propelled to the top of the World's social circles, the marvel at the effects of their own artistic skills; they just want to eat.
29. And because they know not what causes their good fortune they have become frantic and greedy, content with being imitators of the original presenters of the saving force--Hip Hop. Such an approach works fine for those who are not serious about living Hip Hop for real. Such an approach works fine if you are only participating in Hip Hop to get out of poverty or make a name for yourself. This approach works if you got something else to do/or somewhere else to go.
30. But for those of us who live Hip Hop and seek enlightenment and are seeking to raise a family while being an emcee of DJ, etc.; those of us who are without purpose as well as those of us who are burdened with purpose, we have NO TIME TO WASTE!

The verses above are from The Gospel of Hip Hop first Instrument presented.

Beware that without an ongoing attention to the deeper meaning and purpose of Hip Hop the "teacha" (KRS One) wishes to make clear to the student that, that which is most valuable and intended to be transferred to the next generation will become lost or worse yet misappropriated as we are so commonly seeing today throughout the overall entertainment industry.

Therefore, you are sincerely urged to go and return to the tree and all the richness of its fruits. - JD 

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