Music snobs are people who pride themselves on plugging their ears to a genre of music which they personally perceive to be far superior than any other types of ear candies. My enlightenment of this social segregation occured during my freshman year as a media student, and it can be said that my learning process was rather unpleasant.
The music snobs back in those days were the Indie Rock-loving community and quite remarkably, the anti-Hip-hop sentiment flowed like blood in their veins. Rationale and maturity taught me that everyone has individual taste and a list of Likes and Don't Likes. However, what I found simply unacceptable was their penchant for expressing their notions in the most brutal fashion to me.
Music discrimination is precisely what it was. Some labelled Hip-hop as a mindless form of music consisting of nothing more than a copy-paste repetition of hard thumping beats. Some engaged in dialogues revolving around the one-sided argument of why the urban artist I was listening to sucked.
I breathe Hip-hop and I never processed their need to intentionally aggravate me. However, I do understand the root of their dislike. Macroscopic glasses shows us that mainstream Hip-hop celebrates what a conservative society often frowns upon - sex, drugs and violence. It has also bred a local community of poseurs who pride on adopting the ghetto culture.
Justifying why a rapper raps about the things that he raps about is virtually impossible. I can argue that through lyrics that paint graphic mental images, they're telling their life stories and using Hip-hop as an outlet for their tortured souls. But then again, rappers tend to oxymoronically taint their own reputations as soulful artists with their shallow sense of lyrical sensibility.
Thus I can only fall back to what I know. Hip-hop, like any other types of music, is a form of self-expression and these expressions vary from one artist to another. Hip-hop isn't just about getting the real slim shady to stand up, partying like it's your birthday, riding dirty or boldly declaring why you're hot. Hip-hop is empowering to people of varying colours and backgrounds and emphasises on strong musicality which makes it highly entertaining.
And these, my sexy brothers and sisters from different mothers, are the new generation of Hip-hop soldiers whom I hope will eradicate the ever lingering stigmas and stereotypes. These are my Hip-Hop heroes.
Miri Ben-Ari
The Hip-hop violinist from Israel who tries to break the boundaries of Hip-hop by expressing it with a classical instrument that she plays with mad skills and passion.
Ivan Koumeav
The Hip-hop dancer from Russia who is creating a new wave of dancers with his incorporation of contemporary elements into his personal aggressive style of dancing.
Timbaland
The Hip-hop producer who tries to bridge musical gaps by blending Hip-hop with the most unlikely of genres.
PEACE AND LOVE he flared his nostrils rapidly [8:45 PM] Friday, July 06, 2007
where did all the void deck fighters go? miri ben-ari feat. akon - miss melody
Puvan sprained his ankle in the most unfortunate manner imaginable and went MIA for a satisfactory, lets see, half a freaking year. Our cherished hunky hero, Azhari, felt that advancing his training was too financially taxing and went MIA. Aiman bit off more than he could chew, juggling soccer and sepak takraw training and fortnightly computer and religious classes and went MIA.
Mikey lost his first fight [in a major international competition], together with his fighting spirit and replaced his boxing gloves with soccer boots. Yann has successfully completed her level two training and mustered enough courage to tell Johnny that she's done - Muay Thai is just too tough for her. As for Ben - if he comes, he comes and if he doesn't, he doesn't.
That leaves scrawny me still standing, the last of the original line-up of Marsiling Zone 3 RC Muay Thai clan. Can I make it any more obvious that this is a source of depression? Still, I don't think I want to quit Muay Thai, even after vanishing for an entire month myself.
An elbow in the face of laziness and the bitch goes down. And Yann, please come back.
PEACE AND LOVE he flared his nostrils rapidly [9:49 PM] Tuesday, July 03, 2007
my favourite uncle letto - sebenarnya cinta
Early this morning, four men of varying ages briefly touched on the ever lingering but resurfacing topic of global warming, the perks of modern-day technology such as internet banking, who's worth what currently in soccer, the latest happenings in the local crime scene and as always, me.
Uncle never fails to bring up my mortifying days as a pre-adolescent drama prince [so I was linguistically-gifted as a child and danced a freestyle routine to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby"]. He likes to question my current marital status just to present himself with the perfect excuse to remind everyone about my primary school crushes. He also has this tendency of studying my physique and commenting in a disgruntled fashion about my skinny arms.
It's like having monthly sessions with a personal life and fitness coach.
PEACE AND LOVE he flared his nostrils rapidly [12:01 AM]
