Long buried under the landslide of generic rhapsodies and pop maladies.. They say Hip Hop is dead...

Really? Hip Hop seemed to be alive and well at an event held at Bookophilia last night. Manifesto|Jamaica, the unique new organization committed to youth empowerment and nation building through the Arts and Culture, did a series of literary and musical showcases called ART’ical Exposure. The last of the three part series proved to be well attended and appreciated.

Apparently it was a night dedicated to Hip Hop music and a slew of artists were on hand to rock the house.. uh.. I mean yard..

I could have sworn I heard Mos Def somewhere's.. I thought I glimpsed Kanye, Little Wayne and Jay-Z... add brief appearances by Onyxx, Mobb Deep, Das EFX, Ti and A Tribe Called Quest and you get the picture.

As I watched the proceedings, I thought about Hip Hops struggle to gain credible acceptance on the island. Sure, we know all the latest jawns and news about our favorite stars, but are we truly aware about the culture and musical genre of Hip Hop. Let me make this clear from now, I do not consider Hip Hop and Rap music to be the same. whereas Hip Hop is more of a celebration of culture and freedom of creative expression, Rap is totally the opposite. Not to say that Rap is not a valid music form, but like Dancehall, I find it ..."simply bland" .

I have found that jamaicans have an almost unique appreciation for music. We know what we like and what we don't like thats for sure. The majority of people do not really know anything about American music culture other than what they see on cable so they are pretty much spoon fed and don't really get the bigger picture.  People have said interesting things to me about Jamaica and Hip Hop, for  instance:

• Dancehall and Reggae are already considered Hip Hop (by way of Pop Culture)
• it is too militant (read black) for our refined bleached out tastes
• Rap is obviously preferred for it gratuitos sex and violence
• Dancehall now sounds like Rap anyway (or just bad Miami Beach club music)

Anyway we are a very impressionable people with a wide variety of influences culminating in an amazing outlook about culture and music. And after 6 years I've watched a true (if somewhat distorted) appreciation for the genre of music grow. Having thought that the country would never learn of the finer points of Hip Hop music, I've had the pleasure of learning about pockets of local talent, crews on the development, polishing up their production skills and vocal flows. They made a vigorous showing last night.

I'm not trying to go into a review of the acts themselves, but I noticed that the majority of artists were actually "performers" mimicking their favorite Hip Hop acts. While it was obvious a lot of time and energy was put in by these young men and women to hone their passion, originality was at an all time low. I don't find it credible to hear Jamaicans rhyming about blinging in expensive cars boats and planes or hangin on the 'block' and last but not least the use of the word 'nigger'. It's not 'our' experience. We need to keep it real before it will be 'True Hip Hop'. We have much more to say about life from our perspective than to imitate a foreign interpretation.

While I honestly enjoyed everyones performance considering that the audio was poor (gotta feel the music dudes), everybody gave their all.  I must mention that Gangsta Colony, Kariuke, Five Steez and Kabaka Pyramid definetly brought their game. I felt they were most original, credible and noteworthy. I hope they keep it up and that the movement continues its positive growth.

Remember we are a very critical audience and hard to impress..  note: As he was being escorted off the premises for trying to sell peanuts an elder remarked to me, "Dem people nah sing, dem a talk!" .

Big up ManifestoJA

"Worry less about creating a performance than performing a creation"