I was looking t the 40th anniverseray of the Black Spades, one of New
York's old gangs pre-Latin Kings, UBN, Crips, Netas, etc. -also the gang Afrika Bambatta (he made the song planet rock for those of you who don't know his name) was a warlord in before he became an instrumental figure in Hip Hop...And was thinking and being confirmed that Much of NY's Hip hop and therefore the world's Hip Hop scene comes from NY Street gang scenes from the 70's. You had the Tomahawks, Savage Nomads, Savage Samurais, The Reapers, The Scorpions, etc. all like lets get on some positive shit, enough of this fighting over colors and turf we got an escape...Hip Hop.
Hip Hop largely changed the NY landscape, it pretty much dropped the violence in true school NY bangin for 20-25 yrs, it united the latins and the blacks and smoothed out alot of the beefs they had (Afrika Bambatta is the one who extended his hand to the PRicans and invited them to teh 1st Hip Hop jams)... it stopped they "bloods and crips" before they started bangin other cities shit in the 90's. When Hip hop hit in Cali in the 80's it had a somewhat calming effect on our streets, but then it was right back to the normal. Blacks largely dropped out of the graffiti scene by the mid-90's either doing them or joining hoods, the Latinos continued and evolved it to tag banging and then full out turning into X3 hoods. The b-boying stopped and niggas went on to become true B-boys and C-boys. The on;y thinf that continued was the rap part of hip hop and we eventually saturated it with our gang lifestyle which in many cases perpetuates gang shit not simmers it, the exact opposite of what happened with the NY gangs entering and starting the Hip Hop movement out east.
Ny had gangs black, latino, and some white fighting in the hoods and barrios and transformed that energy into something that's worldwide, something that we devote alot of our time to. But for some reason we haven't and alot of us believe we can't create nothing positive out our street culture. In many ways we have poisoned Hip Hop by flippin it to where niggas all over the world use it to promote violence and a fake or real gang lifestyle. So my question is, why haven't we been able to start our own movement out here? Are we truly lackin... are the brothers and latins in the hoods and Barrios out here truly lost... do we come from an entirely different beast...Is New York just more cultural, intellectual and ahead of us like they've always claimed? What has prevented us and what prevents us now from turning this street energy into something beautiful for the masses?
York's old gangs pre-Latin Kings, UBN, Crips, Netas, etc. -also the gang Afrika Bambatta (he made the song planet rock for those of you who don't know his name) was a warlord in before he became an instrumental figure in Hip Hop...And was thinking and being confirmed that Much of NY's Hip hop and therefore the world's Hip Hop scene comes from NY Street gang scenes from the 70's. You had the Tomahawks, Savage Nomads, Savage Samurais, The Reapers, The Scorpions, etc. all like lets get on some positive shit, enough of this fighting over colors and turf we got an escape...Hip Hop.
Hip Hop largely changed the NY landscape, it pretty much dropped the violence in true school NY bangin for 20-25 yrs, it united the latins and the blacks and smoothed out alot of the beefs they had (Afrika Bambatta is the one who extended his hand to the PRicans and invited them to teh 1st Hip Hop jams)... it stopped they "bloods and crips" before they started bangin other cities shit in the 90's. When Hip hop hit in Cali in the 80's it had a somewhat calming effect on our streets, but then it was right back to the normal. Blacks largely dropped out of the graffiti scene by the mid-90's either doing them or joining hoods, the Latinos continued and evolved it to tag banging and then full out turning into X3 hoods. The b-boying stopped and niggas went on to become true B-boys and C-boys. The on;y thinf that continued was the rap part of hip hop and we eventually saturated it with our gang lifestyle which in many cases perpetuates gang shit not simmers it, the exact opposite of what happened with the NY gangs entering and starting the Hip Hop movement out east.
Ny had gangs black, latino, and some white fighting in the hoods and barrios and transformed that energy into something that's worldwide, something that we devote alot of our time to. But for some reason we haven't and alot of us believe we can't create nothing positive out our street culture. In many ways we have poisoned Hip Hop by flippin it to where niggas all over the world use it to promote violence and a fake or real gang lifestyle. So my question is, why haven't we been able to start our own movement out here? Are we truly lackin... are the brothers and latins in the hoods and Barrios out here truly lost... do we come from an entirely different beast...Is New York just more cultural, intellectual and ahead of us like they've always claimed? What has prevented us and what prevents us now from turning this street energy into something beautiful for the masses?
