“Yes, Yes Y’all. Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade” OR “Herc, Flash, and Bam: The Tripartite Soul of Hip-Hop’s Origin”

In Plato’s Republic Plato is transfixed on the number 3. Plato Republic, the actual city in text that he wishes to create is tripartite; it consists of three classes of citizens: Guardian Rulers, Auxiliary Guardians, Producers. In book 4 of Plato’s Republic Plato asserts that not only should the city in text consist of a tripartite class structure, he posits that the human soul itself is tripartite consisting of Desire, Reason, and something classified as “Spiritedness”. This spiritedness is, to my understanding, what happens when the human body does something that is against Reason. It’s that part of you that allows you have that “one more drink” when you’re at the bar when you know you should be home reading your assigned reading.

Hip-hop, the genesis of it anyway, is also tripartite. On page 46 of "Yes, Yes Y’all. Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade” we have Afrika Islam putting down some science for us: “My allegiance was definitely to the music and the record. The techniques, the more technical style came from Flash, and as far as sound systems, that came from Herc. That’s the way it was.” We’re given the first two pieces of hip-hop’s tripartite soul in this. Grand Master Flash was all about the technique. Herc was about the system, the sound, the bass. Afrika Bambaataa was about the incorporation of other elements outside what people in his following considered to be “their music”. So to fit these dudes into the form of Plato’s Tripartite soul, I’d probably put Herc in the Desire slot, Flash in the Reason slot, and Bam in the Spirited slot. Yea… that looks nice.

I love Hip-Hop music, but until I read this excerpt, to tell you the truth, I knew nothing of Hip-Hop’s history. I grew up listening to Tupac, Biggie, and Wu-Tang— Later I started rockin’ acts like Nas, Common Sense, Mos Def and Talib Kweli in my ipod. I went through my phase when I loved the “gangsta rap” sound, but as a grow older I realized that there was an image being portrayed there that was, to say the least, incongruent with reality. The scary thing is though that that warped simulacra of how life is is being consumed and emulated and lived by the younger generations. That shit scares me. While I love the beats that Dr. Dre puts out, while I love the rhymes that Eminem drops, I can listen to 50 cent, but I doubt I’d ever go to a concert or even buy an album by them. I love their music, but I am not a G-Unit Nut-Hugger.

A lot of Hip-Hop is about image and the problem with image is that it is a façade, it’s a mask, and it’s not necessarily real. But many people, teens and young adults alike, just don’t get that. That’s what makes it scary. I was listening to talk radio AM 640 just before the break and they had a panel of debaters on. I can’t remember from which organization each person, there were three of them, were from, but it was something like one of them was “for” hip-hop, one was “semi-against” hip-hop, and another was some politician. The guy that was for hip-hop just about lost it when the guy who was semi-against hip-hop said that, “violence is a part of hip-hop culture.” The guy who was for hip-hop said, “No it’s not, violence isn’t a part of hip-hop culture. Talib Kweli says that the violence that comes into hip-hop isn’t about the culture, it’s about the Blackman’s life and it bleeds into hip-hop because hip-hop is predominantly black.” Then the guy who was against it said, “I thought it wasn’t a racial thing, you said it wasn’t.” I guess I missed that because I’d just tuned in. “The guy who was for hip-hop said, it’s not a racial thing, it’s cultural thing. Violence is not a part of hip-hop culture.” The politician chimed in and said, “Well, you don’t see Garth Brooks waving a gun around in any of his music videos.” I don’t think I ever heard a politician say anything that ever made any sense — that was a rare moment. That conversation on the radio and reading this article really makes the question “what is hip-hop?” problematic for me. Are there two camps in hip-hop? Or is that what we as hip-hop lovers want to believe, and that the violence in hip-hop is a part of hip-hop even if try to deny it. Maybe its dependant upon the listener, maybe what they choose to listen to determines what hip-hop is for them.

In closing of this post, I wanted to say one more thing. If hip-hop is about image then what do the clothes say? Walk by a high school, preferably a public high school because of the whole uniform thing in catholic high school, as the students are being let out for the day. Spot the hip-hop listeners. It’s easy. This is what you’ll see: The guys clothes are all about concealing — Baggy pants, over-sized sweaters, large-puffy coats. The girls clothes are all about revealing — exposed mid-riffs, tight-ass jeans, itty-bitty jackets.

I don’t know what this means or signifies. I’m just throwing it out there.