Bruce Edwin Ratliff the 3rd - The Gangster, The Conscious and The Boom-bap lyrics

The conception of this History project came from a very simple question “what Is Boom-bap?”. A sub-culture hidden within a golden era of Hip-hop, an era universally known for it's creative lyricism and diverse subject matter. The question itself was brought about by a field of Hip-hop reviews describing a resurgence of conscious and lyrical Brooklyn based Hip-hop as Boom-bap. But what is it? what was it? Yes it was apart of the golden era but there were so many different types of emcees at that time. Was Biggie's drug dealing persona Boom-bap? Was Nas's complicated lyricism Boom-bap? Or perhaps it was Slick Rick's story telling abilities or maybe it was all three. This focused question meta-morphed quickly and uncontrollably into discussions of not just the larger picture of when and what defined golden-era hip-hop but also encompa**ed macro cosmic reflections of what Hip-hop is in it's entirety. This simple question had complex and diverse answers but also a very direct and simple answer. So what is Boom-Bap? (Danny Dwyer) Snares probably the biggest thing having a nice strung snare between the four and its also swung with a really tight groove. Its very funky and tight. Boom-bap, can it be compartmentalized into gangsta rap or conscious rap? (Danny Dwyer)well I think gangsta and conscious is definitely more of a lyrical categorization its boom bap regardless if its got that sound “And if you go platinum it's got nothing to do with luck/ it just means that a million people are stupid as f**” - Immortal Technique how do you feel about gangsta rap being what is mostly played on the radio? (Scubba steve) I think it;'s stupid I mean I like some of the music for sure I bump it I slap it the beats are cool but a lot of mainstream rap sometimes is more about beats people ar'nt actually listening to the music like let me bump my head while I listen to this kinda stuff where real rap is trying to make a change but its just stupid mind wash the media wants us to buy into the lifestyle of Gucci and Prada so then what do you think of the culture of gangsta rap thug rap etc? (Erika) I feel like it destroys the mind of the black man because it makes them feel that that's the only thing they can be I feel like their just their the new slaves of the white music industry (Bruce Ratliff Jr.)so that was late 80's but artist like Nas Tupac folks like Apache from the Bronx their were so many that came out of this era so many names I could go down the list that came out of this era describing what they see Diamond D and Fat Joe and Fat Joe was doing his thing before a record deal on 125th street of Harlem with a mic and an amplifier setting up battles on the streets and he would talk about it being a crack kingpin and I'm the man in my hood and how they admired the people and if you hear certain songs from Nas looking out the project window where he talks about what he seen and that's what I seen I saw people pull up and park they 40,000 dollar Benz next to a car that didn't have no tires it was practically stripped had patched paint work and was in desperate disarray and that's how half the cars on the block looked but they were the hustlers and they were bringing the dope in and it was glamorous now we can get money we don't have to scrape scraps to eat so it was a way out why do you think capitalism wants to sell gangsta rap ? (Scubba Steve) to reinforce the hood mentality honestly racism is a huge problem and by reinforcing the gang pop pop look at me Ima thug mentality their promoting the capitalist system of prison and their promoting people young people into doing crimes and its just to keep the system as is, oppressing people What does the sound(boom-bap) make you feel? (Danny Dwyer) connected that sound is what connects all of them you either have it or you don't you know that's what it makes me think its like community you know what do you think the culture of that community is? oppression I would say is a big thing just with the way it was founded was a big thing not having the resources to learn and play instruments alotta people like to talk about not having the resources so your using mom's turn table and dad's keyboard “Peace Love Unity having Fun these are the lyrics of Krs-One”- Krs-One when do you consider the golden era of hip-hop? (Bruce Ratliff Jr) I would say early 80's from my perspective I was born in 1972 I was just running around as a toddler when it started to explode on to the scene before I had any understanding of it but in the 80's when I came into my teenage years it really shifted and shaped who I was and it helped me... it gave me an outlet to identify with when I heard people talk about the scene of things I could see out my window you know relate to my experience and there was a lot of hype it was around the time grand master flash and rapper's delight there was a real good feel to it and it was community based and we'd have this we had what you'd call jams and jams what they were were when people in the community immersed in this culture would get out and set up these big radios or whatever they had that could emit these sounds in the park and we'd plug it in to the light-post and they called them jams and everyone knew where in new york there was one on this hill of the lower east side and another on my side and we'd go represent and if you were from this side you'd go to that side talk to their girls and it was like this big mixer around hiphop and you'd hear this good music. (Scuba-Steve)no I think there were but I think that was the goal of hiphop creating change and sparking ideas people of the struggle trying to express their struggle and be understood trying to unify through music because at that time a lot of people underprivileged people weren't having their voices heard and that was one way that they could release what they felt about society and that's what music is in my opinion a release (Bruce Ratliff Jr.)it was very subculture very underground there were little pockets in Bronx and Brooklyn where it was Zulu nation and Africa Bambatta and all these other groups that were community based groups that were lead by black pride organizations so they started this stuff and it was kinda distance I didn't go to the Bronx but then you'd have people from the Bronx come down to my side of town and they looked different they had these big gigantic boombox radios that had like 16 d batteries and they would have to switch shoulders, take turns carrying It put em in little carts and lug em around but they wanted to be heard and they were saying something and they were saying it through the music. was there anything that you could tell was a direct cultural influence from hip hop on your household? (Erika)yes and no for me I think the direct cultural impact of Hip-hop was more of the conscious rap and being able to apply that to learn about black history and black culture the positive side not the negative sh**ty hiphop you hear today (Danny Dwyer)I think of the 90's as tribe and Zulu nation and that's what I'm in to but you see a change musically and lyrically I was never much into the gangsta rap thing. “Why the schools care more about your son's braids more than they care bout his grades” - Nas (Erika)When I was in grade school most likely cause I started rapping along when I was three but I didn't start to hear the message untill I developed a base knowledge from school you think is more impacful in your understanding of words at the age of 9 rap or an English cla**? (Scubba-Steve) English taught me how to read and write intellectually rap taught me how to think about the world and so I write very intellectually I can understand highly technical documents and that sort of thing I read a lot as a kid but listening to music has shaped how I see the world English cla** taught me how to be educated and proper with how I think because I often think like ya nah what I'm saying what's up with it nah mean that's just how I talk it's what goes through my brain. And so rap music influences how I see the world how I think about the world and how I process language. (Bruce Ratliff Jr.)The way things had fell most of us ended up dropping out of school not getting good jobs so we ended up shifting to that other life to support that hip-hop culture we wanted to go out and hit up the club you wanted to dance now I was a D.J at the times of the late 90's I did all of that the breaking I was in a graffiti crew but yeah I would have to say Big Daddy Kane and Public Enemy and they really highlight these real topics and issues and id feel conflicted and then in the 90's like brandnubian came out and they talked about how they set us up but were falling for the bait and they started to open our eyes to see what the problems were and how they got their and now were apart of it and we need to be apart of the solution now that we have some awareness and they really raised awareness like you need to educate yourself don't drop out of school and they made it hard like let's stop selling crack and at that time now I was already dependent on that lifestyle so now im feeling conflicted like I got to stop what I'm doing or I gotta stop listening to this music cause its making me feel conscious about what I'm doing. “Leave it up to me while I be living proof to kick the truth to the young black youth” - Inspectah Deck (Erika)I started to understand racial injustice in 6th grade so 2005 2006 that was when I was able to listen to Hip-hop song and apply it to the community I was full of a lot of gang violence and was very segregated so I was able to recognize the segregation and the violence that would happen to young African American men in Omaha Nebraska (Bruce Ratliff Jr.) I didn't feel I knew but I didn't feel like I was a minority that society had deemed me as less than and that I needed an outlet that I could express that I didn't like how I feel being deemed less than I didn't feel that so much at the time. When I experienced forms of racism of inequality and exclusion I didn't even realize that that was what was going on that it was because the color of my skin I was that naive and I think that sheltered and protected from it so I didn't have that fire and pa**ion to be like hey I really wanna connect to this group because their really doing something and making a statement of freedom and equality for our people. (Scubba-Steve) Iv been educated about this my whole life but just the struggle of the people the mistreatment and that's part of what led to the birth of hip-hop being fed up with the world and trying to make a statement about it “Grab the pliers for the channel, fix the hanger on the TV Rockin each others pants, school wasn't easy” - Ghostface k**ah (Bruce Ratliff Jr.) we came from a place where we were the have nots we had nothing we had shoes with holes in them wore our brother's hand-me-downs things like that but like I was saying before we would get our best dress on and express our self through fashion it was about being unique and creative and a lot of us were artist and we would do graffiti art and air brush art which is another component of hiphop that took off in the 80's like I said it was the golden era so I would have like this denim jacket air brushed glistening on my back with like a little picture of a character holding a spray can and it's like look at me I'm expressing myself I'm giving myself identity and permission to be proud of who I am and they saying I ain't all that and that I'm a outlaw and I'm saying I'm all these things I'm creative I have talents I can dance I'm well liked in my community and I belong here even though mainstream society said that we were misfits and shouldn't exist “Face down a** up that's the way we like to f**”- Meek Mills (Erika) lets talk about cars money b**hes and hoes things people don't have (Scubba-Steve) I wish the American dream was equality but it's getting head and making money (Bruce Ratliff Jr.) there was this pimp culture I could never gravitate to where it was suppose to be OK to utilize women and degrade them and I think it still goes on today in rap culture. These our are sister's and our daughter's why are we proud we get to treat them like this that's not cool to make our selves feel better it's self serving and it's not what it started as it's not community oriented this is tearing us down and we need to flip the script. The poverty, racial injustices oppressive reactions and ability to free the self on some level are all aspects of Hip-hop but to get more firm of an understanding of what Boom-bap's role in Hip-hop's evolution required a more focused and contextualized examination.