keeping it real
ghurd@mcgraw-hill.com
Tue, 20 Aug 96 11:23:54 edt
Hip-hop isn't unique in its search to keep it real. Every music and
every artistic expression undergoes the same struggle and debate. Just
like in jazz, acid-jazz, punk rock, reggae, and so on, you have your
traditionalists, your more commercial/universally acceptable icons,
and you have your avant-gardists. Each faction tries to "keep it real"
according to its own dogma.
In a bizarre way, without all of these opposing forms of expressing
the "real," hip-hop, acid jazz, jazz, etc., wouldn't be the same.
Without the traditionalists you wouldn't have the avant-gardists
seeking to stretch the boundaries. Without the commercializers you
wouldn't have anyone trying to keep the underground alive. It's a
symbiotic, co-dependent relationship--the musical eco-system. We all
keep it real just by being ourselves and going for what we think is
important.
But I tend to agree with the opinion that those who proclaim they're
"keepin' it real" the loudest and the most often are usually those who
haven't got a clue about really moving the music forward. They're just
maintaining the status quo. For some people that's okay ("If it ain't
broke don't fix it."), but for my personal listening needs progress
speaks much louder than status quo.
--Gordon