You know what man... you need to get out of your mind state...
I got into hip-hop as a writer 8 years ago. N shit doesn´t stay the same.
The only way hip-hop as a culture can stay alive is to keep on reinventing itself and to innovate. Alot of people don´t realise that shit - especially the ´REAL´ ´HARDCORE´ "UNDERGROUND´ cats who just wanna keep shit stagnant. and the same - they diss anything that deviates from what they consider ´the true´ form.
If the ´creators´ of hip-hop had had the same attitude... Hip-hop would never have come to be... Who would EVER have thought that spraying little letters on a wall, that wiggling a record, that ´experimenting´ with dance moves, that ´talking´ over music could have evolved to the extent it has...to create whole new art-froms.
This INNOVATION is the true essenz of hip-hop. what started with blockparties and using two copies of the same record to ´loop´ the instrumental break in the middle of a record became a worldwide phenomenon.
My point is: people who DISS new things (translate: ´those cats who just hate on experimentation and shit because it is not what they are used to´) are doing the exact OPPOSITE of what the true spirit of hip-hop should have taught you.
As such, in order for hip-hop (or whatever it is to be called in the future) to stay alive it has to KEEP REINVENTING ITSELF and formulate NEW things and new ways of expression.... otherwise it will wither and die.
Hence... when I see people diss new thing like STENCILS for example it pissed me off.... who are you to judge wether or not something new is tight and is true... by dissing it you are doing the same thing that some 60 year old conservative f*** is doing when he says that ´rapping is not singing´.
Move with the times... I just saw a book on stencils (a la spraycan art (which i own btw
that blew my f***´n mind.... people are doing CRAAAAAAZY shit with stenclis..... intricate ´stencil´ pieces that span 20 metres - allowing for ALOT more detailed expression. etc.
Etc... My advice: EMBRACE new things and innovate .... Beatboxing, Stencils, whatever whatever.... We gotta keep shit moving - otherwise hip-hop will wither die - be left behind and be forgotten like any other sub-culture that has existed. - though hip-hop should be more than that.
As to Graffiti not having changed:
Dplanet - you have no idea how far graffiti has come.... you should pilgrim to europe sometime... countries like Germany, Switzerland and France...
There are SO many different styles new innovations etc. Just look at the style of lettering that was done back then and is being done now.
I advice you to do a search for these twins called ´Os Gemeos´ - writers who do these elabourate, intricate pieces - blows my f***´n mind - N they lip it into a whole new direction.
