So this morning I turn on my laptop in order to install the MobileSync CD that came with my new LG Shine Cell, but as that’s running in the background I decide to checkout a newly configured image gallery on a proto type website I’m developing for a client. This client does dive tours around Panama, so they had quite a few underwater shots. As I get lost in the shots I start to think about how “We” (humans) throughout time have developed different means or technologies to get away from our “normal” dwellings or environment; whether we decide to become one with the fish, or one with the birds, or any other leisure pursuit that brings about a feeling of being free or liberated from the burdens of our artificial habitat. Neither a Zen nor innovative thought by the way, but it was my morning thought.

My Shine is loaded with some Nina Simone and a couple other hip hop pieces that I might not even queue up, but better safe than sorry. Seven minutes after pulling out of the house “Nina Simone – Feeling Good” starts playing and it takes my early morning thought to unexplainable levels of infinity.

Fish in the sea you know how I feel
River running free you know how I feel
Blossom in the tree you know how I feel
…
Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don’t you know
Butterflies all having fun you know what I mean
…
Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel

All of a sudden this becomes the best song in the world. I’m not only “Feeling Good”, I’m also “Feeling Free”.

Not the kind of freedom usually attribute after the culmination of a master<->slave relationship. This is “True” freedom; flying freedom, swimming freedom, running freedom, blossoming freedom. This is freedom without caring. Nina personifies and forces immediate memory access to expressions of freedom throughout nature. All of a sudden I find myself driving way above the speed limit and screaming, a Jazz song, at the top of my lungs:

Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel

And at the end of it all:

Sleep in peace when day is done
That’s what I mean

No other song is played as this is repeated 10 or 15 times

Ol’ Dirty Bastard

“Fuck Y’all”

Hip-Hop is more than just Rap music. Some people outside of the Hip-Hop community and culture may refer to this sound, one of only two musical art forms created in the U.S., as urban music. Hip-Hop is a culture born from the ostracism and disenfranchisement of Black youth dwelling in the inner-city of the Bronx, N.Y. This ignored and would-be forgotten group elevated the genre of Rap music to popular acceptance in main stream American culture and eventually the world. Once considered; noise, ghetto gibberish or a desperate and misaligned attempt at artistic creation, Hip-Hop is now a billion dollar industry.

I love Rap for many reasons. For me, the most important is its indignant independence and refusal to find justification for its existence. In this way, Rap music is akin to revolutionary suicide as written by H.P. Newton: “By surrendering my life to the revolution, I found eternal life.”

Another endearing quality of my beloved Rap is its foundation in Blackness. With this ingrained spirit comes resilience in the time of adversity and the ability to achieve prosperity in the most unusual course - setting this music aside from all others.

Lastly Rap music constantly evolves and for a song and artist to succeed, not only commercially but in the eyes of true Hip-Hop connoisseurs, both must be believable and unique.Ol’ Dirty Bastard was a Hip-Hop artist that embodied the essence of rap. In true Hip-Hop form he “didn’t give a fuck”. He lived how he wanted to as a man and did what he wanted as an artist. His song “Fuck Y’all” is a statement based on determination of will. The “I don’t care” attitude put to music is a staple of the Rap diet. This song captures that feeling.

The three years and two months I have been living in Utah has reminded me of how far Black folk have come in the U.S. and how much of our journey lies ahead. Despite the adversity we carry on and like Rap we remain. ODB, a former welfare recipient and drug addict, found success in Hip-Hop, making songs with artists like Mariah Carey and others. His songs also found their way to the charts and the dance floor in many popular and not so popular night clubs.

Ol’ Dirty and his song give me solace by reminding me never to compromise my ambition in an effort to be accepted; never allow others to determine my worth; and above all never find comfort in mediocrity and loath to stagnantly exist . There’s a saying that reads: “You laugh at me because I am different, but I laugh at you because you are all the same.” Unlike Utah’s social demography, ODB’s rap style was very unique at times never rhyming or even following the beat. Whenever I find myself drifting from my resolve I put on ODB’s song and sing along…”Fuck Y’all”!

This one is going to be nice and short but deep if you are of supremebeing status. I got into Bob a little late in the game. I was about 18 years old; this one Bob tape was one of few transparent original joints lingering around the stereo system. Every once in a while I would pick it up by mistake thinking it was one of my Hip Hop tapes. Right back down in went, until one day I decided to give it a try. That

Wicked tune (chune) right here star!! "Welcome to Jamrock" has nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing on this track. Yet "Welcome to Jamrock" got all the air play. Perfect example of a rubbish oriented market. No offense to "Welcome to Jamrock" as the track lives up to the hype, but once you listen and

The 1992 Main Source classic album, Breaking Atoms, blesses us with this metaphoric lyrical orgasm that compares the great American past time to what brothers were/are experiencing against the **PD in the hood. Unfortunately if you lived outside of the NYC area durint this time then you probably never even heard of this classic. Like most classics in hip hop, this album was overlooked by the masses. Yet at the same time became an item of adoration to the true hip hop connoisseurs. The nerdy looking Large Professor ripped titles like Snake Eyes, Just Hanging Out, Friendly Game Of Baseball, Looking Out the Front Door, Fakin The Funk (White Man Can't Jump SDTK), and off course the all time classic where the one known as Nasty Nas (Nasir Jones) made his debut, Live At The Barbecue. You cannot claim to be a true Nas fan if you've never heard Live At The Barbecue. Who went to hell at 12 for snuffing Jesus? (That will featured on another Lyrics2Go). This time we bring you "Friendly Game Of Baseball"...

Favorite line:
R.B.I. -- real bad injury
But don't get happy you're in jail for a century

Now don't get it confused, the Lyrical Analysis will in no way, shape, or form be limited to analyzing strictly Hip Hop lyrics. Sooner or later all genres will be exploited, but for now this is what we have. This time supremebeings.org takes a second to analyze you a few lines from a 1984 classic, Run-D.M.C. - Together Forever (Live at Hollis Park '84). Now I know that most are you are probably thinking "1984? WTF is wrong with danZenie?". But hold steady youngen. This one is gonna crack your skull wide open. And you thought that hatred in the Industry was a new thing