KonGeror - RapHood & Authenticity

1. Denial Of Death (0:26) 2. Killing Kids. (2:49) 3. Eye. Scream. Man. (2:21) 4. Still 50's. (1:29) 5. No Goons (Feat. P.O.S.) (3:40) 6. Americano. (1:17) 7. Fees (2:32) 8. Gold Fronts. (1:22) 9. This Is It. (Feat. Toki Wright) (2:30) 10. Duncan Donuts. (0:30) 11. Asterisk* (3:03) 12. Stones Throw From Mexico. (2:25) 13. Spokes. (2:41) 14. Selfhood. (3:01) 15. Monster Shit. (0:32) 16. Denial Of Confusion (1:55) 17. All Life Same Life No Life (3:11) 18. Flees From Me. (Nag-Rapah Bonus Track) (5:32) What is “Authentic” Hip-Hop? Hip-hop is a memory. It is, for those people who believe in it, like a child’s security blanket saturated with magical powers that ward off the “boogey man.” The “boogey man” is anything that looks and sounds like ourselves. This is no surprise if you think about it --its eternal and timeless. The 18th century philosopher Condillac is cited to have written: “Though we should soar to the heavens, though we should sink into the abyss, we never go out of ourselves; it is always our own thought we perceive." We enjoy and gravitate to the Hip Hop that sounds like what we think “Hip Hop” should be and sound like. In short, Hip-hop is a memory. Do we soar or do we sink into the abyss? It is all built up out of all your experiences with it, all your best times and heart felt pleasures of beat & verse. Hip Hop is your own thought. There is no “authentic” Hip Hop. But we are not so convinced. Ask a friend, or local writer for any alternative magazine, or ask any local hip hop “artist,” and they will be certain that there really is a “authentic” hip hop. But, if hip hop is a memory, then hip hop cannot be something that some people “have” while leaving others to be the “have-nots.” Hip hop handshakes, fist pounds, for some, traditional more “normal” handshakes for others. When people talk of “authentic” hip hop, they speak not of “truth” but of a collective memory fetish. They instantly regress to a self they no longer are, the one that clings to the blanket, which is to say, to that “hip-hop” sound. It is absurd to speak of a “authentic” hip hop. But it is not far off base to speak of a number people, media, and corporations that hope to perpetuate the “image” of hip hop’s origins, confirming the image in the collective memories of “soft skulls,” of soft minds. And, because minds are so very uniquely “ours,” once that image has set up roots, we too will become those images willing servant. We will fight to keep it alive and speak of, “The Struggle,” “Blowing Up,” or “Cheddar.” We will keep the image alive and dress of baggy clothing, gold chains, and grills. We will keep the image alive and listen to and create with, BD 10’s, 808’s, synth stabs, and the same clichéd breaks and rhythms. And in the end, we will not have “blown up,” we will only have contributed to same cliché. Novelist William Gass once wrote: "We fall upon cliché as if it were a sofa and not a sword…it is true that prefab conversation frees the mind, yet rarely does the mind have a mind left after these interconnected clichés have conquered it." Much of what is called “hip hop” today has lost it’s distaste for cliché. It has thrown itself upon the sword like the honorable act of samurai, but its suicide is less honorable having killed itself for nothing more than fame, money, or worse, “Authenticity.” Where has music lost its revolutionary force? Hip hop, at its birth, was a collective movement and vocal uprising from the dregs. “Authentic” hip hop has become the rise not of a collective, but of superficial individuality. But the irony is that its individuals are playing dress up like kids desperately holding on to their security blankets, hoping to get noticed like attention starved children. This is what it means to “kill kids.” The question should not be what is or what is not “hip hop,” or what is “Authentic” hip hop. The question and revolution should follow the roots of hip hop. And by its “roots,” I mean its roots in musical artistry, in the creation of not the same tired clichés but a voice of original expression. If you see a hip hop kid -- kill the kid. Use your mind and listen not with your memories but become an outcast, a stranger, and have the courage to throw way your blankets kids. Authenticity is obeying the calls of existence that shout to you, urging you, pleading for you to act on the fullness of your expression and comprehension. The children’s book, The Little Prince, holds the secret well hidden in plain view: “In the face of such an overpowering mystery, one dare not disobey.” To move beyond hip hop is to be faced with a mystery…yeah, it may not sound like what you are used to, it may not be what everyone else thinks is “hip hop,” and it may not be recognizable, but, here in that precise moment of confusion don‘t think, don‘t turn -- OBEY. GAHED.

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
udp://open.demonii.com:1337
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969