A lot of people don’t recognize the sampler as a musical instrument. I can see why. A lot of rap hits over the years used the sampler more like a Xerox machine. If you take four whole bars that are identifiable, you’re just biting that shit.
The relationship between communication and culture is unbreakable. The two are bound by both meaning and symbol. It is hardly possible for an individual to communicate verbally without a cultural bias influencing the word choice, inflection, and accent of the message. These clues can tell the listener the gender, geographic location, or education level of the speaker.
Every community that has existed at any period of time creates its own version of reality.
The only way to engage an underground culture such as graffiti art is by knowing someone on the inside. There you will find secluded nodes of people that share a passion for the work. A few terms must also be approached from an objective stance to understand the culture. A "tag" is a single line letter scratch of the artist's name. A "throw-up" is made up of a quick bubble letter outline, followed by a second color fill. The term "fill" refers to coloring in block letters. A "one-liner" consists of just one continuous flow...
They know him as $horty the Pimp who told Freaky Tales. They don't so much know him as an independent rap hall-of-famer and pioneer/veteran who often wrote positive rap songs. But whatever, I always gotta throw my opinions in the lil' intro... so check this out...
Disclaimer: These Top 10 Moments are in no particular order. Also, it's just my personal list of memorable moments, so of course it's quite Austin- and Texas-centric. These are the biggest moments according to my mouth and as I see it, very much editorialized and biased.
1. Grupo Fantasma – An amazing hall-of-fame musician and second generation rock-n-roller named Prince recognized their amazing musicianship and started playing with them often. Not only was this a coveted, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it also led to them receiving higher profile gigs worldwide.
Hello and how ya doin', SSA readers. Bavu Blakes here. It's a new year, and my motto for '08 is "oh, great!" because great things are going to happen to me. Why? Because they always do...
So I want
to pass on the blessings and greatness to you by being a regular
contributor to SSA. Most of my content will no doubt be about "urban"
and independent music, but you never know. You may get some theology,
some poetry or prose... You think you know, but you have no idea!
Artist/Activist Mos Def put mainstream media in the hot seat Friday night on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, raising questions about 9/11 and whether the American public is getting the full story about the war. At one point in the interview Mos called the recent Osama bin Laden tape a fake, something that is not completely unfounded in light of recent research.
1. Funky soul revivalists 
The relationship between communication and culture is unbreakable. The two are bound by both meaning and symbol. It is hardly possible for an individual to communicate verbally without a cultural bias influencing the word choice, inflection, and accent of the message. These clues can tell the listener the gender, geographic location, or education level of the speaker.
The only way to engage an underground culture such as graffiti art is by knowing someone on the inside. There you will find secluded nodes of people that share a passion for the work. A few terms must also be approached from an objective stance to understand the culture. A "tag" is a single line letter scratch of the artist's name. A "throw-up" is made up of a quick bubble letter outline, followed by a second color fill. The term "fill" refers to coloring in block letters. A "one-liner" consists of just one continuous flow... 
They know him as $horty the Pimp who told Freaky Tales. They don't so much know him as an independent rap hall-of-famer and pioneer/veteran who often wrote positive rap songs. But whatever, I always gotta throw my opinions in the lil' intro... so check this out... 
Disclaimer: These Top 10 Moments are in no particular order. Also, it's just my personal list of memorable moments, so of course it's quite Austin- and Texas-centric. These are the biggest moments according to my mouth and as I see it, very much editorialized and biased.
Hello and how ya doin', SSA readers. Bavu Blakes here. It's a new year, and my motto for '08 is "oh, great!" because great things are going to happen to me. Why? Because they always do... 
Artist/Activist Mos Def put mainstream media in the hot seat Friday night on HBO's 
