How you act, walk, look and talk is all part of Hip Hop culture. And the music is colorless. Hip Hop music is made from Black, brown, yellow, red and white.
Interpretation
Hip Hop culture is a vibrant mix of diverse influences and expressions, transcending racial boundaries.
Afrika Bambaataa emphasizes the inclusive nature of Hip Hop culture, suggesting that its essence is embodied in the way individuals express themselves through various forms of art, including music, dance, and fashion. He highlights that although the music itself may be devoid of color, it is a rich tapestry woven from the diverse identities and backgrounds of people, promoting unity and mutual respect among different races.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about how music can unite people of different backgrounds.
Everybody needs to show respect to each others' ways and the cultural life that you get on this planet. Don't get caught up on 'I'm brown, black, white, red, blue, whatever.' You gotta ask, what were you called before 1492? All these names we're using now are just an illusion made to keep us fighting each other.
I'd like to see people pay attention to the science of hip hop. The knowledge part, the political side of what hip hop could do, or where hip hop is gonna go. I always say it's gonna become universal as we become a galactic union.
I wear anything of culture, from the Earth or beyond. The whole planet is my shop.
A lot of times, when people say hip-hop, they don't know what they're talking about. They just think of the rappers. When you talk about hip-hop, you're talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.
We also want to try and slow down all this foolishness that's going on between the East and West. We gotta understand that Hip Hop is now universal. Hip Hop is not East coast or West coast.
As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.
For me, performance is a holy ground. When I perform, I really step into a different state of consciousness.
You know, the way art history is taught, often there's nothing that tells you why the painting is great. The description of a lousy painting and the description of a great painting will very much sound the same.
You have to be careful about over-politicizing the utterances of people of colour because, oftentimes, there's poetry that seeks to go beyond that narrative.
As long as we are engaged in storytelling that moves the culture forward, it doesn't matter what format it is.
don't stop to think of the words when you do stop, just stop to think of the picture better-and let your mind off yourself in this work.
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