HipHop appears to have gone of the Charts being overtaken and redefined by Gangsta Rap. HipHop was the strongest urban youth movement and took on the Rockabilly movement that started on rural grounds after WW2 when ex-GIs continued to party despite colour together.
HipHop started in the melting-pot of New York where colour nor religion mattered to the kids and youngsters playing outside, especially at the junctions of invisible quarter borders that artificially segregated Americans from each other.
HipHop was all about unity and harmony using music, dance and graphical arts to have human come together and quickly facing the same enemy as their fathers of the Rock’n’roll generation.
Gangs based on skin colour took over first Graffiti tags abusing it as territorial signs providing their indirect and non-official support in suits and uniform to strike down and ban all of that new emerging fine art to keep it off museums and galleries. Than the music was captured by lyrics using words that had been just banned from society and way worse glorifying socially destructive and abusive professions and lifestyles. Finally coming to statements that HipHop was about Sneaker and clothing brands instead of a message of unity and empowerment.
Public dance performances were turned illegal quickly calling them gang battles instead of what they were: Competitions in peace based on ability to show off and have fun.
I grew up with Americans on the hill top that had become victim of that attack by practically the Klan and all that supported segregation in the USA forcing them to join the US military to get away from gang and police violence ripping apart all bits and social connections of their neighbourhoods.
Neither staying outside nor inside protected from trigger happy gangs and cops turning the streets into an urban modern battle ground outgunning the poor that could not afford guns despite their constitutional rights to even form militias.
Most of these mainly men later joined the police force and came back to their old neighbourhoods and today after the 80ies peaks of street violence they managed to get back their homes and drive out within the system what their Rockabilly fathers did off the record never reported.
For them, and me too, this town was Sparta. The Barracks had no luxury and life was dedicated to fighting. The Army could be easily convinced to allow the young even teenager recruits to learn skateboarding and BMX biking because these street sports teach falling and standing up again just as on a battle ground. One wrong step or move and you face the ground no matter of tarmac or concrete as Skateboarding or woodland soil in most battle grounds awaiting the GIs.
Playing Streetball, which is a Basketball rule based variant from one on one to five on five, but on one court helped predicting movements and formed platoons into blindly operating teams that could estimate their team mates movement making friendly fire accidents from within the squad a lot less likely, beside it makes you sweat like hell being way faster than laying on two baskets.
American football, which was only played on Barracks grounds, was fun and an ideal way for officers and Green Barrett to learn about tactical movement in an abstract manner being the learning by playing fun way of making special forces members move successfully on quick tight battle grounds like urban grounds.
Live in Sparta is all designed around war. Back in Greece as right here up that little hill in this tiny town in a valley the Americans called Hell’s Kitchen because of the very heat in summer peaks without any air flow except along the river and a spring and autumn being the rain time of the valley.
Gangsta Rap glorifies today a Dysantroph lifestyle based on drug use and abuse, bling bling luxus and quick money, insulting others and socialising racism and homophobia by declaring Rap as part of a culture defined by colour and Gey as an insult and a sign of weakness while the origins of HipHop knew neither colour nor hate.
Here in this little town I got stuck once more in my life, Sparta is gone and for me live turned Cyberpunk. So, no freestyling any more with GIs that are gone anyway, no Skateboarding even their is a dedicated ground now, no Streetball any more for sure, no hanging out outside because of Corona, but a live all around online ordering, lessons, work and social interactions in a way more “luxurious” flat, so.
While HipHop was a major youth movement Cyberpunk being around for almost as long as HipHop will most likely remain a tiny niche and with the US Army abandoning this town I turned into a niche, too.
Sparta is gone, it’s Cyberpunk now.
